Rejected petition Reverse the decision to exclude animal sentience from the EU Withdrawal Bill.

Rejected on 24 November 2017

MPs have voted to reject the inclusion of animal sentience – the admission that animals feel emotion and pain – into the EU Withdrawal Bill. This poses a massive threat to animal welfare. You can't be said to mistreat a being that neither has emotions, feels pain or is self aware.

How can parliamentarians decide by a vote whether a being is self aware enough to feel pain or emotion? Have they really never seen an animal in pain or fear? Have they never seen a dog wag its tail and loll its tongue when experiencing joy? What about a pig squealing in terror when caught? Are these not the emotions of sentient beings? It is arrogant beyond belief to think that by a simple poll a group of politicians can change well known facts that both science and common sense has taught us.

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/205348

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.