Recognising animal sentience: Including minimum standards for opportunities to display normal patterns of behaviour in codes of welfare in New Zealand

Abstract

This paper considers the impact of the recognition that animals are sentient in the 2013 amendment to the Animal Welfare Act 1999, examining the rationale for the change and the drivers underpinning the current legal approach to animal welfare in New Zealand. It concludes that although the intention of recognising animal sentience may be largely symbolic, the result of the change must ultimately be to improve animal welfare in New Zealand, and that better recognition of minimum standards for providing animals with the opportunity to display normal patterns of behaviour should be included in the codes of welfare developed under the Act.