‘Show Me Your Horse and I Will Tell You Who You Are’: Brexit, A Chance to Acknowledge Animal Sentience in Law

Abstract

This article is written to explore the current position of the concept of animal sentience in UK animal welfare law. This is based on research carried out since 2017 but there have been political and legal developments which bring the issue to the fore now, chiefly these are concerned with Brexit and the EU definition of animal sentience contained in the Lisbon Treaty. At time of writing, however, there could scarcely be less certainty about the likely final outcome of the United Kingdom’s endeavours to exit the European Union.