The British government has an odd habit of throwing new laws that have nothing to do with the case in point on to laws being written. In this case the British government, going against all scientific understanding, have stated that all non human mammals have no emotions or feelings, including the ability to feel pain. In this case it has more to do with the bill being discussed than one would think, it is in line with the Brexit withdrawal bill as the move is to strip the phrase ‘sentient beings’ from European Animal Rights laws that are transferred from European to British law books.
Anyone who has had a pet or a spent time watching wildlife in a zoo recognises that animals are very capable of things that we would class as needing to be done by a sentient being and as such this move is clearly foolish. As with a number of other laws that have been made, the government has been clear that Brexit is meant to shed a number of laws that get in the way of business. Removing this phrase makes it easier and more palatable to remove some of the rights that animals have gained and therefore make farming and scientific experimentation on animals easier than it currently is, and make it more palatable to the public to make changes that might otherwise be construed as abhorrent.