Position Statements
Our position statements outline where we stand on the issues that matter most.
You're invited to explore them and discover how they align with your beliefs, your values, and your own vision for the future.
Accurately understanding the meaning of sentience is fundamental to accurately understanding the inseparable nature of the human-animal-environmental relationship—and why the standards we apply to animals affect not just their lives but also our well-being and our shared environment.
The definition of sentience is simple and doesn’t require unnecessary complexity or misrepresentation. Sentience means that, like you and me, animals are capable of feeling and experiencing.
The next question—"What do they feel and experience?"—also has a simple answer: broadly, again like you and me, animals feel pain—and pleasure.
Recognising the inseparable connection between animals, people, and our environment leads to the obvious conclusion that the standards we set, which shape the quality of life we provide for animals, shape not only the animals’ lives but also the lives of you and me, our families, our communities, and the well-being of our shared environment.
The definition is simple, but it’s critically important. It’s pivotal to our future. That’s why the Foundation’s position on sentience underpins everything we do.
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We encourage you to adopt and advocate for the same position statement, turning the words of governments, NGOs, and industries ‘recognising’ animal sentience into actions that put positive animal welfare into laws, policies and practices that give a life enjoyed, not just endured.
Read more:
The inseparable human-animal-environmental relationship
We are many species, sharing one planet, and a connected future.
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What affects animals, affects people in everything from our emotional connections through to our economic, environmental, and societal dependence on animals.
We recognize the human-animal bond as a dynamic and mutually beneficial relationship between people and animals, shaped by behaviors that are essential to the health and well-being of both. This bond positively impacts the mental, physical, and social health of individuals and animals today, and into the future.
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And because people, animals, and the environment are so interconnected, how we treat animals affects our own well-being and global challenges that affect us all, like antimicrobial resistance, sustainability, and climate change.
How we treat animals reflects how we treat each other
We believe that animals, like people, experience not just pain but also pleasure—and that how we treat animals is reflected in how we treat each other.
At the Sentient Animal Law Foundation, we imagine a world where kindness is the norm, so life is enjoyed—not just endured—every day.
The implicit recognition of sentience
Wherever animal protection law exists to protect animals from suffering, there is already an "implicit" legal recognition of animals as sentient (defined as “able to feel and experience”).
The unique power of law to effect change
Animal law shapes people’s attitudes about animals, defines acceptable behaviours to animals and each other, and has the unique power to establish universal society-wide change despite contrasting and conflicting societal worldviews and interests.
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​Law functions universally within its jurisdiction and establishes standards of care regarding animals. Therefore, with a view to implementing collective change, the law is an essential tool to achieving effective, universal, and meaningful change.
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SAL is the only organisation in the world showing how to make that vision a reality with a three-word law reform already implemented in Australia and ready to be duplicated worldwide."
Outdated animal law perpetuates practices that are unfit for today’s society and undermines the initiatives of people and organisations targeting meaningful change.
Referencing common knowledge that is validated by the science of the Five Domains, animal law requires a reform that retains and extends anti-cruelty law by adding positive animal welfare law to the current duty of care.
Modern animal law that is backed by science
We believe in the importance of both halves of the life experience
We believe that animals, like people, experience not just pain but also pleasure.
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We believe that life should be enjoyed (e.g. include the experiences such as comfort, interest and pleasure), not just endured (e.g. minimising the amount of pain and suffering, preventing “animal cruelty”).
Do these sound like you? Are you nodding your head in agreement as you read them?
Then do join us in duplicating what's already been done in leading jurisdictions, so that "it's the law" in ALL jurisdictions to give animals opportunities to have a life enjoyed.