Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett

Dedicated animal expert Marion Garnett, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column

DO you sometimes feel as though you don’t get away with anything? You make a mistake. Someone notices. You get stuck in a yellow box. A fine arrives.

For some it’s like that – but not all. Some lawbreakers are more likely to be prosecuted than others.

Two charities, the Animal Law Foundation (animallaw foundation.org) and Animal Equality (animalequality.org.uk) have produced a report showing there is a lack of enforcement of animal welfare laws on farms and slaughterhouses.

Called The Enforcement Problem, the report shows that fewer than 3 in 100 UK farms are inspected on average annually, with just 0.33% of complaints leading to prosecutions for animal cruelty. There is just one inspector for every 205 farms and many inspectors are parttime.

Most facilities receive no formal checks every year. This enables animal abuse to go undetected.

Research has shown that increasing the likelihood of being caught has the largest effect on crime rates. For many people, if they think they can get away with something, they’ll try it on.

And let’s not forget, these facilities house massive numbers of animals. Twenty million chickens are slaughtered every week in the UK. On industrial farms, around 25,000 chickens are typically housed together with some housing up to 50,000.

While statistics give an indication of the scale of the problem, undercover investigations provide details of what life can be like for these animals.

In recent years at least 65 covert investigations have been conducted. In every case, some form of illegality or substandard practice was witnessed.

This included chickens with broken legs, pigs being hammered to death, cows being hit in the face with shovels, mutilations without anaesthetic and prolonged suffering at the slaughterhouse.

Yet more than 69% of cases resulted in no subsequent formal enforcement action.

Footage obtained during these investigations has been covered by Panorama, The Times, The Guardian and The Independent. The low rate of official inspections means illegality is going largely undetected and unpunished.

Although many people strive to accomplish legal change, these efforts are wasted if the laws made aren’t adequately implemented. The report concludes we risk creating laws that exist merely on paper and not in practice. A better enforcement regime is urgently needed.

In the meantime, what can we do? For a start, we can leave animals off our plate and take a closer look at plant-based options in shops.

If you’re near Chiswick, why not visit the Vegan Market at Old Market Place on December 4. And sign the petition at animalequality.org.uk.

Overcrowding can be an issue on farms