Animal Welfare Bill latest
The Government is moving on apace with its animal welfare action plan.
The latest component to this is the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, which was introduced in Parliament last month. Among other things, the bill sets out measures to improve the welfare standards of farmed and kept wild animals, as well as pets. It also contains measures on livestock worrying, puppy smuggling, live exports of animals and the keeping of primates and zoos.
It is the second piece of recent legislation introduced by the Government as part of its action plan. In May it introduced the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill, which formally recognises animals as sentient beings in British law.
The legislation has received a cautious response from the shooting community. BASC’s Conor O’Gorman said that on the face of it, the proposals were “positive for farming and shooting interests”. He welcomed the element addressing livestock worrying by dogs, which he said causes havoc for both farmers and shoots alike. In particular, he said that the various lockdowns had seen more people visiting the countryside and exacerbating the problem. He added that the livestock worrying measures mirrored legislative developments in Scotland, which was welcome.
However, he said that the bill, while addressing puppy smuggling, had done nothing to tackle the scourge of dog thefts, which has become a significant problem over the past year.
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, said the sentience bill was “gesture politics”. He said the principles of animal sentience were already recognised in UK legislation and that the new bill opened the door for animal rights extremism.
George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, said that both bills build on “our status as a world leader on animal welfare”.