Action Plan For Animal Welfare 2021

12th May 2021

This date marks a significant step forward for animal welfare; the UK Government has published a comprehensive plan that will revolutionise animal welfare on a practical level in the UK, as well as provide measures for animal protection abroad.

At the heart of the reform programme is the commitment to recognise in law the sentience of animals. The UK’s Animal Welfare Act (2006) recognised in law that animals can feel pain and suffering, and this now goes a step further as animals are to be formally recognised as sentient beings in law - through a new Animal Sentience Bill, that will ensure that animal welfare is at the heart of government policy decision making.

Britain prides itself as a nation of animal lovers and the UK was the first country in the world to pass legislation to protect animals in 1822 with the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act. This was built on to improve conditions related to slaughterhouses in 1875, and then the landmark Protection of Animals Act followed in 1911. The Animal Welfare Act 2006 introduced a robust framework and powers for protecting all kept animals in England and Wales.

Farming Standard for Animal Welfare (2010)

 

Since 2010, new regulations for minimum standards were introduced for meat chickens, the use of conventional battery cages for laying hens was banned, CCTV became compulsory in slaughterhouses.

Microchipping Regulations for Dogs in the UK (2018)

In England, microchipping became mandatory for dogs, and in 2018 new regulations of activities involving animals came into force which changed the previous licensing regime for businesses involved in dog breeding, dog and cat boarding including home boarding, dog day care, the selling of pet animals, and the exhibiting of animals.

The new Action Plan for Animal Welfare will be delivered through a broad programme of legislation and non-legislative reforms, including a series of bills, focusing on; sentience, animals kept in the UK and the welfare of animals abroad. These bills will be accompanied by a programme of secondary legislation. The Action Plan for Animal Welfare sets out how the government will protect wild animals by:

• Making it illegal to keep primates as pets.
• Introducing new laws to crack down on illegal hare coursing.
• Supporting legislation to restrict the use of glue traps.
• Funding wildlife conservation projects at home and abroad.

Conservation Plans for Wild Animals and the Protection of Exotic Animals

There is an ambitious programme of work that looks both at kept wild animals and at the conservation of those in the wild. This theme covers both and includes legislation to prohibit primates as pets and potentially other animals. Keepers that are able to provide welfare standards akin to those of licensed zoos will be able to keep their primates under a new licensing regime, subject to conditions and inspections.

Ownership of these exotic animals with complex needs will be phased out for keepers unable to meet these standards. Consideration will be given as to whether these restrictions should apply to other wild animals that are kept as pets. Improvements to be made current requirements applying to zoos including their conservation work.

Protect animals abroad by:

• Banning the import of hunting trophies from endangered animals.
• Banning the sale of ivory by implementing the Ivory Act this year.
• Prohibiting the import and export of detached shark fins to protect the iconic shark species.
• Exploring a ban on the sale of foie gras.
• Banning the advertisement in this country of unacceptable low-welfare animal practices abroad, such as elephant rides.

Banning unethical animal goods & services

The UK has a strong track record in marine conservation and the UK will bring in legislation to ban the import and export of detached shark fins. In line with setting a global example on animal welfare, there may be legislation brought in to make sure that businesses do not benefit from selling attractions, activities or experiences to tourists involving the unacceptable treatment of animals.

Fur farming has been banned on ethical grounds in England and Wales since 2000, and since 2002 in Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

Whilst there are existing import restrictions on seal, cat and dog fur, it is still possible to import other furs from abroad, so potential action will be explored in this area. The production of foie gras by force-feeding is already illegal in the UK and there may be bans on the import or sale of foie gras and other products derived from low-welfare systems.

The Ivory Act will be implemented this year to ban dealing in elephant ivory and there will be a ban on the import of hunting trophies from endangered animals abroad.

Improving welfare for farmed animals by:

• Ending the export of live animals for fattening and slaughter.
• Introducing new measures to improve welfare during transport.
• Giving the police more powers to protect farm animals from dangerous or out of control dogs.
• Examining the use of cages for poultry and farrowing crates for pigs.
• Improving animal welfare at slaughter.
• Incentivising farmers to improve animal health and welfare through future farming policy.

The UK has a strong track record for raising the bar when it comes to farm animal welfare standards, such as banning battery cages for laying hens, sow stalls for pigs and veal crates for calves. There may be further reforms, on areas such as the use of farrowing crates for pigs and cages for laying hens.

Improving Pet Welfare in the UK

 

One of the key reforms in improving welfare for pets is to end the abhorrent, cruel practice of puppy smuggling and low-welfare pet imports by providing protection for those animals brought in by unscrupulous traders, and to prevent the trade.

Improving welfare for pets by:

• Tackling puppy smuggling through changes to import rules.
• Introducing compulsory microchipping for cats.
• Cracking down on pet theft through a new government task force.
• Banning remote controlled training e-collars.

The UK Government committed to cracking down on puppy smuggling in their manifesto and will legislate to:

• Reduce the number of pet dogs, cats and ferrets that can be moved under the pet travel rules which apply to non-commercial movements.
• Increase the minimum age that dogs can be non-commercially moved or commercially imported into Great Britain.
• Restrict the ability of unscrupulous traders to move heavily pregnant dogs into Great Britain both commercially and non-commercially.
• Prioritise the health and welfare of dogs by prohibiting the importation and non-commercial movement of dogs into Great Britain that have been subject to low welfare practices, such as ear cropping or tail docking.

Since the start of the pandemic, there has been a marked increase in pet theft and a Taskforce has been set up to:

• Gather, research and commission work to build a clear evidence base of the scale of any issue.
• Consider the issue from end to end, including causes, prevention, reporting, enforcement, prosecution, and sentencing.
• Make clear and timely recommendations on ways to improve the situation around pet theft.
• Compulsory cat microchipping will be introduced to ensure lost or stolen cats can be reunited with their owners as quickly as possible and there may be reforms to provide greater assurance that microchip database information is checked appropriately, for example in cases where healthy dogs are presented to vets for euthanasia, as campaigned for via the ‘Tuk’s Law’ movement.
• There will be a ban on remote-controlled electronic training collars (‘e-collars’), given their scope to harm cats and dogs.
• There will be further protections for racing greyhounds, including further steps to raise welfare standards at trainers’ kennels.

High standards of animal welfare are one of the hallmarks of a civilised society. These announcements have the potential to make a very real and lasting improvement to animals in the UK and abroad.

 

At Animal Courses Direct, we hope that this is just the beginning of an evolving, revolutionary animal welfare strategy that shapes and improves how we care for and interact with pets, farmed animals and kept wild animals and that the Action Plan sets a clear global sense of direction for the future of animal welfare.

Animal Courses Direct provides a comprehensive selection of regulated training that meets legislative requirements, enhances student employability, and raises the standards of animal welfare.

Our courses place an emphasis on animal wellbeing, force-free training, environmental enrichment, and rehabilitation. We are passionate about animal welfare and have been raising the standards of animal care and welfare through education since 2004.

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