Naturewatch Foundation
Naturewatch Foundation - Advancing Animal Welfare
We want to say a huge thank you to those of you who supported our campaign to keep animals on the political agenda. By writing to your MP, you’ve helped make sure that animals aren’t forgotten.
We launched the campaign after delivery of the UK Government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare started to stall. Since then, we saw the scrapping of the Kept Animals Bill, which would have helped pets, primates and farmed animals in so many ways.
Thankfully, some action has been taken and here are positives we can all celebrate:
- A law to ban the advertising and sale of cruel animal attractions abroad was passed last year. We’ve been proud to support our friends at Save the Asian Elephants (STAE), who have worked tirelessly to advocate for animals abroad. The UK Government now needs to pass regulations setting out which attractions will be banned;
- Anyone keeping a primate as a pet must now adhere to higher animal welfare standards;
- Microchipping of cats will be a legal requirement from June this year, helping to ensure more beloved pets and their owners can be reunited.
Some other proposals are making their way through Parliament at the moment, including bills to:
- Crack down on puppy and kitten smuggling;
- Ban live exports of cows, horses, sheep, goats and pigs for slaughter and fattening;
- Tackle livestock worrying, which is an important animal welfare issue that we’ve been highlighting through our #OpRecall campaign;
- Make pet theft a specific offence.
With a general election on the cards this year, time is running out to get these important new laws passed, so we’ll be keeping up the pressure to make sure these promises are kept.
You can help, too, by asking your MP to attend a debate this Friday in the House of Commons to show their support for the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, which would help end puppy smuggling.
Disappointingly, these promises seem to have been forgotten about entirely:
- New measures to tackle wildlife crime, including launching a consultation on the use of snares;
- A ban on importing hunting trophies from endangered animals;
- Banning ‘e-collars’, which are cruel training devices that give electric shocks to dogs and cats.
It’s been a mixed bag, but the wins that have been achieved happened because people like you stood up for animals. Thank you so much.
As we approach a general election, now is a great time to check out our #Win4Animals manifesto, which sets out what we want the next government to do to advance animal welfare. All of the asks in our manifesto are things that you – our supporters – told us you care about most.
Thank you again for speaking up for animals and supporting our campaign. Our work simply wouldn’t be possible without you.
The post Thank you for keeping animals on the agenda! first appeared on Naturewatch Foundation and is written by Morwenna.