Activists are celebrating “landmark” animal welfare reforms that could spare millions of animals from being gassed to death or suffering in cramped cages while being farmed for their meat, eggs or fur.
In its animal welfare strategy, whose provisions have been branded “the most ambitious welfare reforms in a generation”, the government has set out its plan for an overhaul of the legislation that covers the way that farm animals, pets and wildlife are treated.
Campaigners say that more than 9 million pigs every year could be spared an agonising death thanks to the proposal to outlaw the use of carbon dioxide chambers.
Farmers will be forced to phase out farrowing crates for pigs and colony cages for laying hens – which both provide cramped conditions that stop the animals from moving about naturally. The strategy also proposes the introduction of “humane slaughter requirements for farmed fish to spare them avoidable pain”.
And proposals to promote the use of slow-growing meat-chicken breeds are designed to benefit the 1.1 billion so-called “frankenchicken” broilers genetically engineered each year to balloon so rapidly that their limbs and organs fail.
Sean Gifford, managing director at the Humane League UK, said: “Cruelly confining animals to cages is a stain on British farming, and we are thrilled to see this government following countries like Germany and Austria, who have banned them.
“The vast majority of the public think raising animals in tiny cages is unnecessary and morally wrong. Seven million hens are languishing in confinement, and need the government to move quickly and make cages history.”
Mr Gifford said that if animals are painfully and incompetently killed, such as fish having their gills cut without being stunned, there are no real legal repercussions for staff or the farm. “A change in law should help address this,” he said.
The Humane League wanted assurances that a consultation would lead to a ban on cages, as the previous government announced a consultation but it never happened, he added.
Anthony Field, head of compassion at World Farming UK, welcomed the “landmark” step forward in protecting farmed animals, saying that 150,000 pigs a year would benefit from farrowing crates being outlawed.
However, farmers have expressed concern that higher welfare standards could push up their costs, causing shoppers to buy cheaper foreign imports produced to lower welfare standards.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw said: “We know there is demand for our great British food overseas. In all trade deals, we must ensure that we don’t continue to undermine domestic production with imported food that would be illegal to produce here.”
Ministers are promising new steps towards a ban on imports of real fur from cruel fur farms abroad, where foxes, racoons, mink and other fur-bearing animals are kept in small cages.
The strategy, published on Monday morning, says ministers will publish the results of the previous government’s call for evidence on the fur trade. Campaigners against fur had been enraged by the Tories’ failure to publish those findings, and the Conservative government U-turned on plans to ban fur imports.
The document says the government will publish and consider carefully the report from the animal welfare committee and bring together a working group on fur, and that it will talk to the EU, a major source of imported fur, about scientific findings relating to fur animal welfare.
Campaigning organisation Animal Aid said a proposed ban on snare traps would spare countless animals from agony lasting hours or days.
The strategy also proposes the introduction of a “close season” for hares, in an effort to reduce numbers shot in the breeding season. Currently, young hares are left vulnerable to starvation and predation when their mothers are killed.
Ministers are also promising an end to puppy farming, where young dogs are bred in squalid conditions and sold at high turnover rates, sometimes from breeders renting homes in order to appear reputable.
New licences will be considered for pet rescue and rehoming organisations, to ensure that sanctuaries have checks in place.
Michael Webb, of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, said the reforms would address some key issues that the charity had campaigned on for many years.
He said: “There is clearly still a lot of detail to work out, and the strategy does not claim to tackle every problem animals face. However, Battersea is hopeful that it will be the catalyst for real, lasting change.”
The government also announced a ban on trail-hunting to prevent the activity from being used as a cover for foxhunting.
Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk
