EFRA’s Animal Welfare Response

Many of us have been following the progress of the Animal Welfare Bill, especially in regards to animal sentience. Some of you even got in touch to let us know that you were taking part in the public consultation for the draft Animal Welfare Bill. At the same time as the public consultation, the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee (EFRA) were consulting with relevant organisations and NGOs on the Bill. We contributed to this consultation and you can find a summary of our response here.

Today EFRA published its report ‘Pre Legislative Scrutiny of the draft Animal Welfare (Sentencing and Recognition of Sentience) Bill’, which was produced on the basis of this consultation and their inquiry into the bill.

Sam Packer, Policy Officer at the Soil Association, commented on this report: “We welcome the findings of the EFRA Select Committee report on the Animal Welfare (Sentencing and Recognition of Sentience) Bill, particularly their call for greater clarity and purpose from the proposed legislation. The recommendation to have a stand-alone ‘Animal Sentience Bill’ presents an opportunity for the Government to go further and to make the UK a world leader with the highest animal welfare standards. This would need new laws which ensure: a ‘good life’ for all farm animals; mandatory method of production labelling for meat and dairy; tackling overuse of antibiotics in livestock farming; and supporting organic farming.”

We will have to wait and see whether the government takes EFRA’s recommendations into account when writing the bill.