General Election 2024 animal welfare pledges
Here we look at the General Election 2024 animal welfare pledges. All parties have something to say on big issues including animal testing and the badger cull.
Labour’s manifesto, Change, states the following:
Labour will improve animal welfare. We will ban trail hunting and the import of hunting trophies. We will end puppy smuggling and farming, along with the use of snare traps. And we will partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing.
We will work with farmers and scientists on measures to eradicate Bovine TB, protecting livelihoods, so that we can end the ineffective badger cull.
“Labour will improve animal welfare” is a very general comment but its ambitions range far and wide. The word ‘animal’ pops up just three times in the General Election 2024 manifesto.
What about the Tories’ General Election 2024 animal welfare pledges? This is an extract:
- Five new members will be appointed to form the first-ever Animal Sentience Committee
- Committee’s establishment ensures animal welfare remains at the heart of government policy
- Government also launches consultation on expanding enforcement mechanisms for animal health and welfare offences
It’s hard to see how a government that permits the use of insect-harming pesticides and promotes additional fossil fuel production can say that “animal wefare remains at the heart of government policy”. None the less, the Tories also promise to crack down on the puppy trade, specifically smuggling. The word animal appears once.
The RSPCA has issued its own manifesto for the election, covering what it would like to see the new government do for animal welfare across a 10 year strategy and broken down into 10 ‘asks’.
Like the Labour manifesto, the RSPCA talks about phasing out animal testing. It also covers animal welfare in agriculture and trade, care of wild animals, licensing animal keeping and care standards in different settings including slaughterhouses.
It mentions dogs specifically, looking at the health problems faced by certain breeds, and includes a request that children are taught about animal welfare in school.
Unsurprisingly, the Green Party includes an entire manifesto section titled Protecting Animals. This focuses on:
To better protect animals and their habitats Green MPs will push for:
- The creation a new Commission on Animal Protection.
- A ban on all blood sports, including trail hunting.
- All UK domestic and overseas territorial waters to offer the highest level of protection to marine life.
- An end to badger culling.
- An end to factory farming, enforcement of maximum stocking densities, and no routine use of antibiotics in farm animals.
- A complete ban on close confinement in cages and the deliberate and unnecessary mutilation of farm animals.
The Liberal Democrat manifesto doesn’t have a great deal to say about animal welfare. The word animal appears once in the context of tackling antimicrobial resistance in farm animals
The word animal doesn’t appear at all in the SNP manifesto and its manifesto doesn’t appear to have any sections focussing on this area.
Whatever your political views and however much importance you place on animal welfare issues, it matters that you vote. So please, place your vote on July 4th or by postal vote or proxy and make your views count. And don’t forget #dogsatpollingstations, as if you needed any more incentive.
