Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill

Written evidence submitted by Viva! (AWB0004) Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill Viva! is the UK’s leading vegan campaigning charity, specialising in undercover investigations and high-profile animal campaigns. Founded in 1994 by Juliet Gellatley, we have spent more than 25 years creating a kinder, more sustainable world for humans and animals alike. The proposed terms of reference for the inquiry are addressed below: 1. Will the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill ensure that animal sentience is properly taken into account in both new and existing government policy in England? Animal sentience refers to the ability of animals to feel and experience emotions such as joy, pleasure, pain and fear. It is animals’ capacity to feel both positive and negative states that drives the animal welfare movement and is the reason why animal protection laws exist (Procter et al., 2013). According to the government, animal welfare relates to both the physical health and mental wellbeing of the animal. This has been encapsulated by the “Five Needs” as documented in the 2006 Animal Welfare Act: the need for a suitable environment the need for a suitable diet the need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns the need to be housed with, or apart from, other animals the need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease Brexit and farmed animals It can be argued that the five needs (described above) are not being met under current legislation. Leaving the EU has provided the UK government with a unique opportunity to extend and improve existing animal welfare standards in accordance with the evidence. The government says the new Bill will be introduced as part of its Action Plan for Animal Welfare, which proposes to improve 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 Viva! says: 1. The government needs to ensure clarity by providing a clear definition of what a sentient animal is. Fish sentience is still a hotly debated topic for example, despite ample scientific evidence that the biology of their nociceptive system is “strikingly similar to that found in mammals” (Sneddon, 2019). There is currently limited legislation to protect fish welfare in most countries. Within the UK, the Animal Welfare Act 2006, and the Animal Health and June 2021 Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, afford fish a basic level of protection (due to a duty of care requirement and prevention of unnecessary suffering), but fish are excluded from the more detailed Welfare of Farm Animals (England) Regulations 2007 (and similar legislation in Scotland and Wales) and the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing, 2015. Aquaculture is on the rise and legislation to protect fish welfare on farms, as well as at the time of killing, is long overdue. 2. Viva! calls for a ban on all live exports, not just some. No animal born on a farm in the UK should be subjected to gruelling long journeys overseas to continue their lives in conditions that fall below UK welfare laws. Permitting this to happen denies animals the protection of the five needs set out in the 2006 Animal Welfare Act. This new bill provides the opportunity to correct that failure. 3. It is vital that the government bans the importation of live animals too. In 2020, pigs valued at £70 million were imported into Britain (Shahbandeh, 2021). It makes no sense to protect animals within the UK but not those travelling here from elsewhere. Do we only attach importance to the sentience of animals in the UK? 4. The law needs to extend to include animals all over the world, not just those in the UK. The UK could have considerable influence over animal welfare in other countries. We have an opportunity to promote animal protection by using our new independent voice in international treaties and trade agreements. The UK could support other countries to improve animal welfare, encouraging them, for example, to enforce a ban on the trade of wild animals, or address the suffering of animals in factory farms via the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE; the intergovernmental organisation coordinating, supporting and promoting animal disease control). 5. Viva! calls for a ban on the use of cages for poultry. Chickens confined in caged systems never see the sky, feel fresh air on their feathers or grass under their feet. Caged hens currently make up 42 per cent of the UK market (British Egg Information Service, 2021). Caged hens are the only major group of farmed animals in the UK to remain caged for all of their productive lives. This contravenes at least three of the five needs documented in the 2006 Animal Welfare Act. Unable to escape the proximity of other hens or fulfil natural behaviours, life in enriched cages is one of boredom, desperation, frustration and suffering. The now-mandatory provision of enrichments – such as nesting boxes, perches, dust baths, litter areas and scratch pads – is intended to allow hens to fulfil their natural behaviours of scratching, foraging, roosting and dust bathing. However, in many farms, although the hens technically have access to enrichments, they’re still not able to use them. With up to 80 birds per cage, and aggressive territorial hens guarding enrichments, many hens never get access. Enriched cages do not satisfy even the hen’s most basic behavioural and physical needs such as ground scratching and wing stretching, or activities such as walking, running, jumping, fluttering and flying. In short, there is no meaningful “enrichment” in the enriched cage at all. June 2021 6. Viva! calls for a ban on the use of farrowing crates. These metal frames or cages are only centimetres larger than the sow’s body. She will remain confined for up to five weeks after giving birth to her piglets. She is unable ever to turn around, can scarcely take a step forward or backwards, and frequently rubs against the bars when standing up and lying down. Farrowing crates are used for around 60 per cent of all British sows (RSPCA, 2021). Pigs are naturally active and sows would usually build a nest in the weeks before giving birth, yet in a farrowing crate, she can fulfil none of her natural nesting behaviours. Again, contravening a number of the five needs documented in the 2006 Animal Welfare Act. When her babies are born, she is unable to mother or nurture them and they find it almost impossible to nestle beside her, only able to reach her teats for milk. Newborn piglets have no ability to regulate their temperature and in a natural environment, the nest would provide the warmth they need. In intensive farming, it is provided by heat lamps inside the stall, which draw the piglets away from their mother’s side in the early days after birth. The sow will remain like this for up to five weeks, until her piglets are artificially weaned at around 21 to 28 days. The pig industry says that the reason for using farrowing crates is to “protect piglet welfare and stock person safety”. However, this is disingenuous as piglet mortality is roughly the same in outdoor units where farrowing crates are not used (Edwards, 2011). 7. Viva! calls for an end to subsidies to livestock farmers and more financial support for farmers moving over to crop-based sustainable farming practices. Animal agriculture contributes more anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions than all the world’s transport put together – yet the government continues to turn a blind eye to the problem. The government must invest in more sustainable agriculture; moving away from livestock towards crop farming (alongside reforestation and afforestation to capture carbon and encourage biodiversity). The British Isles with its temperate climate and ample rainfall is an ideal growing region. There is enough arable land in the UK to provide for the protein, calorific and nutritional needs of our entire population. Sadly, 55 per cent of our arable land is used to produce animal feed (Harwatt and Hayek, 2019). More than half of all cereals, pulses, and oil crops grown are destined for livestock (de Ruiter et al., 2017). Today, 91 per cent of UK cropland is occupied by just seven crops (wheat, grass/forage, barley, rapeseed, sugar beet, potatoes, and oats) – the majority of this produce going to animal feed (Harwatt and Hayek, 2019). A future farming policy needs to encourage the move away from livestock farming for the sake of our health, the environment and the animals. 8. Viva! calls for a ban on the sale of fur and foie gras. Viva! calls for a tightening of the Fur Farming (Prohibition) Act 2000 to close the loophole that allows for animal pelts and fur to be sold as a by-product of the meat trade (like those sold by T&S Rabbits) as well as a complete ban on the importation of fur and fur products. The UK does not permit cruel farming methods used to produce fur and foie gras, so banning both the import and sale of all these products is the moral, ethical and logical choice. 9. Pandemic threat and One Health. The government’s ambition to be a “global leader” for animal welfare should see them making the connection between animal and human health. As the World Health Organisation and many other groups have warned, we ignore at our peril the public health risk that presents when animals are confined, crammed in together in June 2021 factory farms and markets, stressed and suffering.

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