Battersea Dogs and Cats Home Animal cruelty: I sentence you to nothing Speakers: Sam Macrory, Political Journalist, BBC; Neil Parish MP, Chair, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee ; Kevin Foster MP; Trevor Cooper, Dog Law Specialist; Michael Webb, Public Affairs Manager, Battersea Dogs and Cats Home;

Sam Macory opens by explaining the focus of the fringe. Macroy says there’s cross party agreement on tackling animal cruelty but sentencing hasn’t changed despite the public will behind this. The discussion will explore what the last Government has done and what this one can do.

Michael Webb begins by explaining his role at Battersea, the number of animals they re-home and the public support which Battersea has behind it. He also discusses the levels of cruelty he sees inflicted on animals, and shows the audience two animals which were taken in by the home and which have been mistreated. Webb describes the many types of neglect they see and the work that other organisations such as the League Against Cruel Sports. Webb then moves on to the Animal Welfare Act and the role it is supposed to have in cruelty prevention: he says it has one failure, which is that there are no enforcement measures. In reality very few people receive the maximum six month sentence for animal cruelty which is the second lowest in Europe, which Webb says doesn’t chime well with the idea of the UK as a ‘nation of animal lovers’. In Northern Ireland the maximum sentence was recently raised to five years: not everyone needs this but it gives judges more flexibility. Webb also raises a recent petition which was signed by 0.5million people objecting to soft sentences. He continues that the Conservative party has shown they’re willing to enact change on animal issues such as micro chipping; these are positive moves but he would also encourage raising sentences. There’s also a need to increase community engagement around animal issues such as training for engaging with dogs. Webb believes these messages should be taught in schools as well. He concludes by saying that the Conservative party is asking itself what country it wants to be: Battersea wants it to be one which rejects animal cruelty and supports animal welfare.

Neil Parish explains the work the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee is doing around animal welfare. It launched a greyhound inquiry which covered racing, tracks and the retirement of greyhounds amongst other issues, and it made a lot of recommendations. These recommendations covered regulation and also enforcement. Parish continues by saying they are now doing another inquiry into animal welfare more generally: as part of this they managed to get into a puppy farm in Wales. He says the dogs there had no exercise and there were too many breeding bitches. Furthermore, puppies are traded and sold through dealers so not many resources go back to the puppy farmer as they go to the dealer instead.

Parish explains the Committee is also looking at third party sales and how easy it is to get a pet shop licence. He says the issues here are about education, about knowing where puppies come from, and also gangs bringing in puppies from Europe. He agrees that the sentences are too low and this needs to change. In about a years’ time the committee will produce another report looking at dangerous dogs and status dogs. On this issue he says they also need to look at breeds of dogs: too many good dogs of good temperament being put down because they’re a certain breed. Parish says we’ve got to be more nuanced about how we deal with this because often dogs which would be excellent pets are put down. He adds that as a nation we do love cats and dogs but we don’t always handle cruelty in the right way. Parish finfishes by talking about Andrea Leadsom’s interest in animal welfare and Lord Gardiner taking on reasonability for the topic in the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. He reassures the panel that they will take notice of the issues they’re discussing.

Kevin Foster MP began his remarks by talking about the Wild Animals in Circuses (Prohibition) Bill (2nd reading is on the 24th February 2017) that he trying to get through parliament he spoke of how he waited up through the night to get the bill to be put before Parliament. He then spoke about dog fighting and how it goes further than just the actual act of fighting, it involved the training and the diets that the dogs are kept on. Foster pointed towards the USA as a possible lead to follow when looking at dog fighting as they treat it far more serious and treat it as an entry to organised crime, he said it also leads to organised crime in the UK. He made the comparison that sentences are relatively low for god fighting when considering the money that can be made from them he pointed towards Northern Ireland that have a far stricter punishment for dog fighting.

Kevin Foster went on to say that he wants better education in schools around animal welfare. He also spoke of the opportunity that Brexit has given as it will allow agriculture to be more of a feature in any manifesto and can support farmer who want to have the highest possible standards. In closing Foster once again referenced his Bill and said many of his colleagues are supportive of the Bill.

Trevor Cooper focused largely on the legal aspect of animal welfare. He called for courts to be given the ability to be able to punish more harshly. As animal welfare offences can only be dealt with in magistrates courts it brings a maximum limit of 6 months to any sentence they can give, if they plead guilty to the offences put before them then the most they will serve is 4 months whether it was deliberate cruelty or not. In his opinion this sentence is inadequate as sometimes offenders should face harsh punishments for their actions and a longer sentence can act as a deterrent.

Trevor Cooper continued his remarks on the sentencing by calling on Parliament to make a change to the sentence required, he then went and used an example of a severe case of abuse which could only be given a sentence of 4 months because it was the maximum the magistrate can give. Cooper then spoke about the Dangerous Dogs Act and how it gave an increased sentence for attacks that lead to injury or death from dogs, he said Parliament can make these changes again. One of this final points was by giving an example of how it is more punishable if a dog attacks an assistance dog than if a human were to attack an assistance dog.

At the end of the panel remarks all the panellists were asked what the thought would be an appropriate punishment for animal abuse and they all agreed that a maximum of 5 years would be best and they praised the changes Northern Ireland had made.