Government drops Kept Animals Bill
The Bill included a range of animal welfare measures.
The Government has dropped the long-delayed Kept Animals Bill, despite widespread lobbying in support of the Bill from veterinary organisations and animal welfare charities.
The proposed legislation would have tackled a number of animal welfare issues, including making it illegal to import dogs with cropped ears, creating new powers to prevent puppy smuggling, and banning live exports of horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and goats for slaughter.
Speaking to Parliament on Thursday, 25 May, environment minister Mark Spencer announced that the Government was dropping the Bill, saying that the scope of the legislation was in danger of becoming too wide. The minister said that the Government would instead introduce individual pieces of legislation to deal with the different issues.
A manifesto promise, the Kept Animals Bill was first introduced to Parliament in June 2021. However, despite passing a first and second reading, progress on the Bill had stalled.
In recent months, various animal welfare organisations had been campaigning for the Government to bring the Bill back to Parliament and finally pass the legislation.
Earlier this week, Dogs Trust delivered a letter to the Prime Minister, signed by 50,000 of the charity’s supporters, calling for the Bill to be passed. Other organisations, including the RSPCA and World Horse Welfare, have also been actively campaigning on the issue.
The announcement that the Kept Animals Bill has been dropped has been met with disappointment.
BVA president Malcolm Morley said: “News that the Kept Animals Bill will not progress through Parliament is extremely disappointing. This crucial legislation, and the package of measures it contained, would have prevented the immeasurable suffering of thousands of animals, by tackling puppy smuggling, the importation of dogs with cropped ears, live animal exports and the keeping of primates as pets.
“However, the Government has today committed to taking forward some of these individual measures. These are important animal welfare issues which both the veterinary profession and the public want to see resolved, and we will continue to lobby Government to ensure they are enacted in law.”
The RSPCA’s director of policy Emma Slawinski said: “We have been waiting for almost two years for the Kept Animals Bill to improve the lives of billions of animals and now it’s effectively been scrapped. While politicians dither, animals suffer.
“We are frustrated and disappointed that, despite overwhelming public support, the Government has delayed and delayed and has now broken up the Bill, leading to yet more uncertainty and lost time.
“The Secretary of State has said that she wants to proceed separately with elements of the Bill like ending live exports of animals for fattening and slaughter and clamping down on puppy smuggling but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.
“We want to see urgent legislative progress on everything that was in the Bill, including a ban on the import of dogs with cropped ears.”
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
