Vets welcome Scottish animal welfare inquiry
BVA Scottish Branch has welcomed an inquiry into the environmental and animal welfare implications of Scotland leaving the EU.
Scottish vets have welcomed an inquiry into the environmental and animal welfare implications of Scotland leaving the EU.
The EU Environmental and Animal Welfare Principles inquiry was launched on Friday (1 March) by the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee (ECCLR). It calls on individuals and organisations to share their thoughts on the future of environmental and animal welfare protection in a post-Brexit world.
BVA Scottish Branch president Melissa Donald said that it was encouraging to see the Committee addressing the potential risks and opportunities around these issues in Scotland.
“Our high animal health and welfare standards provide Scottish and wider UK trade with a unique selling point that should be maximised post-Brexit,” she said. “It is crucial that existing standards of animal health and welfare, public health and environmental protection, amongst others, are at least maintained at the same level”.
She added: “Animal welfare is at the heart of everything vets do and we will continue to call for measures to ensure that principles, such as Article 13 that recognises animal sentience and puts a duty on the state to regard animal welfare in policy making, is captured in law before the UK leaves the EU.”
The inquiry seeks responses to a number of questions, including ‘how important are the EU principles of animal sentience’ and ‘how and where have these principles had an impact on environmental and animal welfare policy in Scotland?’ It also seeks views on retaining/adopting/ enshrining these EU principles in law or alternative approaches that could be adopted.
“Clearly, we are in uncharted territory when it comes to Brexit and no one can fully anticipate the impact this will have in Scotland,” commented ECCLR Committee convener, Graeme Day MSP. “But our Committee intends to explore in detail whether or not environmental and animal welfare protections will be eroded as a result of Brexit. We’ll be examining how important EU principles are, such as the precautionary approach and animal sentience, and considering if and how these should be retained.”
BVA said that it will consult its members and respond to the ECCLR Committee inquiry by the 29 March deadline.
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
