On Monday 1st July the Animal Welfare Party published its 2024 election manifesto.

For animals, their manifesto includes:

• An urgent transition to healthy and sustainable plant-based diets
• An end to all slaughter without prior stunning and high-concentration CO2 gassing
• Compulsory licensing for companion animals, tighter breeding regulations and an end to breed-specific legislation
• A separate Government Department for Animal Protection
• An end to farming and fishing practices that are harmful to animals
• An end to the exotic pet trade and the sale of animals online/in retail stores
• An end to animal testing
• An end to the commercial racing of horses and dogs
• An end to the badger cull
• A ban on trail hunting and strengthening of the Hunting Act
• An end to the import and transit of live animals
• Tougher action on wildlife crime and increased penalties for animal abuse convictions
• Include animal protection in the school curriculum and end school hatching projects
• A ban on the import and trade of foie gras

Here are the sections of the manifesto that relate to animal protection, reproduced as worded within the manifesto:

Animals in Farms (Farmed Animals)

Animal Welfare Party believes in a UK where all animal exploitation is brought to an end. In the interim, we are supportive of animal welfare improvements whilst always recognising that the ultimate aim of a civilised society must be a complete end to animal exploitation.

Ending Animal Farm Systems which are Harmful to Animals & Our Planet

• Large scale, intensive farms have the worst animal welfare potential. The establishment and development of new intensive farms must cease.
• Farming systems with the worst welfare consequences should be brought to an end, for example by replacing intensive farming by small-scale, regionally-bound, higher welfare farming systems in which animals are able to express appropriate species specific behaviour.
• Foie gras (goose/duck liver) production is banned in the UK. AWP seeks an immediate ban on both the import and trade of this product here.

It is important that we reform agriculture into a high quality sector in accordance with ecological principles. Conditions for farmed animals must be continually raised and husbandry standards must, at least, include the following minimums:

• No farmed animal may be kept in a cage
• Chickens should have access to free range outdoor runs which include naturalistic shelters. Beak trimming should be prohibited.
• Poultry farming should only use non-aggressive laying hen breeds, such as Columbian Blacktails, kept in small flocks.
• Pigs should not be tail-docked, teeth-clipped or castrated, especially without painkillers or anaesthetics. They should be kept on straw bedding and have access to enriched, outdoor areas, with the opportunity to root and access to a wallow.
• Dairy cows should have access to outdoor areas, should be able to graze on pastures, have access to adequate shelter and to comfortable bedding indoors.
• Calves should be kept with their mothers until they are separated naturally.
• Breeding policies that focus on increasing production despite negative consequences for animal welfare (e.g. the extreme and unhealthy growth speed of broiler chickens and pigs; double-muscled beef cows who cannot give birth naturally, requiring caesarean sections) should be banned. Breeding policies should focus on improving welfare.
• Unnatural and often painful methods to increase reproduction in cows, such as embryo lavage, embryo transfer and hormonal fertility treatments, should be banned. Development of such methods should not be allowed if the integrity and the welfare of animals are adversely affected.
• Cloning of animals for production purposes should be prohibited (see also section on ‘Animals in laboratories’).
• The practice of ‘disposing’ of newly hatched male chicks before they are dead, in waste sacks and vats, where they frequently die from crushing or suffocation must end immediately.
• New-born chicks must not be thrown or tossed while alive.

Reducing Live Animal Journeys

• AWP welcomes the recently introduced ban on the export of certain live animals overseas for slaughter and fattening (the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Act 2024). AWP will continue to monitor that the ban is implemented effectively…[and] to argue that all animals, including poultry and decapods, should be protected from the horrors of live export and should be included in the ban.
• Animal journeys within the UK should be minimised, and limited to a maximum of two hours.
• No calf under six weeks of age can be transported for any reason.

An End to Badger Culling

AWP firmly believes that the cull should be immediately ended and that more efficient measures can and should be taken to stop the spread of bovine TB in cattle.

AWP supports calls for a simultaneous vaccination programme, for both cattle and badgers.

The Slaughter of Animals

Animal Welfare Party does not support the killing of any healthy animal. In respect of animals being killed for food, we asset that the following minimum standards should apply:

• Slaughter should be conducted as close as possible to the point of production.
• All slaughterhouses must have independently monitored CCTV to act as a deterrent to abuse and the flouting of animal welfare laws.
• All slaughter without prior stunning (non-stun slaughter) should be banned.
• High concentration CO2 gassing must be banned.

Restoring Marine Life

• Deep sea fishing should be banned.
• Destructive fishing methods, such as trawling, should be banned.
• Whilst fishing continues, only fishing methods that prevent marine mammals being trapped in fishing nets should be used.
• Fish should be protected from suffering before being killed. Fish should be included within all legislation on the killing and slaughter of animals.
• Fish harvesting continues to use methods such as suffocation in air, exsanguination without suffering, carbon-dioxide stunning and ice chilling. AWP believes alternative slaughter methods that reduce pain and stress prior to death should always be used.
• The cooking alive of decapods, including lobsters, crabs and prawns, must be prohibited.
• The sale of live decapods to the public must be prohibited.

Farmed Fish

AWP believes that fish farming should be brought to an end.

Animals Kept and Killed for their Fur

AWP believes this cruel exploitation of animals cannot be justified and supports all those working to close fur farms internationally. To play our part in ending this cruelty, we believe it is high time the trade and import of all fur products into the UK is banned.

City Farms and Sanctuaries, Large Animal Companions, and Working Animals

• City farms should operate as animal sanctuaries where animals are not sent to slaughterhouses.
• Together with education, enabling rescued animals to live out their lives without undue suffering should be the main focus of city farms.
• Those who keep farm animals for non-production purposes should have an ownership license (see section on ‘Animal companions’).

Animal Companions

Abandoned animals

Animal Welfare party would seek to better protect companion animals by ensuring families (owners) are better prepared and informed before taking on a companion animal and better supported to care for the needs of an animal throughout his or her life.

AWP advocates the following measures:

• The introduction of a UK-wide animal abandonment prevention plan
• Foster respect for an understanding of the human/animal bond and ‘cradle to grace’ ethos of good pet stewardship pushing for vastly increased provision for pets in social housing developments and the private rented sector
• End the advertisement for sale, and the sale of all companion animals (pets) in retail stores and online
• A companion animal licensing system should be established
• Tighten the licensing of breeders and breeding facilities
• Regulate rehoming organisations and sanctuaries
• Introduce compulsory neutering of all companion mammals to avoid unnecessary breeding
• Killing of euthanasia of healthy animals must be avoided at all costs
• Revise the Pet Travel Scheme (PETS) to counter abuse of the system so that puppies under the age of 10 months are no longer allowed entry into the UK
• The UK Government must be supported in the establishment of a central equine database and single passport issuing authority to promote responsible horse ownership

Companion Animal Neglect and Cruelty

UK animal charities are frequently required to provide the material and financial resources for interventions – including prosecution of animal abusers – without government assistance. Animal Welfare party believes more resources should be available for law enforcement.

Companion animal abduction has also grown in recent years and AWP welcomes the introduction of the Pet Abduction Act 2024 for England and Northern Ireland which recognises that cats and dogs are not inanimate objects but sentient beings and makes such
abduction a criminal offence.

The Dangerous Dogs Act and the XL Bully Ban

Animal Welfare Party believes that the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act (DDA) was rushed through Parliament as a knee-jerk reaction following a dog attack incident. 33 years later, despite revision, many organisations find that the Act is ineffective, costly and unworkable, leads to
much suffering and the killing of healthy, non-aggressive dogs. Meanwhile the number of dog bites is increasing every year. AWP believes the DDA must be replaced with more effective legislation and a considered programme addressing all contributing factors to dog
attacks.

‘Dangerous’ status dogs, or ‘dogs as weapons’ are considered fashionable within certain subcultures. AWP believes that it is a lack of a responsible approach by owners, some of whom deliberately train animals to fight and attack, that needs to become the focus in any plan
to reduce incidents of aggression. Such a plan must include a compulsory registration scheme, humane education, strict enforcement, tougher penalties for animal abuse and more local council animal welfare officers on the street. Human and animal agencies need to collaborate to tackle these issues.

Animal Health and Care

Animal Welfare Party believes that:

• In the small number of cases where no companion animal insurance is in place, there should be government funding for basic and emergency services provided through existing private veterinary clinics, hospitals and charities.
• Rescue centres, rehabilitation and re-homing facilities for domestic and wild animals should receive financial support from Government.
• Legislation and regulations against animal neglect and abuse should be strengthened through a range of measures (see the full manifesto for more).

“Exotic” Animals in Captivity

Almost all exotic animals experience unnecessary suffering and/or inability to express normal, species-specific behaviour in captivity in the UK.

For the reasons above, Animal Welfare Party calls for:

• A ban on the import of live exotic animals including their eggs, and an end to the granting of licenses to those involved in the exotic pet trade with clear exemptions for rescuers and licensed rescue/rehoming centres.
• The breeding of exotic animals must no longer be permitted with a long term goal of phasing out exotic animal ownership.

Sentencing

Animal Welfare Party calls for the maximum custodial sentence that can be handed down to those convicted of animal cruelty in England and Wales to be increased from 5 to 10 years. This, we believe, would more adequately reflect the seriousness of the offences and act as a more meaningful deterrent to the worst cases of animal abuse.

Human-Animal Conflicts

As a dominating specie, humans are often involved in requiring that nature and wild animals squeeze into smaller and smaller spaces or fit in with our plans.

The rise in the use of bird netting is one example of this.

• Animal Welfare party believes there is no place in a civilised society for such a form of wild animal control and that this use of bird netting must be banned
• Until such a ban comes into force, offenders should be prosecuted under the 2006 Animal Welfare Act
• Animal Welfare Party believes that ‘netting’ hedgerows to prevent birds from nesting must become a criminal offence

The UK Government has proposed wide-ranging culls (killing) of ‘non-native species’ while at the same time, the new ‘Invasive Alien Species’ law also makes the rescue and release non-native animals such as grey squirrels and Muntjac deer illegal. AWP maintains that all wild animals should be treated with respect and compassion and that such approaches to population management shame our nation. Culling a species because of its origins is unethical. We also believe that wildlife rescue centres should not have to choose between subjecting wild animals to an unnatural life in captivity, or being forced to kill them to satisfy the law.

AWP calls for this draconian piece of legislation to be revoked and for more compassionate solutions to solving human-animal conflict to be pursued.

Ending Harmful Animal Use in Research and Education

Animal experiments must be replaced by humane, modern techniques in which animals do not suffer. Whilst animal experiments continue, public scrutiny must be increased.

AWP asserts that:

• The use of primates in animal experiments must end immediately.
• All UK ports & airports must be closed to the import and transit of live animals including monkeys and other primates, to supply the animal testing industries.
• The use of animals for xenotransplantation must end immediately.
• A deadline must be set to end the ‘severe’ suffering testing category
• The testing of chemicals used in household products must be modernised
• We seek a ban on all harmful use of animals within biomedical research, toxicity testing and education
• Immediate, quantitative, binding targets for reductions in animal use for the UK must be set, working towards an end goal of zero for all harmful animal use procedures
• Decapods must be added to the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986
• The cosmetics testing ban must be strengthened by enshrining in law the 1998 ban, covering ingredients used both predominantly and exclusively in cosmetics, so as to prevent any reversal in secret
• Animal experiments for the development of patents should no longer be permitted
• The breeding of lab animals and killing of surplus animals must end
• We believe there is a moral imperative to provide independently-scrutinised sanctuaries, maintained to high welfare standards, funding by industries and sectors using animals, for those animals retired from laboratory animal use, in which animals shall be housed for the remainder of their natural lives

Animals in Entertainment and Sport

The cruelty of bloodsports such as various forms of hunting, hare coursing, and game shooting is obvious, and Animal Welfare Party believes these practices are not ethically justifiable. As a purported measure to control populations they are also discredited.

Animal Welfare Party believes the fox hunting ban must be strengthened. Although banned in law with overwhelming parliamentary and public support, hunting with hounds continues in practice under the guise of ‘trail’ hunting and successful prosecutions are rare.

Other forms of hunting, such as ‘canned hunting’ and pheasant shoots are equally unjustifiable.

Angling also causes extreme suffering and pain to fish.

Therefore, Animal Welfare Party seeks a ban on all hunting and killing for ‘sport’:

• All bloodsports should be banned without loopholes
• The existing Hunting Act should be tightened and more strictly enforced
• Wild animal population control (the necessity of which is questionable) should be carried out by trained, authorised professional wildlife officers with invasive methods avoided at all costs
• Organisations should not be allowed to promote the use of guns to school children
• Harmful animal use should no longer be allowed within any type of art, fashion, cultural exhibition or entertainment

Animals and Fireworks

Animal Welfare Party believes that, as a nation with a proud history of thought leadership on animal welfare, it should no longer be deemed acceptable to pollute, with extreme noise, the environment that we share with the animals around us – be they companion or wild.

Therefore, following similar trends in other countries and cities, we maintain that all but silent fireworks should now be banned.

Racing Animals

Animal Welfare party maintains that, in the year 2024, animals should not suffer and die in the course of humans being entertained and that the death rates above (see full manifesto) would not be tolerated if the athletes were human. We call for the an to the commercial racing of horses and dogs.

As long as animals continue to be raced, AWP maintains the following:

• A new, independent body to regulate and oversee the welfare of horses in the horse racing industry must be established
• No new animal race tracks should be established
• Use of the whip must no longer be permitted in horse racing
• The greyhound and horse racing industries must establish funds to care for all retired racing animals
• A total ban on the export of greyhounds should be introduced

We have also long called for an immediate end to the Grand National Steeplechase.

Circuses and Zoos

AWP has long called for a ban on all animal use in circuses. We believe the law must be revised to include domestic animals so that all animals are equally protected from undue suffering and exploitation.

AWP maintains that the worst zoos should be closed immediately, with remaining animals either being placed within sanctuaries or sent to zoos with higher welfare standards. The higher-standard zoos should be urgently transitioned towards non-animal zoos, or be turned
into animal sanctuaries.

Animal Welfare Party believes that:

• State-of-the-art non-animal zoos should be established in the UK, and existing zoos should be turned into animal sanctuaries where all animals are allowed to live out their natural lives. Zoos, aquaria, dolphinariums and ‘entertainment’ establishments, which have animals on display, should be phased out and new establishments should be prohibited.
• Existing enclosures should be improved to ensure compliance with the highest welfare standards. Enclosures that house species that are unfit for captivity should be closed. The housing of animals must resembled their natural living conditions as much as possible.
• Breeding of species kept in zoos that are not included within conservation or reintroduction programmes should be banned.
• Conservation programmes in native habitats, rather than captivity, should be supported to mitigate habitat destruction by urban development and farming.
• Zoos that fail to comply with regulations should close. Animals from zoos that are being closed should be given adequate refuge in sanctuaries or zoos with higher welfare standards.
• All zoos should be transitioning towards becoming animal-free zoos or animal sanctuaries.
• Zoos must serve as a sanctuary for animals who cannot be re-socialised and or rehabilitated in their original living environment or who cannot be relocated for other reasons.
• Providing shelter to sea mammals in need must be the only purpose of keeping sea mammals in captivity.

Animals in the Wild

Wildlife Protection at Home

UK coastal areas and marine reserves are receiving more attention; however, this should be extended to all areas of ecological importance.

• Animal Welfare Party believes wild animals should be allowed to live undisturbed, as much as possible.
• Populations must be given the chance to restore their natural balance if disrupted.
• All bloodsports, including recreational hunting, should be banned without loopholes. The trading of products that have been obtained through recreational hunting must also be outlawed.
• Wild animal ‘population control’ (the necessity of which we question) should be carried out only by trained, authorised, professional wildlife officers, with invasive methods avoided at all costs.
• Animals that cause excessive damage should be dealt with humanely, and never be hunted by people for sport or entertainment.
• All snaring and trapping devices should be banned.
• Organisations that confiscate (wild) animals from harmful ownership, provide sanctuary, or prosecute animal abusers should receive government funding.
• Hunting tourism must be addressed. UK travel organisations should not be allowed to offer hunting trips such as hunting safaris in Africa.

International Wildlife Protection

The trade in endangered species has developed into a ruthless form of crime. The lack of compliance with international treaties and political will to stop endangered species from being illegally traded is deeply disappointing.

• The UK must comply, as a bare minimum, with the international agreements on the protection of endangered species (CITES/Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)
• The UK must ban all trade in cruelty, including stopping imports of fur, foie gras and hunting trophies, and adopting core welfare standards for all trade.

Marine Animal Protection

Despite the international moratorium on commercial whaling, hundreds of whales are still killed every year. The Animal Welfare Party believes that the UK must use its international clout to make greater efforts to bring these activities to an end.

To read the full Animal Welfare Party manifesto and see their other commitments, including for nature, the environment and non-animal related matters https://www.animalwelfareparty.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Animal-Welfare-Party-2024-General-Election-Manifesto.pdf