Animal welfare in the United Kingdom

Animal welfare in the United Kingdom

Chickens being auctioned at the Penistone Agricultural Show in 2008
Legislation	Animal Welfare Act 2006 (England) Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011
Number of animals slaughtered annually for meat production
Total	1.18 billion (2022[1])
Per capita	17.41 (2022[1])
Proportion of population that does not eat meat
Vegetarian	5% (2024[2])
Vegan	2% (2024[2])

Animal welfare in the United Kingdom relates to the treatment of animals in fields such as agriculture, hunting, medical testing and the domestic ownership of animals. It is distinct from animal conservation.

Around 7% of the population, or about 4.7 million people, do not eat fish or meat.^[2] According to research by the RSPCA, seven in 10 children in 2024 owned a pet (71%), as did half the adult population (52%). That same year, a majority of British people, or 68%, described themselves as animal lovers.^[3]

The Animal Welfare Act 2006 is the latest animal welfare legislation in England and Wales.^[4] It superseded and consolidated more than 20 other pieces of legislation, such as the Protection of Animals Act 1934 and the Abandonment of Animals Act 1960.^[4]

The 2006 Act introduced tougher penalties for neglect and cruelty, including fines of up to £20,000, a maximum jail term of 51 weeks and a lifetime ban on some owners keeping pets.^[5] Enforcers of the act such as the police or local authority inspectors (but not organisations such as the RSPCA) have more powers to intervene if they suspect a pet is being neglected.^[5] The act also introduced a welfare offence for the first time.^[5] This places a duty of care on pet owners to provide for their animals' basic needs, such as adequate food and water, veterinary treatment and an appropriate environment in which to live.^[5] Previously the duty of care had only existed for farm animals.^[5]

Animal welfare laws are enforced by local authorities. A 2024 report by the Animal Law Foundation found there to be one local authority inspector for every 878 farms in England, Scotland and Wales and that in 2022 and 2023, 2.5% of the more than 300,000 UK farms were inspected at least once.^[6]

The minimum age for buying a pet, or winning one as a prize, is 16 without parental accompaniment.^[5] In Scotland, the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 bans giving animals as prizes altogether.^[5]

The docking (cutting or removal) of animals' tails for cosmetic reasons is illegal in the UK, with the exception of working dogs such as those in the police and armed forces.^[5]

The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 was proposed at the 2021 State Opening of Parliament.^[7] The act recognises animal sentience in law for the first time.^[7][8]

Hare coursing has been illegal in Scotland since 2002 with the passing of the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 and in the rest of the United Kingdom since 2004, with the passing of the Hunting Act 2004. Badger culling is a controversial legal method to try to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis in the United Kingdom.

The Farm Animal Welfare Committee is an independent advisory body established by the Government of the United Kingdom in 2011. Since 2020 the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission has advised the Scottish government on the impact of government policy and legislation on animal welfare.

The previous maximum jail term of 51 weeks in prison for animal neglect and cruelty was criticised as being too lenient.^[9] In 2013, Adrian Sanders, a Liberal Democrat politician, argued for sentences to be doubled to two years in prison.^[9]

In practice, the previous maximum jail term of 51 weeks was often not applied.^[10] Tried in magistrates courts, animal cruelty cases are considered summary offences, with magistrates' courts only permitted to sentence people to a maximum of six months jail time.^[10]

In Northern Ireland in 2016, animal-welfare-related amendments to the Justice (No.2) Bill were passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly.^[11] As of April 2016^[update], the Bill is awaiting royal assent.^{[11][needs update]} The amendments gave Northern Ireland the toughest penalties for animal cruelty anywhere in the UK or Ireland.^[11] The maximum sentence available for cases heard in Magistrates Courts increased from six to twelve months in 2016.^[11] The maximum fine has risen from £5,000 to £20,000.^[11] In Crown Courts, where more serious cases are heard, the maximum sentence for animal cruelty has increased from two to five years.^[11][12]

A new Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill which enables tougher prison sentences of up to five years, received Royal Assent on 29 April 2021 and came into force on 29 June 2021.^[13][14]

In post-war Britain, agriculture is increasingly concentrated in bigger farms with more livestock, known as intensive farming.^[15] The number of intensive farms in England has increased by 77% from 709 farms in 2010 to 1,258 farms in 2017 to meet the increasing demand in food.^[16] Intensive poultry units (IPU) in Shropshire house over 20 million industrially farmed chickens at any one time, one of the densest concentrations of IPUs in Europe. Campaigners contend the waste from IPUs has impacted the River Wye badly with welfare implications for fish in the river.^[17]

Beak trimming of chicks is legal in the United Kingdom, as a method to reduce injurious feather pecking, although the current DEFRA code of practice states that routine beak trimming should be stopped as soon as possible.^[18][19][20] Chick culling is legal in the United Kingdom, and is most commonly done using argon gas to asphyxiate chicks although chick maceration is legal but not as common.^[21] In 2022 it was estimated that 29 million male day old chicks were killed annually.^[22]

The RSPCA maintains that "ninety per cent of all supermarket chickens in the UK are a fast-growing breed, genetically selected for their rapid growth rate", referred to as "Frankenchickens".^[23] According to animal welfare expert Kate Parkes, they "live short, brutal lives with serious health and welfare issues which could so easily be avoided".^[23]

The disbudding or dehorning of dairy calves is common practice in the United Kingdom.^[24] In England, it was made illegal under The Protection of Animals (Anaesthetics) Act 1954, as amended, to disbud calves or dehorn any cattle without the use of an anaesthetic other than when chemical cauterisation is used. Chemical cauterisation may only be used during the first week of life.^[25] Research from 2013 on farmers’ attitudes towards farm animal welfare regulations for suckler beef cattle in Ireland showed that farmer's were ill informed and tended to disbud while calves were very young in order to avoid having to apply local anaesthetic.^[26]

Routine docking of piglets' tails is illegal in the UK unless approved by a veterinary surgeon, yet it is commonly done in order to try to reduce tail biting in pigs.^[27] Sow stalls or gestation crates, cages that severely restrict sows' movements during their four month pregnancy, are illegal in the United Kingdom. However, farrowing crates, practically identical cages, that sows are moved into after they give birth, in order to reduce piglet crushing are legal.^[28][29] Although it is common practice in Europe and many other parts of the world to castrate piglets in order to avoid boar taint and reduce aggression in pigs, it is rarely done in the UK, because pigs are generally slaughtered before they have reached puberty. ^[30] A 2005 survey of 54 pig farmers in England found them to view animal welfare as very important and acknowledged government regulation as the right mechanism to enforce it.^[31]

The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA) regulates the conditions under which animal testing can occur in the UK.^[32]

Those applying for a licence must explain why such research cannot be done through in vitro (non-animal) methods. All research projects must pass an ethical review panel set by the Home Office, which aims to decide if the potential benefits outweigh any suffering for the animals involved.

Primates, cats, dogs, and horses have additional protection over other vertebrates included in the Act. Revised legislation came into force in January 2013. This has been expanded to protect "all living vertebrates, other than man, and any living cephalopod. Fish and amphibia are protected once they can feed independently and cephalopods at the point when they hatch. Embryonic and foetal forms of mammals, birds and reptiles are protected during the last third of their gestation or incubation period."^[33]

The definition of regulated procedures was also expanded: "A procedure is regulated if it is carried out on a protected animal and may cause that animal a level of pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm equivalent to, or higher than, that caused by inserting a hypodermic needle according to good veterinary practice." It also includes modifying the genes of a protected animal if this causes the animal pain, suffering, distress, or lasting harm. The ASPA also considers other issues such as animal sources, housing conditions, identification methods, and the humane killing of animals.^[33]

Dog fighting in the UK is banned by the Protection of Animals Act 1911, which was specific in outlawing "the fighting or baiting of animals."^[34] However, it has been estimated that a dog fight takes place every day in the UK.^[35] Fighting dogs are pitted against each other for "profit and reputational gain".^[35] Dog fighting can cause "torn flesh, blood loss, disembowelment or even death" of the dogs involved.^[35] Stolen pets, such as smaller dogs and cats are used as "bait" to train canines for fights, which can last for up to five hours.^[35]

Traditionally dog fighting was hidden away in rural areas, but is believed to be prevalent in urban areas as well. It is often related to gang activity.^[35]

In 2014, the United Kingdom received an A out of possible grades A, B, C, D, E, F, G on World Animal Protection's Animal Protection Index. However, it was lowered to a B rating in their 2020 index.^[36]

• Category:Animal welfare organisations based in the United Kingdom
• Timeline of animal welfare and rights in Europe
• Assured Food Standards (Red Tractor)
• Farm assurance in Scotland

• Media related to Animal welfare and rights in the United Kingdom at Wikimedia Commons
• RSPCA website
• RSPCA 2022 Kindness Index