The Government is currently holding a public consultation on the draft of the Animal Welfare (Sentencing and Recognition of Sentience) Bill. We broadly support the Bill, but we’re also calling on the Government to go further with its legal definition of the ‘welfare needs of animals’. The current draft Bill makes no reference to the inhumane religious exemptions to our current animal welfare legislation which allow for animals to be slaughtered without pre-stunning in accordance with halal and kosher traditions. This loophole greatly adds to the distress and pain which animals experience, and cannot be justified in a humane society.

We are calling for the Government to expand its definition of the ‘welfare needs of animals’ to ensure that animal welfare standards are adhered to for the whole of an animal’s life by explicitly including pre-stunning of animals at the time of slaughter. This would mean that the use of stunning would become a universal requirement.

This consultation has now closed. Thank you for your support!

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