This seems like a great campaign with a chance of raising awareness at least or leading to legal changes if it succeeds—and I hope you get a good result at the trial. I had a question about something else the Humane League was involved in, though, which is that in this article the League was mentioned in the issue of Defra’s policy on chickens being carried by their feet was described as a new Labour policy decision, but in this article discussing the issue a few months ago, also mentioning the League, it was presented as a decision by the Conservative government. It seems like they can’t both have created this policy—so is it true that both major parties in the UK are against basic animal rights, or is this previous decision more nuanced than that?
The chicken handling (carrying chickens by their legs) was investigated by the Animal Welfare Committee, which is an independent body that advises the Government irrespective of if it is a Labour Government or a Conservative Government). Essentially as it stands, it is illegal to carry chickens by their legs but it is permitted in the codes of practice (and is a carrying method we believe is widely used). The AWC recommended that the law be changed to allow carrying chickens by the legs. This recommendation came out under the previous Government, but they didn’t make a policy decision on this before the election. Now that we have a new Government, a policy decision has been made.
This seems like a great campaign with a chance of raising awareness at least or leading to legal changes if it succeeds—and I hope you get a good result at the trial. I had a question about something else the Humane League was involved in, though, which is that in this article the League was mentioned in the issue of Defra’s policy on chickens being carried by their feet was described as a new Labour policy decision, but in this article discussing the issue a few months ago, also mentioning the League, it was presented as a decision by the Conservative government. It seems like they can’t both have created this policy—so is it true that both major parties in the UK are against basic animal rights, or is this previous decision more nuanced than that?
Thanks for the question!
The chicken handling (carrying chickens by their legs) was investigated by the Animal Welfare Committee, which is an independent body that advises the Government irrespective of if it is a Labour Government or a Conservative Government). Essentially as it stands, it is illegal to carry chickens by their legs but it is permitted in the codes of practice (and is a carrying method we believe is widely used). The AWC recommended that the law be changed to allow carrying chickens by the legs. This recommendation came out under the previous Government, but they didn’t make a policy decision on this before the election. Now that we have a new Government, a policy decision has been made.