When reflecting on which campaigns and policies to push, how does the RSPCA prioritize between companion animals, wild animals, animals in research and farm animals? How much does it pay attention to the number of animals that can be affected by a given intervention?
Do you think it’s important that the RPSCA keeps a somewhat even portfolio given that (I assume) most of its natural support base comes from those interested in companion animal welfare?
Signal Failure
Karma: 21
Why do you think that we haven’t seen more animal welfare related import requirements in the UK (beyond the existing welfare at slaughter equivalency requirements), particularly for totemic issues like use of sow stalls and barren cages? It has the support of both the National Farmers Union and AW NGOs, and are widely thought to be pretty defensible at the WTO.
Do you think a Labour government will do it?
The RSPCA has a long history of bringing private prosecutions, particularly on the companion animal welfare side. I know that there has also been talk about stopping the RSPCA’s private prosecution altogether too. Has the RSPCA ever brought private prosecutions against the mistreatment of farm animals? Would it consider doing so for an issue like where poultry catching teams clearly break the Animal Welfare Act 2006 when trapping heads/wings in the transport modules by not taking due care? These are cases where APHA/Local Authorities typically don’t act and an RSPCA private prosecution could play a powerful role.
You may already be aware but there is some academic work on the export of used battery cages: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1477-9552.12513
″The results suggest that the cage bans were associated with an increase in intra-EU trade, and also an increase in exports of poultry equipment from EU member states to non-EU countries where conventional cages are still permitted. The results suggest that some banned cages were likely exported to countries outside the EU to be used in egg production.”
Below as some commonly discussed big ticket policy changes for farm animals in the UK. How would you rank their relative importance? How do you go about making the decisions on what to push?
Legislating for the Better Chicken Commitment as the legal minimum
Banning High Concentration CO2 gassing of pigs
Introducing mandatory tiered animal welfare labelling for meat
Specific fish welfare requirements (e.g. requiring stunning, water quality rules) in legislation
Retaining the ban on allowing insects as feed for pigs and poultry
Banning enriched cages for laying hens and gamebirds and farrowing crates for pigs
Introducing specific minimum legal rules for broiler breeders and layer breeders
Import ban on meat produced using sows in sow stalls or egg products from layers in barren cages