I made a pitch – detailing what we, as Save-Me, would like to see in the Labour Party Manifesto. (We’ll be pitching to the other parties later, given the chance.)
I wrote it up here http://brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssbjan14.html#23
Would you like to know what the other animal Charities and NGO’s asked for ? Well, here’s a rough guide.
League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) :
Joe Duckworth, CEO, made the point that animal issues are popular with British people … and animal welfare issues can win seats. He asks: Stop the cruel practice of snaring. We have literally millions of snares in Britain, and there is no way to ensure that they are humane. We need primary legislation to ban them once and for all. We are lagging behind in Europe on snares. Cats and dogs actually suffer more from snares than the animals the snares are designed to catch.
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) :
Labour must make it clear that the National Wildlife Crime Unit will be supported and protected. Wildlife crimes must be recordable issues. Make farm animal welfare a priority. Just because an animal is reared for food does not mean it isn’t entitled to a life worth living. The present Government, under the cloak of abolishing ‘red tape’ is actively taking away protection for farm animals. They deserve more than their basic physical needs for staying alive. There must be a requirement that cows have a certain number of days in pasture per year. Most new human diseases are coming from animals who have been pumped with antibiotics … so we are getting antibiotic–resistant diseases – from bad animal welfare. It affects us DIRECTLY. Animals have to be included in disaster planning. It’s a United Nations requirement, but is not being followed through in Britain. In the recent floods, 700, 000 chickens drowned, pigs, were drowned. There is no provision for protecting animals from flood at all. This led to people not leaving danger areas because they would not leave their animals. The UK is getting left behind.
HORSES : 7,000 horses have welfare issues. 70 per cent of Horses that come in are not microchipped. Fly grazing is a scandalous practice … done to save money. It leads to cruelty and deprivation in Horses, as they are valued at virtually nothing, and end up sold for food. Wales is dealing with it. WAG have gone further than us.
LABELLING : on food. Commission is coming through with a report. We need supermarket food to be labelled on the method of slaughter used, and on the life conditions of the animal. RSPCA would like to see more info available to shoppers … just like on eggs. … which has been a successful labelling programme – proportion of people buying free range eggs has risen from 30 per cent to 55 per cent since labelling began. Clearly show how the animal has been produced.
CIRCUS ANIMALS: Successive governments have failed to stop this unjustifiable abuse. Greece, Hungary, Bolivia have already banned the use of wild animals in circuses. Once again, we are lagging behind.
LAWS (Labour Animal Welfare Society) :
We need to HALT animal experimentation. It is no longer necessary, and in many cases has produced false results – for instance in thalidomide testing, which led to tragedy. No longer justifiable.
We need a new version of the Labour Party leaflet produced for the last election. Fur issue. We must eventually ban the sale of real fur. The interim path is labelling. A billion animals are slaughtered in slaughterhouses in a year. There is not even a pretence that even a significant percentage of these animals are killed humanely. We need CCTV in slaughterhouses immediately. Then the public can decide what is acceptable.
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) :
– ask for support in an International issue. Ivory Stock piles. 50,000 elephants a year are poached. One is killed every 15 minutes … killed by poachers. The killing is driven by an illegal trade in Ivory. Selling ivory from stockpiles creates a smokescreen for illegal killing, an industry worth 11 billion pounds annually … and funds other illegal activities. Illegal wildlife trade. Prince Charles is on board. This is an IFAW priority.
Brian Davies (Network for Animals – and the original founder of IFAW) made the point that Labour has a better record with respect to animals than any other party in power. I, and other reps, made the point that, for us, independence from political affiliations was necessary for us to continue to do our job.
Well, it’s only a sketch, but, for the record, it’s a rough idea as to what is being sought, by people who care enough to petition, on behalf of those creatures who do not have a voice of their own.
Bri
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