Animal Welfare

(asked on 7th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her Department's planned timescale is for bringing forward legislative measures from the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill.


Answered by
Mark Spencer Portrait
Mark Spencer
Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 14th November 2023

We are introducing the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill in this parliamentary session to deliver our manifesto commitment to end this trade. The Bill will ban the export of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and horses for slaughter and fattening from Great Britain, stopping unnecessary stress, exhaustion and injury caused by exporting live animals. We remain dedicated to delivering our other manifesto commitments that were in the Bill. These are: to crack down on the smuggling of puppies, and to ban the keeping of primates as pets. We have already consulted on primate keeping standards and will bring forward legislation before the end of the year. We also look forward to progressing the non-manifesto measures which will deliver a new offence of pet abduction, update legislation to tackle livestock worrying, and raise standards in zoos. We would be supportive of single issue legislation when Parliamentary time allows. We believe this to be the quickest and most effective way of achieving these aims.

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