The Conservative Party and Animal Welfare
Animal Protection Performance
Since the last General Election in 2005, PAD has promoted 16 Early Day Motions (EDMs) in the House of Commons calling for improved animal protection. Early Day Motions are like petitions for MPs.
The Conservatives were by far the least supportive of animal protection EDMs out of the three main parties. Although they make up 31% of MPs, Conservatives accounted for only 10% of the support for EDMs. In our index, the score 1 signifies the average animal protection commitment of the three main parties: the Conservatives only score 0.32.
The Conservative Party website does not have an animal welfare policy section at time of writing. They are also calling for the culling of grey squirrels and badgers.
Hunting
The Conservatives want to repeal the ban on hunting and have pledged to devote Parliamentary time to achieve this if they form the next Government.
Democratic Reform
Although the Conservative Animal Welfare Spokesman Andrew Rosindell MP has expressed interest in our campaign for an Animal Protection Commission or similar Government body to remedy the bias against animal protection in Government policy-making, Conservative MPs have shown little support for the idea. Many MPs dismiss the idea out of hand as running counter to their overall aim of reducing Government bureaucracy.
However, there is no reason to assume that an Animal Protection Commission would create additional administration, because it could involve a reorganisation of existing administration. Furthermore, it would be possible to devote more Government resources to animal protection, while reducing overall spending. Just because total spending is reduced, doesn’t mean that every single little sector of spending has to decrease. Indeed, it would be grossly simplistic to say it would.
The stated reasons for opposing this proposal are clearly flawed and, in any case, the Conservatives are actually proposing to set up new bodies in other policy areas. At the time of writing we are waiting to see if Mr Rosindell’s interest turns into anything concrete.
Farming
The Conservatives claim to strongly support the forthcoming ban on conventional battery cages. However, they appear to be tolerant of so-called ‘enriched’ battery cages rather than being opposed to any caging of laying hens.
More broadly on animal farming, it is difficult to locate any specific promises that would directly alleviate any animal suffering. The Conservatives have also reacted rather hysterically to the idea that the Government should heed scientific advice and promote meat-free diets. They claim this would involve ‘dictating’ what people should eat, when clearly this is about education, not legislation.
The Conservatives are proposing an ‘Honest Food Campaign’ to provide clearer labelling of food’s country of origin. They claim this will help animal welfare by making it easier for consumers to identify meat and dairy from Britain as opposed to countries with supposedly crueller farming conditions.
Animal Experimentation
The Conservatives say they want to see a gradual phasing out of animal testing and are committed to the 3 ‘R’s of ‘Refinement, Reduction and Replacement’. They say they concerned at the upward trend in animal experiments, which has risen from 2.6 million in 2001 to 3.7 million in 2008. However, the only specific measure they propose so far is ending animal testing of household products, which accounts for just 132 experiments, or less than 0.000004% of the total.
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