1 Oct 2026
Concerns have also been raised about a ‘two-tier’ framework that excludes certain animals from legislative protection
Allister Webb
Job Title
A new report has urged lawmakers to “put animals back” into welfare legislation, amid fears of a “two-tier” protection system based on the current approach.
The Animal Law Foundation has warned many animals are still not being properly protected 20 years after the Animal Welfare Act was passed into law.
But the new document, marking the law’s anniversary, insisted its provisions can still provide the basis for significant progress.
Executive director Edie Bowles wrote: “The task is not simply to put new words into animal welfare law. It is to put animals back into the law we already have.”
The report, published on 24 September, outlines four main areas for action including a fresh commitment to what it calls “purposive interpretation” of the legislation which challenges harmful practices.
It also calls for increased enforcement capacity to close what the foundation claimed is a “gulf between legal protection on paper and animals’ experience in practice”, plus a wider shift in the understanding and treatment of animals, including a greater willingness to “question practices that cause harm”.
But it also argued that the “coherence” of the framework was undermined by the exclusion of certain categories, including many invertebrate species and wild animals which are not controlled by humans, from protection.
Emma Slawinski, executive director of the League Against Cruel Sports, described that situation as both “illogical and unjustified”.
She said: “Excluding animals not ‘under the control of man’ creates a two-tier system of protection, allowing responsibility for welfare to be abandoned when animals are most vulnerable.”
The strengths and flaws of the current legislative framework may now carry greater significance as a result of the pledges contained in the Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy published last December.
Although Defra has so far not responded to the report’s recommendations, the strategy stressed a commitment to “safeguarding the welfare of animals for the long term”.
But Ms Bowles warned the strategy could only bring about improvements if its pledges are implemented and the anniversary offered “a unique opportunity” for delivery.
She said: “The Animal Welfare Act should be one of the principal tools for doing that.
“It already contains powerful duties to prevent unnecessary suffering and meet animals’ welfare needs. The Government must now ensure those duties shape regulation, guidance and enforcement.”