New Animal Welfare Bill in the UK

An Animal Welfare Bill is expected to be passed in the UK. It will create a new offence of intentionally disregarding the welfare of an animal considered to be a pet. The bill introduces some provisions, which will deal with animal housing and environment, their diet, their disease and protection from suffering, among other stipulations.

Once introduced, the Bill would constitute the background for further, secondary, legislation, that will be approved in the future order to introduce different codes for different animals. As an example of how this would be carried out, a “cat code” has been proposed. This would include particular stipulations on how cats should be treated.

A segment of the public sometimes see such regulations as ridiculous, perceiving that nonhuman animals are “better treated than humans”. Of course this is not the case, since even those animals that are considered “ pets” are not actually free but belong to their owners. Many animals suffer in “ pet shops” and their offspring are killed if no more animals are desired. In any case, this bill offers a sharp contrast with the animal plight we have presented earlier in this newsletter. Some nonhumans are treated as simple objects while others are shown some sort of respect.

From: http://speciesism.org/