Campaign and petition email responses

A Live Exports Ban

2 years since the Kept Animals Bill was introduced which the SNP supported, as well as the carry over motion, 3 DEFRA Ministers later, we are no further on banning foie gras and animal fur imports nor tackling illegal puppy and kitten smuggling. The SNP note the abysmal failures of the UK Gov to prioritise animal rights and welfare abuse mitigations.

The Kept Animals Bill received its first reading in June 2021, yet due to inner Tory Party turmoil, it has never made it to report stage, now the Tories have scrapped the Bill entirely.

The SNP are committed to protecting the welfare of animals and will continue to legislate to improve the welfare of animals in Scotland and within the UK. However, whilst the Scottish Government has experience in managing stringent animal welfare standards to the highest levels, matching EU ambitions, the UK lags & is in serious danger on renegading on animal welfare issues.

The SNP is consulting on proposals to improve animal transport legislation, whilst the Scottish Animal Welfare Committee is seeking to review welfare issues around numbers of abattoirs and their geographical distribution, slaughter journey times and the welfare of animals killed in mobile slaughterhouses.

In Scotland under the SNP, we continue to be a beacon on animal welfare rights across the UK and Europe on animal rights, with the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2021 and the Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023. In its Programme for Government, the SNP implemented the majority of recommendations on the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002 and further measures on preventing trail hunting. Whilst last year, it became a legal requirement for puppy, kitten and rabbit breeders to be licensed

Our DEFRA spokesperson Patricia Gibson MP, recently highlighted at Labour’s Opposition Day Debate on the Kept Animals Bill on June 21st 2023, the approaches the Scottish Government and the UK Government have taken, where we have led on animal welfare rights in the statute books in Scotland whilst also granting a legislative consent motion to the Kept Animals Bill in June 2021, whilst the UK Government renegades on their own Bill and the Animals Abroad Bill.

Patricia said: “The dropping of this Bill also means that the plans to ban live exports for slaughter and fattening from or through the UK, which all the major parties supported and which appeared in each of the manifestos in 2019, have also been dropped. That move was described by Compassion in World Farming as an unacceptable backtracking on animal welfare commitments, allowing this trade to continue.”

Unequivocally, the SNP will continue to stand up for animal rights and continue legislating for conservation and protections within law in Scotland, whilst SNP MPs in Westminster will continue to demand the UK Government follow our lead.