Animal Law News

Animal Law News

Proposed poultry standards leave Australia trailing behind other industrialised countries

Battery cages will not be phased out of Australia’s chicken farms, according to a draft of industry guidelines released this week.

The proposed Australian Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Poultry, currently open for public consultation, will if approved form the basis of federal and state legislation on poultry welfare.

A supporting paper to the standards argues that extra cage space does not guarantee better welfare for hens. Further, it claims that battery cages allow better inspection and more efficient...more >>

I'm a convicted terrorist

People usually laugh when I tell them I am a convicted terrorist.

I try not to open with that – it seems a little bit forward. First, I explain how my friend Tyler and I entered a fur farm in the dead of night. I describe the...more >>

Sick pay for time off to look after her ill dog

An Italian woman has won her battle to be granted sick pay for days she took off to look after her poorly dog, in a first for the pet-loving country.

The woman, a Rome academic, won her case with the help of lawyers from the...more >>

Queensland (Australia) council stands by $10 bounty for adult feral cat scalps

A Queensland local council will not back down on a controversial bounty that offers $10 for the scalps of feral cats, despite animal rights activists calling it cruel and unnecessary.

Banana shire introduced the bounty last month, which offers $10 for the scalp of an adult feral cat, and $5 for a kitten. Feral cats are estimated to kill 750,000 birds a day in Australia, and council staff said the bounty came in response to “an exploding population” of feral cats hunting native wildlife.

But People for the Ethical...more >>

Animal cruelty police force needed in Hong Kong

In the past four years, Hong Kong has done little to make animals better off, according to activists and law experts. No animal police squad has been set up, but more cruelty cases have been exposed, mainly by social media users.Experts said the recent case of a man throwing and kicking a dog in a Tuen Mun supermarket showed that current loose regulations were not serving as sufficient warnings for would-be offenders.

“The main problem is that we still don’t have a duty of care,” said Amanda Whitfort, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s...more >>

European live animal trade

Animal welfare is being neglected on long journeys across Europe amid a booming livestock trade, the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme found.

Livestock hauliers were found to routinely break EU laws for the protection of animals in transit.

It follows monitoring by welfare charities in Bulgaria, an EU entry point to Turkey and the Middle East.

The UK government said it would "take steps to control the export of live animals for slaughter" post-Brexit.

UK exports of live...more >>

What is the EU withdrawal bill? (Animal sentience)

Questions have been raised about the impact of Brexit on animal welfare. Relevant discussions include reference to the EU withdrawal bill.The EU Withdrawal Bill – once known as the Great Repeal Bill – is going through the House of Commons to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act and transpose all existing EU legislation into domestic UK law, which will avoid a 'cliff-edge' change on the day after we leave the EU.

Parts of the bill have been highly controversial, and MPs have tabled hundreds of amendments to try and change its wording...more >>

English MPs deny voting animals are not sentient

MPs have been forced to deny that a Commons vote last week means animals are not recognised in the UK as sentient life forms.

An amendment to the European Union (withdrawal bill to transfer the EU protocol on animal sentience into...more >>

UK law will specifically recognise animal sentience

Michael Gove has promised to make “any necessary changes” to UK law to recognise that animals can feel pain, after a social media campaign accused Conservative MPs of voting down proposals to accept they are sentient beings.

The environment secretary issued a statement to the House of Commons insisting that it was a misconception to say Tory MPs voted against the idea that animals are sentient and feel pain.

But he clarified that the government was now looking at making UK law specifically recognise animal sentience,...more >>

Dogs raced against cheetahs

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