A Compassionate World

Regular readers of my blog will know I believe in a comprehensive approach to achieving our mission of feeding the world’s population in 2050 without factory farming. This undertaking is not only good for animal welfare but also provides environmental benefits, including promoting biodiversity and reducing pollution, as well as advantages to our health and well-being.

Included in our comprehensive approach is the need to commission and publish authoritative research, to raise awareness of the issues and mobilise public support, along with engaging with food companies big and small. But, as I wrote in October and again in March we must also raise the political profile of farm animal welfare.

With the starting gun now fired on the general election campaign in Britain, we have a real opportunity to raise farm animal issues with the potential parliamentarians of the future. I should stress that I am not talking here about party politics, or about choosing one party over another. What I am saying is that the election brings us is a great opportunity to speaking up for chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys and other animals raised for food in this country, and ensure that the next Parliament is better placed to advance their needs.

The issues that we are focusing on in our coalition in the Vote Cruelty Free campaign are:

1. Export of animals for slaughter or fattening should be brought to an end.
2. ‘Enriched’ cages for egg laying hens should be prohibited.
3. Government must enforce the EU legislation requiring pigs to be provided with enrichment materials and prohibiting routine tail docking.
4. Animal welfare should be seen as one of the core objectives of Government food policy.

Specifically, here’s what I’m asking you to do between now and the election on Thursday, May 6:

1. Take every opportunity possible, from your front door to local public meetings, to ask your candidates for their opinion on the above four demands.
2. Write letters to your local newspaper and call in to your local radio station to let other people know you will vote for the candidate who speaks out the most for farmed animals. Remember! You don’t have to tell anyone who that will be!
3. Use social networks (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, You Tube) to promote Compassion and reach even more people with our four demands. More information here.
4. Speak personally with family, friends and colleagues to let them know that farm animal welfare matters to you and will determine who you will vote for.

If every one of our tens of thousands of supporters speak out for the four demands for farmed animals in the ways suggested, every parliamentary candidate in every constituency will know that if they are elected to Parliament we will be knocking their door, dialling their number and sending them email on Friday, May 7 and every day thereafter asking them what have you done for farmed animals today?

Although the UK general election must be held on or before 3 June, it is increasingly likely that it will take place on Thursday, May 6 when local elections are already scheduled to occur. This means the general election could be less than two months away. In October I wrote about our involvement with the Vote Cruelty Free campaign. Our goal in this campaign is to ensure that the political process reflects public concern for animal welfare. So far, more than 225 Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) have signed up in support of the Vote Cruelty Free manifesto.

We recently held a reception at the House of Commons to promote the Vote Cruelty free campaign. This is run by a non-partisan coalition, which also includes the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, International Fund for Animal Welfare and Respect for Animals. The reception provided us with a good opportunity to meet with existing MPs, PPCs and representatives from the political parties.

Representatives from the Conservative, Green, Labour and Liberal Democrat Parties were among the guests. Representatives from each party were invited to say why they thought animal welfare was an important political issue.

The event was hosted by Bob Russell, Liberal Democrat MP for Colchester, who welcomed everyone to the reception. He spoke for many of us in saying the welfare of animals was so important that it shouldn’t be party political. He talked about the campaign against live exports, which Compassion helped to lead in the 1990s, when its focus was on the small port of Brightlingsea near his constituency. He drew the parallel between this and the proposed “super” dairy in Lincolnshire, which we are campaigning against today.

Liberal Democrat LordRupert Redesdale was the first representative to speak on behalf of the four political parties. Lord Redesdale asked us to remember the House of Lords as part of Parliament and urged us to work with them on animal welfare issues.

Veterinary surgeon Caroline Allen from the Green Party stated their support for our report, Eating the Planet, which we co-produced with Friends of the Earth. The Green Party’s policy is to phase out factory farming and promote grass-based pastoral and permaculture systems. The Green Party, she said, is very committed to animal welfare.

Stalwart animal welfare campaigner Roger Gale, Conservative MP for North Thanet and President of the Conservative Animal Welfare Group, also spoke about the cross-party political significance of animal welfare. Referring to the Vote Cruelty Free manifesto which included an unequivocal statement opposing the seal hunt in Canada, he said he was saddened by how some of the issues remain stubbornly on the agenda, despite years of public outcry.

Labour Animal Welfare Minister Jim Fitzpatrick reviewed the government’s track record (including its part in EU bans on barren battery cages and sow stalls). He went on to announce that the Government plans additional steps on so-called dangerous dogs, wild animals in circuses, game birds and farm animal welfare standards in Public Sector Food Procurement.

I was encouraged by these positive expressions of support. I believe there is scope for us to make further progress on animal welfare, whichever party forms the next government. Our particular focus will be on the following demands from the Vote Cruelty Free manifesto:

• Export of animals for slaughter or fattening should be brought to an end
• ‘Enriched’ cages for egg laying hens should be prohibited
• Government must enforce the EU legislation requiring pigs to be provided with enrichment materials and prohibiting routine tail docking
• Animal welfare should be seen as one of the core objectives of Government food policy.

As the Election draws ever nearer, please join our Vote Cruelty Campaign. Have the Prospective Parliamentary Candidates in your constituency signed up? To find out if they have, go to Vote Cruelty Free now!

With the annual season of party political conferences in the UK now behind us, the country’s attention now begins to focus on the forthcoming general election. This is due to be held on or before 3 June 2010. There’s a strong probability that it may take place on 6 May. This is when local elections are already scheduled to occur. It’s the Prime Minister’s prerogative to decide when the election will take place. Customarily, there are only four to six weeks between when a general election is announced and when it takes place. The months between now and whenever the general election will be in 2010 are a particularly important time for us to get across to policy makers what needs to be done to stop farm animal suffering.

There’s nothing like a general election to focus the country’s attention on its future. These are the times when we, the electorate, raise issues of concern with candidates as we decide who we’ll vote for. Animal welfare is, of course, a political issue. Compassion is strictly non-party political. That said, we do encourage all candidates, whatever their political colour, to recognise the value in advancing animal welfare. New laws are as much needed today as they ever were to protect farm animals from the worst aspects of factory farming.

I’m proud to tell you that Compassion is a founding member of a brand new coalition, Vote Cruelty Free, which I urge you to support today!

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, International Fund for Animal Welfare, League Against Cruel Sports, Respect for Animals and Compassion founded this new non-partisan coalition to ensure the political process reflects public concern for animal welfare. We have put together a manifesto which addresses wild and marine animals, animal experimentation, cruel sports, the fur trade and farming. Compassion, of course, contributed the farm animal welfare aspects of this coalition manifesto. We believe that working together with colleagues in other parts of the animal welfare movement and engaging directly with candidates and elected officials is an effective way to achieve positive change for animals in the political arena.

And we are already having an effect. At this early stage, over 100 parliamentary candidates have pledged their support for ‘Vote Cruelty Free’. Our presence at the major party conferences, where we had a joint stand and held fringe meetings, will have helped raise the profile of animal welfare issues amongst the politicians of both today and tomorrow.

Our demands aren’t overly ambitious. In fact, they’re realistic and entirely reasonable. For example, we call for a ban on ‘enriched cages’ (barren battery cages will be banned from 2012) in favour of well-designed barn and free-range systems to be used instead. This is a call that is already being embraced by local authorities across the country. Some 40 councils have now taken the pledge to be a ‘cage-free council’ on eggs, 22 already having received our Good Egg Award. These leading local authorities have committed to ditch the battery cage egg in favour of eggs from hens kept more freely, such as barn or free-range.

Quite simply, we must be the animals’ voice in the coming general election. This is why I ask you to visit Vote Cruelty Free today and learn more about how you can make a difference for animals at the ballot box. Thank you so much.