Animal Welfare (Kept
Animals) Bill
The purpose of the Bill is to:
● Deliver manifesto commitments to strengthen animal welfare,
including banning live exports, tackling puppy smuggling and
banning the keeping of primates as pets without a licence.
The main benefits of the Bill would be:
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● Taking opportunities presented by Brexit to go
further in improving our animal welfare standards and taking
forward key parts of the Action Plan for Animal Welfare.
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● Improving the lives of farm animals, pets and kept
wild animals by ending unnecessary journeys for slaughter and
fattening and addressing the serious issue of dog attacks on
livestock, which cause distress to both livestock and
farmers.
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● Improving the lives of pets in this country and
protecting pet owners by cracking down on the cruel practice
of puppy smuggling and creating a specific new offence for
pet abduction.
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● Ensuring that kept wild animals receive the
specialist care they need, whether that be animals in zoos or
primates that are kept privately.
The main elements of the Bill are:
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● Banning the exports of livestock for fattening and
slaughter.
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● Strengthening powers for police to deal with
incidents of livestock worrying.
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● Tackling puppy smuggling by reducing the number of
pets that can travel under the pet travel rules and powers to
take further action, including raising the minimum age that
pets can travel into Great Britain and banning imports of
dogs with cropped ears and docked tails.
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● Introducing a new pet abduction offence to reflect
the value we place on our pets.
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● Creating a rigorous licensing scheme for those
keeping primates requiring them to meet high welfare
standards and ensuring higher protections for all primates
that are not kept in zoos.
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● Updating the Zoo Licensing Act 1981 to improve
enforcement and strengthen conservation requirements for
zoos.
Territorial extent and application
● The Bill will extend and apply in the main to Great Britain,
with one provision extending and applying across the UK.
Key facts
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● The Government has an ambitious agenda to
revolutionise the welfare and treatment of animals at home
and abroad, as set out in the Action Plan for Animal Welfare
published last year.
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● Already in this Parliament, the Animal Welfare
(Sentencing) Act, the Animals (Penalty Notices) Act, Glue
Traps (Offences) Act, and the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act
have all received Royal Assent, demonstrating the
Government’s ongoing commitment to upholding world-leading
animal welfare standards.
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● We are also committed to legislation to ban the
import of hunting trophies from thousands of species. This
will be one of the toughest bans in the world, and goes
beyond our manifesto commitment, meaning we will be leading
the way in protecting endangered animals and helping to
strengthen and support long-term conservation.
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● The shortest direct to slaughter export journey from
the UK to continental Europe in 2018 was a journey time of 18
hours.
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● In 2020, around 6,300 sheep were exported for
slaughter from Great Britain to the EU and around 38,000
sheep were exported for fattening; no cattle or pigs were
exported for slaughter or fattening in 2020 from Great
Britain to the EU.
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● Puppy smuggling is often associated with serious
welfare issues. In 2020, 975 dogs that were found to be
non-compliant with existing animal health and welfare
legislation were imported. This was an increase from 196 dogs
in 2019.
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● There are up to an estimated 5,000 unlicensed
primates being kept in England. In response to Defra’s
consultation on Primates as Pets, only 19 respondents out of
4,516 (0.4 per cent) were opposed to licence holders having
an exemption from the ban on keeping primates.
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● The cost of dog attacks on livestock in 2021 was
£1.52 million. This is up from £1.3 million in 2020.
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● In May 2021 the Government launched the Pet Theft
Taskforce to investigate the apparent rise in pet theft since
the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Taskforce found that
around 2,000 dog theft crimes were reported to police in
2020, causing considerable distress to owners.
