PROGRAMMES

The Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 are both turning 20 this year – yet animals are still being let down by weak interpretation and poor enforcement, with some excluded from the protections of both Acts altogether. These shortcomings mean the law is interpreted and applied arbitrarily.

In February, The Animal Law Foundation wrote to the Welsh, Scottish and UK governments alongside the League Against Cruel Sports and 60 other signatories, calling for a reset in how both Acts are interpreted and enforced.

UPDATE

Following the recent elections in Wales, The Animal Law Foundation has written again to the new Welsh government to ensure the issue remains on the agenda from the outset. We are also planning an event at the Welsh government (Senedd) later this year to maintain pressure and push for a reset.

Good news! Our work is making headlines!

Nation Cymru Charities urge Plaid Cymru to put animal welfare at heart of policy reform

Nation Cymru Plaid Cymru’s Welsh Government urged to improve animal protection measures

In December 2025, The Animal Law Foundation published the third edition of The Enforcement Problem – our annual analysis of enforcement data across the United Kingdom. For the third year running, the data revealed persistently low inspection rates, high non-compliance, and a widespread reluctance to use formal enforcement powers across the country.

UPDATE

Work is well underway on the fourth edition of The Enforcement Problem, which will incorporate data from 2025. As in previous years, we are gathering and analysing enforcement data from across the UK to build a comprehensive picture of how animal protection laws are being applied on the ground.

Good news! Our work is making headlines!

Animal Justice Project Animal Welfare Law is Failing Animals

The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 requires that crabs and lobsters are spared avoidable pain at the time of killing. Given that their sentience – the ability to feel pain – was formally acknowledged under the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, there is no justification for live boiling as a killing method.

We set out this argument in a legal letter to the government, pressing for enforcement of the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing Regulations 2015 for decapod crustaceans. December 2025 brought a significant milestone: an official recognition by the government that live boiling is indeed incompatible with current UK law.

UPDATE

While we await official guidance from the English government – making clear to industry and consumers that live boiling is both unacceptable and illegal – we will write to the Welsh and Northern Irish governments.

The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (Wales) Regulations 2014 contains the same provisions as its English equivalent, and we are calling on the newly elected Welsh Government to commit to enforcing them. A similar letter is being prepared for Northern Ireland, which has equivalent legal provisions. Scotland remains the only part of the UK without this protection.

For many years, the law protected chickens from being caught and carried upside down by their legs – a practice that causes great suffering. Without a diaphragm, an inverted chicken struggles to breathe, making the experience acutely distressing. Yet despite this legal protection, carrying chickens by their legs remained routine across the industry, with the government’s Codes of Practice unlawfully permitting the practice. We took legal action to address this contradiction.

Rather than aligning the Codes with the law, the government chose to amend the law itself to remove the prohibition and reduce protections for chickens and turkeys. We believe that the consultation underpinning that decision was neither fair nor genuinely open. In July 2025, the Court granted us permission to argue our case. In February 2026, we presented our case in full before a judge – the decision now rests with the Court.

UPDATE

We are awaiting the Court’s judgment, which is expected to arrive at any time. A ruling in our favour could see the government’s amendment quashed, restoring the original prohibition on handling chickens by their legs – and making the current Codes of Practice unlawful once again.

Around 85% of farmed animals in the UK are raised in industrial conditions. Yet, food labelling, advertising, TV shows and media coverage tell a very different story. Our Food Chain Misinformation report exposed how misleading depictions of farming pervade the food supply chain despite existing consumer protection laws.

In response, together with Compassion in World Farming and Humane World for Animals UK, we coordinated a cross-party letter signed by 22 MPs and members of the House of Lords urging Defra to introduce mandatory welfare labelling and stronger enforcement against misleading food marketing. We also backed an open letter led by Humane World for Animals to the BBC, calling on it to more accurately represent factory farming in its programming.

UPDATE

On 27 May, we contributed to an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealing a rise in so-called “battery cattle” farms in the UK – where cows are confined indoors around the clock. Unlike eggs, milk and cheese carry no equivalent welfare labelling, meaning consumers have no way of knowing how the animals behind their dairy products were kept. A single retailer can draw its milk from a large pool of suppliers, making it close to impossible for consumers to trace what they are buying – and denying them the opportunity to choose higher-welfare options. The article prompted calls for mandatory dairy labelling, adding further momentum to our wider work on food chain misinformation.

Read the article:

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism Does your milk come from ‘battery cows’? Our story prompts calls for new labelling rules

NEWS

A petition to create a public register of all offenders convicted of animal abuse has received over 200,000 signatures

A petition created by Bea Elton, calls for the creation of a public register of all offenders convicted of animal abuse and introduction of an automatic, lifetime ban on animal ownership for anyone convicted of animal neglect or abuse. As the petition received more than 100,000 signatures, the Petitions Committee will consider it for debate in Parliament. However, on 19th May, the government responded to the petition saying it “has no plans to introduce an animal abuse register, or an automatic lifetime ban for animal abusers because we already have similar provisions in place”.

Cornwall dairy farmer prosecuted for animal cruelty offences

A dairy farmer from Liskeard has been prosecuted at Truro Crown Court after admitting a series of animal cruelty offences. The farmer pleaded guilty to 13 offences relating to cows, including causing unnecessary suffering to a cow, failing to provide clean and well-drained lying areas, and failing to ensure the cows had a safe environment free from hazards. The prosecution was brought by Cornwall Council following repeated inspections by council officers and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). He received an 18-week custodial sentence, suspended for 18 months, and was banned from keeping all farmed animals for five years.