23 June 2023 – Seven years to the day since the Brexit referendum a new report, released today, reveals that the Government has failed to deliver its promise to ‘revolutionise’ animal welfare* post-Brexit, as a string of stalled and dropped legislation leaves millions of animals at risk, reveals a new report. 

Throughout the Brexit process, the nation was promised that the UK’s departure from the EU would provide the opportunity for a fundamental rethink of how we treat animals in the UK. But, on the seventh anniversary of the referendum animal protection groups from the coalition #BetterDealForAnimals including Compassion in World Farming, Born Free, FOUR PAWS UK, Humane Society International/UK and RSPCA have released a report together with Wildlife and Countryside Link and the UK Centre for Animal Law (A-Law) highlighting the failure to improve the lives of companion, wild and farmed animals.   

In May 2021, DEFRA released its Action Plan for Animal Welfare, in which the Government recognised leaving the European Union was an ‘opportunity to do things better’ for animals and promised to ‘revolutionise’ our treatment of animals. 

However, just last month the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, which has been languishing in Parliament for the past two years, was dropped from the political agenda. This vital legislation would have, amongst other welfare measures, tackled live animal exports, the illegal puppy trade, reforms to zoo licensing and the keeping of primates as pets and, whilst the latter is slated to be addressed in secondary legislation, the other topics have all but been pushed aside. Now the future of the improvements that were contained within the Bill will now need to be addressed through a series of single issue Bills, including precarious Private Members’ Bills. 

The report released today ‘A Review of Brexit; getting the best Brexit deal for animals’ looks at changes in the law post-Brexit and then addresses the progress, or lack thereof, for animals used in research, wild animals, animals in agriculture and domesticated animals. The report ranks each area against the recommendations from the #BetterDealForAnimals 2018 report, which highlighted a number of recommendations to improve animal welfare post Brexit, as well as the Conservative Party's own promises in its 2021 Action Plan for Animal Welfare. The report's Risk Barometer ranks most areas orange or red, highlighting that little progress has been made and the urgent need for increased animal welfare protections through improved legislation. 

Paula Sparks, Chairperson of the UK Centre for Animal Law: 

“Whilst there has been some progress in areas such as the new farming subsidy system, areas such as wildlife opportunities have not been taken to introduce improvements. Overall there is a huge contrast between the vision painted by the Action Plan for Animal Welfare and the reality as the end of the Parliament session approaches. The Government must act swiftly to deliver its promises to a new era of animal welfare advances.”