Animal welfare laws leave a lot to be desired in England, however looking on the bright side, they are a lot better here than many other places. You can of course call the RSPCA (for both concerns for pets and farm animals) and most towns have a wildlife rescue (vets can also help, treatment is free sponsored by others, so take injured creatures there if you can’t find a local rescue).
Recently, Rishi Sunak reversed one of the good things that Boris Johnson did as Prime Minister and decided not to go ahead with one of the most forward-thinking animal welfare package of laws ever seen. Whatever your views of him, Tory MP Zac Goldsmith resigned saying he was ‘horrified that the kept animals bill has been diteched, and efforts on a wide range of domestic environmental issues have halted).
The RSPCA and British Veterinary Association were also appalled, as the Bill would have tackled puppy smuggling, ban import of dogs with cropped ears and review zoo standards, among other things. Thankfully there is a new breed in town called ‘animal law’ (inspired by the USA’s Animal Legal Defense Fund where lawyers specialise in not only helping animals legally, but trying to improve animal welfare laws.
Advocates for Animals is the first UK law firm dedicated to animal protection. This nonprofit works with individuals, animal groups and activists on a wide range of legal areas, and also helps enforce and protect animal protection law.
A-Law offers lawyers who collectively donate hundreds of hours each year to run the charity, with everyone working remotely, so there are no admin costs and donations go straight to help. You can find tons of info on the site and there’s also an animal welfare podcast.
Blue Cross is an up-to-date resource on dog law, which is very complicated since implication of the disastrous Dangerous Dogs Act (which goes by breed, not deed). The best way to prevent tragic incidents is to train dogs with kindness (neutering can help reduce aggression) and know how to help prevent dog bites.
a different kind of lobbying
We all hear about lobbyists, jobs that the late author David Graeber called ‘bullshit jobs’ (ones that don’t really exist but are made up to keep the status quo). Instead, we love Lobbyists for Good. In the realm of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’, here you can state the cause you wish to help, and lobbyists will then try to create change for the animals or any other good cause.
It works a bit like crowdfunding. You start or find a cause then pool small donations to fund a professional lobbyist, who then looks at the current laws and proposed legislation, comes up with a plan and uses their contents to find supporters/opponent politicians to create new legislation (and help rally votes). The organisation is American, but there’s no reason why something similar would not work here. Who’s ready to set one up? The template site’s already there for you to copy (and likely they will be thrilled that you did!)
