| Farm Animals

Farm animal welfare is one of the biggest challenges and there is a significant need to try to improve the welfare of the millions of animals within the agricultural system. There are a number of areas affecting farm animal welfare which can include diet, environment, husbandry, health, transport and slaughter to see what improvements can be made.

Key Issues

APGAW has been campaigning for some time to see a ban on live transport of animals and it is excellent news that the Government have now committed to banning this. We support local food production where animals are reared close to the point of production and we published a report into Small Abattoir Provision to ensure the infrastructure to support local small scale farming with short transport times. We support the objective to have the highest international welfare standards and to ensure these standards are protected within trade negotiations.  We do not want good welfare standards undermined by cheap imports produced to lower standards and APGAW will be working to prevent this.

APGAW supports labelling of meat with method of production and transparency around the way in which farm animals are reared and slaughtered. We oppose non-stun slaughter and our chair, Lord Trees, does a lot of work on ending this practice.

The Group is supportive of work around welfare outcomes and Health & Welfare Pathways and welcomes the Government’s inclusion of animal welfare as a public good. We believe there is a lot of scope to support high welfare production and will work with key stakeholders to keep seeking opportunities to lift standards for farm animals