Target: U.K. Environment Secretary, Elizabeth Truss
Goal: Applaud abandonment of proposal to allow the animal agriculture industry to self-regulate and urge the strengthening of current animal welfare codes instead.
Plans to scrap welfare guidelines in Britain’s farming industry will not go ahead, sparing millions of animals even more suffering than they currently endure. Thanks to a huge public backlash and strong campaigning, including by the ForceChange community, the British government has decided against allowing the animal agriculture industry to self-regulate. Allowing the industries that profit from animals raised for food to pick their own guidelines would have resulted in even worse treatment of these helpless beings.
According to Andrew Tyler, the director of Animal Aid: “Suffering and exploitation are already integral to animal farming. To deregulate and dilute what slender protection currently exists would have been monstrous.” Instead of scrapping current guidelines, higher welfare standards and greater transparency are desperately needed in animal agriculture.
Sign this petition applauding the abandonment of this dangerous plan and demand that higher standards of animal welfare be implemented instead.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Ms. Truss,
We welcome the government’s decision to abandon its plans to repeal animal welfare guidelines. Scrapping these vital welfare standards would have led animals raised for food to suffer even more than they currently do. Allowing the industry that profits from these animals to self-regulate and therefore decide what level of abuse it can inflict on defenseless beings would have been, as Animal Aid rightly puts it, “monstrous.”
The massive uproar that followed the announcement of this dangerous plan serves to prove how much the British public cares about animal welfare. Instead of regulations being scrapped, they urgently need to be tightened in order to ensure better care and more transparency on the part of the industry. We strongly urge you to not only vastly strengthen animal welfare standards, but also encourage farmers to move towards cruelty-free and plant-based food production.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo credit: Sangamithra Iyer and Wan Park
