P-05-916 Adequate funding to protect the welfare of farm animals in Welsh slaughterhouses
P-05-916 Adequate funding to protect the welfare of farm animals in Welsh slaughterhouses
P-05-916 Adequate
funding to protect the welfare of farm animals in Welsh slaughterhouses
This
petition was submitted by David Grimsell having collected 110 signatures online
and 1,039 on paper, a total of 1,149 signatures.
Text of Petition
We call on the Welsh
Government to provide adequate funding to protect the welfare of farm animals
at the time of their slaughter in Wales.
The Welfare of Animals at
the Time of Killing (Wales) Regulations 2014 are meant to provide protection to
animals at the time of their slaughter. To do so, they must be properly applied
and enforced by the Food Standards Agency (FSA), and there must be sufficient
funding for it to be able to carry out its duties under the Regulations.
At the moment the Welsh
Government provides the FSA with only £20,000 per annum to protect animal
welfare at slaughter across at least 23 Welsh slaughterhouses jointly slaughtering
tens of millions of animals each year. This is a pitiful amount and entirely
inadequate to cover all that is required including effective monitoring of
welfare practice, investigation, enforcement, legal advice, and the staffing to
do so. The amounts provided are far below what the FSA has itself indicated (in
Board papers) that it needs to carry out its duties regarding welfare of
animals at slaughter.
There is much evidence
from undercover investigations in slaughterhouses elsewhere in the UK that welfare
regulations are frequently breached and that many animals suffer abuse. There
is no reason to suppose that these risks do not also arise in Welsh
slaughterhouses.
The public has a right to
expect that welfare regulations are thoroughly and consistently applied. The
Welsh Government must urgently review its funding of the FSA for this purpose,
and significantly increase funding to protect animal welfare at slaughter
without delay.
Status
This
petition was considered completed by the Petitions Committee at its meeting on
03/11/2020.
The
Committee considered the current list of debates requested and agreed to no
longer seek a debate on its report on P-04-433 CCTV in Slaughterhouses and
P-05-916 Adequate funding to protect the welfare of farm animals in Welsh
slaughterhouses, which was published in January 2020 but was not able to be
debated at that time. In light of the time that has now passed, the Committee
agreed to close the petitions and thank the petitioners for their engagement.
Full
details of the consideration of this petitions by the committee and related
documents can be seen on the Meetings tab above.
It
was first considered by the Petitions Committee on 19/11/2019.
Assembly Constituency and
Region
- Ceredigion
- Mid and West Wales
Further
information
Business type: Petition
Reason considered: Senedd Business;
Status: Complete
First published: 08/11/2019
Documents