On Wednesday, 4th March, alongside other leading animal protection organisations, CAWF jointly hosted a parliamentary drop-in event to urge the government to stop delaying the implementation of legislation that will ban the promotion and sale in England, Wales and Northern Ireland of cruel and exploitative animal experiences abroad.
We also co-signed a letter to the Prime Minister which was handed in to No10 Downing Street calling for action to give effect to the Animals(Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act which became law in 2023 with overwhelming cross-party support yet, astonishingly, it sits unimplemented due to the government’s failure to introduce the necessary activity regulations required to specify which low-welfare practices are covered by the Act are yet to be introduced.
Whilst the years of delay continue, so does the cruelty to many animals, with travel companies in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland still free to sell tickets to heartless animal experiences overseas, and so helping to financially encourage and perpetuate the abuse. These include:
- Elephant riding and bathing experiences which rely on elephant calves being torn away from their mothers and subjected to brutal training regimes including being beaten or stabbed with bull hooks, to make them submissive to human control. Elephants undergoing this treatment later frequently attack and harm humans.
- Captive whale and dolphin entertainment venues where highly intelligent marine mammals are forced to spend decades in tiny, barren tanks that fail to meet their most basic welfare needs. In the wild, dolphins have a home range of up to 400 square kilometres; in captivity, they can sadly swim just a few metres at a time.
- Big cat cub petting, where cubs are intensively bred, separated from their mothers shortly after birth, and some even have their teeth and claws painfully removed. Once they become too big to be handled by tourists, many are killed for their bones to be used in traditional medicine or sold for canned hunting.
Numerous tourists and other people have been violently killed and injured by abused captive wildlife.
The Low Welfare Act coalition comprises numerous leading animal welfare organisations including Born Free, Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, Marine Connection, PETA, Save the Asian Elephant (STAE), Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), and World Animal Protection, alongside over 100 organisations and individuals worldwide dedicated to tackling animal exploitation and abuse. Collectively, these organisations work to end the suffering of wild animals exploited for tourist entertainment.
A spokesperson for the Low Welfare Act Coalition said,
“The tourism industry responds to demand.
The longer travel companies are allowed to promote these cruel experiences through misleading. With glossy advertising, the more animals will be captured or bred to suffer for profit and entertainment. More than two years after this legislation was passed, its continued lack of enforcement represents a clear failure to protect animal welfare and to honour commitments made to the public.”
Lorraine Platt, CAWF Co-founder, said:
“If such practices are deemed too cruel to be permitted within our own borders, it is only right that we do not allow their products to be sold here either. The United Kingdom has long been regarded as a global leader in animal welfare. It should now uphold that standing by implementing this Act in full, and without further delay”.
#GetYourActTogether
About the Low Welfare Act Coalition
The Low-Welfare Act Coalition combines some 150 animal protection organisations and experts in conservation, animal welfare, academia, law and the world of celebrity in the UK and across the globe. It is committed to holding our Government to its promises to implement the landmark Animals Low-Welfare Activities Abroad Act 2023, passed with overwhelming public and Parliamentary support over two years ago. When implemented, the law will ban domestic sales and promotion of overseas practices that cruelly exploit enormous numbers of animals. It will throw a lifeline to many species battling extinction and represents a standard for all countries hosting or promoting unethical animal tourism markets to follow. This document, which has been provided to successive Secretaries of State for Environment, can be found at https://shorturl.at/qPBKX.