It has taken two centuries of exhausting campaigning to halt a few of the worst abuses of animals within the UK. The baiting of bears and bulls has been banned, commerce in wild birds curtailed, fur farms outlawed, and wild animals prohibited from being displayed in circuses.
Yet the creatures with whom we share the nation nonetheless endure at our palms. Indeed, they’ve by no means confronted a extra worrying future than they do now, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) has warned because it prepares to have a good time its two hundredth birthday.
“With threats of climate change, industrial farming, war in Europe, wildlife loss, the cost of living crisis and the legacy of the pandemic, all animals face unprecedented challenges,” RSPCA chief executive Chris Sherwood said last week.
Having battled for the last 200 years to set up laws to safeguard animal welfare, the RSPCA – set to launch its anniversary celebrations this week – is still facing serious problems in trying to protect them from the worst ravages of modern life. These include the continuing export of live animals from the UK; foxhunting, which still occurs illegally; and the grim lives led by factory-farmed chickens.
“The last on that list is probably the most important,” adds Emma Slawinski, the society’s director of coverage. “We slaughter about a billion chickens in the UK every year – an extraordinary number. It is very difficult to envisage the scale of that.
“Yet we never see these creatures, despite their vast numbers, because they are locked into incredibly cramped spaces. They are also genetically selected to grow incredibly quickly. We get through them at an extraordinary rate because they are bred to produce the maximum amount of meat in the fastest possible time.
“Factory-farmed chickens live absolutely horrible lives; their suffering is the single biggest animal welfare issue facing the country at present.”
The RSPCA is the world’s oldest animal charity. It was shaped at a gathering in a London espresso home – on a web site now occupied by a Pret a Manger – in 1824 by a bunch that included the anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce; Arthur Broome, a London vicar; and the Irish MP Richard Martin who, two years earlier, had pioneered the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822, the primary animal welfare legislation accepted by any nation. Sibling organisations had been created in Ireland and Scotland not lengthy afterwards.
Eleven years after the RSPCA’s formation, the society helped to advertise the Cruelty To Animals Act – launched by the Quaker MP Joseph Pease who had put it to parliament in 1835. It was handed to ban cruelty to dogs and different home animals and paved the way in which to the banning of “a host of other horrors”, as Slawinski places it. These included the baiting of bulls and bears, a “sport” that concerned chaining animals to posts or partitions so they may then be attacked by dogs, and cockfighting – by which pairs of roosters, typically fitted with steel spurs, had been inspired to kill one another.
“The Pease Act did not eradicate these so-called sports because the drafting of the law was incomplete, but it marked the beginning of the end for them,” adds Slawinski. “It was a crucial piece of legislation.”
Other measures that have since been supported by the society include laws that provide protection for laboratory animals, regulations to control the selling of pets in open markets, and legislation that enforced the licensing of zoos.
In addition, the Animal Welfare Act of 2006 put the onus on owners to provide proper housing and feeding and to prevent harm from occurring to their animals. “Before then, the law worked reactively. We could only prosecute once an animal had suffered,” says Slawinski. “That law made a major difference.”
These changes have been supported by the British public, which has been enthusiastic about protecting the nation’s animals. However, there’s nonetheless a disconnect when fascinated with species. People go away meals for hedgehogs however deal with foxes as vermin. Others marvel at birds similar to kites or jays however ignore the plight of factory-farmed chickens that reside brief, insufferable lives.
And whereas we now not pay money to look at dogs struggle chained bears, we nonetheless put bets on greyhounds even if many of those dogs are stored in tiny kennels for many of their lives and obtain little in the way in which of healthcare. Despite two centuries of progress, therapy of British animals nonetheless leaves so much to be desired, in different phrases.
The disaster going through our pets and livestock has been intensified by the surge in pet possession which occurred throughout the pandemic and the following lockdowns. This was adopted by the cost of residing disaster and an abrupt rise in deserted pets. In 2020, the society recorded 16,000 circumstances of deserted animals. The complete determine for 2023 is predicted to be round 21,000.
“It is obvious that we still have major hurdles to overcome in ensuring our animals are all treated in humane ways,” mentioned Slawinski. “On the other hand, it is also clear we have come a long way, and that should give us encouragement for the future.”
