From badger culls to sewage: Labour under pressure over animal-welfare and farming policies

Badger cull U-turn and lack of promises on factory farming, water pollution and wildlife support all prompt questions

Labour’s animal-welfare and environmental policies may be better than the Tories’ – but they contain disappointing gaps, experts say.

In a YouGov poll last year, a third of voters said animal welfare was one of their top three issues.

So new environment secretary Steve Reed will come under pressure from lobby groups – and in some cases, from opposing countryside and farming factions.

Nature-restoration pledges hold promise but nature-friendly farming should be encouraged, say experts (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The party’s manifesto promised to improve animal welfare, with bans on trail hunting and the import of hunting trophies, an end to puppy smuggling and farming, and to “work towards the phasing out of animal testing”.

It pledged a Labour government would “champion British farming whilst protecting the environment”.

Alongside environmental land-management schemes, the manifesto promised steps to eradicate bovine TB to end the “ineffective” badger cull. And there was a pledge to ban snares.

Steve Reed will come under pressure to make good on promises and more (Getty Images)

Mr Reed said Labour would introduce “the biggest boost in animal welfare in a generation”.

Many of the policies have been broadly welcomed by commentators – but already others are facing controversy, including:

Badger cull

Before the election, Labour damned the badger cull as “ineffective”, holding up the prospect of ending it.

But Mr Reed confirmed last week the government would allow existing cull licences to continue until 2026, saying an immediate end to the cull would send “sudden shocks into the system”.

Meanwhile, the Badger Trust and Wild Justice, a campaign group jointly run by Chris Packham, have sent a legal warning letter over Natural England’s decision before the election to grant nine new supplementary cull licences and to authorise 17 existing licences – contrary to the advice of Natural England’s own head of science.

Wild Justice said if the response was unsatisfactory it may seek a judicial review.

Dominic Dyer, ex-head of the Badger Trust and a defeated Lib Dem election candidate, said: “Never in the history of wildlife protection has there been such a betrayal of trust. After 13 years of waiting for a Labour government to stop this cruel madness, they are now planning to kill at least 30,000 more badgers.”

Industrial farming

Labour’s manifesto has been criticised for not mentioning factory farm animal welfare.

Alick Simmons, a former government deputy chief vet, writing for Wild Justice, said: “A pledge to address puppy farming while ignoring industrial pig and poultry farming does not strike me as a balanced manifesto.”

Around 8 million farm animals a year are kept in cages, mostly hens (Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)

Compassion in World Farming (CiWF) has lobbied all parties for a ban on cages, saying around 8 million farmed animals are kept in them each year in the UK. “The previous government said they’d prepared consultations on this issue, and we want to see them published,” it said.

The Liberal Democrats had pledged to ban cages for hens, while Labour did not.

CiWF also called for method-of-production food labelling, following a consultation earlier this year.

The Lib Dems were praised for a promise to crack down on antibiotic misuse for farm animals, and the new government will face calls to do so.

Wildlife and nature recovery

Green Party former co-leader Caroline Lucas said she was shocked by the lack of manifesto detail on restoring the natural world.

“As the bare minimum, where’s the increased budget for arms-length bodies like Natural England and the Environment Agency?” she asked. “Or the funding to enable landowners to return land to nature? Or the pay rise to help farmers shift to nature-friendly farming and tackle our broken agriculture system which is driving biodiversity loss?”

But environmental campaigners welcomed a pledge in the party’s pre-manifesto nature policies stating: “We will help coordinate nature’s recovery with bodies responsible for public land and major landowners.”

Guy Shrubsole said in a blog: “This may sound anodyne, but in fact could be one of the most significant policies – the first inklings of a Public Nature Estate: an idea that Wildlife and Countryside Link [a coalition of 82 organisations] have been calling for.”

The government has promised to coordinate nature recovery with major landowners (AFP via Getty Images)

Forest ranger Samuel Lindsay added: “Although the talk of habitat expansion is positive, this is a very vague statement. There are no clear targets or areas identified for this to be carried out.”

The manifesto promised to plant millions of trees, create new woodlands and expand wetlands, peat bogs and forests.

Mr Simmons said: “Sure, let’s get rid of snares but what about the numerous unaccountable and untested methods of killing wildlife such as Larsen traps, mole traps, Fenn traps and poisons that are on free sale for use by anyone?”

Trail hunting

Opponents and monitors say hunts break the law by fox hunting while claiming to be trail hunting – that is, following a scent without chasing wild animals.

The claims were lent weight by a hunt chief advising others to create a “smokescreen” by laying several trails. His words, during a leaked private Zoom meeting, were interpreted as an admission that foxhunting took place.

Mr Reed said in February that a Labour government would ban trail hunting in its first term, and the manifesto included a promise to ban trail hunting – but it did not promise to close loopholes in the Hunting Act 2004, which bans hunting wild animals with dogs.

Hunts say they lay scent trails (Getty Images)

A former head of the League Against Cruel Sports, Andy Knott, has cast doubt on achieving a ban through the Hunting Act.

“People have seen the images of packs of hounds getting into private back gardens, killing cats, ripping flocks apart. There’s not a majority in any part of the country that wants to see that continue,” Mr Reed told The Times before the election.

But Oliver Hughes, of governing body the British Hound Sports Association, told Horse & Hound that about 12,000 days of trail hunting took place in England and Wales each year, “with the vast majority taking place without any problems”.

Sewage scandal

Ms Lucas said: “Although Labour’s manifesto commits to tackling the sewage scandal, it fails to get to the heart of the matter – the unmitigated disaster that is our privatised water system. Water is a public good, so the Green Party would bring it back into public ownership.”

Mr Shrubsole criticised the plans for not mentioning agricultural river pollution.

“Farming’s significant contribution to the state of our rivers seems to be a taboo subject for nearly all parties competing in this election – with the notable exception of the Green Party,” he said.

Trade deals

Mr Dyer said a government priority should be suspending the UK’s £970m trade deal with the Faroe Islands to force the authorities to end the mass slaughter of whales and dolphins.

Dolphins and whales are still slaughtered by the Faroes (Sea Shepherd/SWNS)

Ciwf said animal welfare should be protected in trade deals by refusing imports of food produced in ways that are illegal in the UK. Labour has said it will do this.

British farmers complained that deals for cheap food imports under the Conservatives undermined their standards.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “The government set out its plans in the manifesto to introduce the most ambitious boost in animal-welfare rights in a generation.

“This includes banning trail hunting and the importing of hunting trophies, while also ending the badger cull, puppy smuggling and farming, and the use of snare traps.”