World Animal Protection welcomes the Green Party’s newly announced plans to make improvements for animals in their election manifesto.

We are delighted to see the Green Manifesto pledge to ending factory farming, which is the biggest cause of animal suffering in the world and drives the climate crisis, pollution and the destruction of habitats. We need a food system with respect for animals and nature  at its heart, which is equitable, sustainable, resilient, and capable of feeding the world. There is no future for factory farming.

Key measures in the Green Party’s protecting animals plan 

• An end to factory farming, enforcement of maximum stocking densities, and no routine use of antibiotics in farm animals. 

• A complete ban on close confinement in cages and the deliberate and unnecessary mutilation of farm animals. 

•  The creation of a new Commission on Animal Protection. 

• A ban on all blood sports, including trail hunting. 

• All UK domestic and overseas territorial waters to offer the highest level of protection to marine life. 

• An end to badger culling. 

Other key actions World Animal Protection need to see from the next government  

Whichever party forms the next government, we want to see take action to stop wild animals being cruelly exploited as commodities by the global systems that profit from it. This includes reintroducing a government-backed bill to ban the import of hunting trophies from endangered species. 

The Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act, which has made the domestic sale and promotion of certain low-welfare activities abroad illegal in parts of the UK, must be implemented comprehensively by the next government to include activities such as elephant riding, dolphin entertainment, and tourist interactions with big cats, great apes, and sloths.   

Additionally, there is an urgent need to ban the import, transshipment, and sale of fashion products made from wild animals, such as fur, wild animal skins, and feathers. Wild animals cannot have their basic welfare needs met in captivity. These products are either illegal to produce in the UK or made under unacceptably low welfare conditions abroad which would not be permitted in the UK.  

It’s encouraging that animal welfare has been prioritised in this way and is now on the political agenda and we eagerly anticipate other party’s commitments to animals.