An Animal Welfare Strategy for England: New Measures to Improve the Lives of Domesticated and Wild Animals
Emma Reynolds, Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, launched the UK Government’s ‘Animal Welfare Strategy for England’ on 22 December 2025. This strategy befits a country of animal lovers with a “long history of supporting animal welfare” and has been justified by the overarching belief that “animals are sentient beings, capable of feeling pain, fear, pleasure and joy.” As outlined in the document, there are around 150 million farmed animals in England at any time, alongside over 35 million pets across the UK. The livestock sector contributes £20.1 billion to the UK economy, while the UK pet care market is worth an estimated £8.2 billion.
Animals coexist with humans in various contexts across the world- either mutually beneficial or for the sole benefit of humans- as livestock animals (reared for meat, milk, eggs, furs, hides, and wool), companion animals (pets), working animals (military/police dogs, assistance dogs, farm dogs, guard dogs), kept wild animals (zoos and aquariums), animals used in sport (horse racing), performing animals (circuses, films, television), and laboratory animals (medical research; chemical, drug, and device safety testing). Some of these options do not apply to England, where fur farming has been banned since 2000, live animals cannot be exported for slaughter and fattening, and wild animals cannot be used in travelling circuses.
With respect to pets, the Animal Welfare Strategy specifically targets commercial dog breeding (puppy farms), loopholes in pet travel laws that enable puppy smuggling, and poor welfare standards in rescue centres. Private renters are being urged to allow pets to stay with tenants in rental properties. At the same time, promotion of responsible dog ownership is meant to reduce the risk of unprovoked dog attacks on humans.
Measures intended to promote the welfare of wild animals in England include bans on trail hunting, on illegal snares and traps, and on the shooting of hares during their breeding season (February to October). Trail hunting is distinct from drag hunting, an established form of hunting which is more of an equestrian activity. While out trail hunting, huntsmen on horseback follow large packs of hounds along a scent trail or trails that have been laid half an hour or more in advance. The scent is often described as being animal-based, such as a cloth soaked in fox urine, but may also be oil-based and produced artificially. Trail hunting was introduced in response to the Hunting Act 2004’s ban on the hunting of wild mammals with dogs- a ban which does not extend to Northern Ireland. The Act came into effect on 18 February 2005 to take the place of, and replicate, traditional fox hunting while maintaining existing Hunt infrastructure. The Countryside Alliance, however, continues to regard the Hunting Act as “bad for the rural economy, bad for animal welfare and a waste of police resources.” Despite all the restrictions, the Master of Foxhounds Association currently represents 142 packs of foxhounds across England, Wales, and Scotland.
The living conditions of farmed animals will be significantly improved by the phasing-out of intensive confinement systems, such as enriched ‘colony’ cages for laying hens, and farrowing crates for sows about to give birth. Humane methods of slaughter will replace high concentration carbon dioxide stunning of pigs and the culling of newly-hatched male chicks in the egg and poultry industries. Live lobsters, crabs, and other decapods should not be boiled alive when being cooked, while farmed fish will be “spared avoidable pain, distress or suffering during their killing.”
The Animal Welfare Strategy adds to the protections for vertebrate animals embodied in the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which banned such unseemly practices as cosmetic tail docking, animal fighting, and the deliberate poisoning of protected animals. It is all part of a continuous move to uplift animal welfare standards in England.
Animal-loving citizens should, by and large, have little to find fault with in the Government’s Animal Welfare Strategy, which has also been welcomed by the major animal charities. A major controversy has arisen, however, in response to the proposed ban on trail hunting, which is being framed as one that puts responsible countryfolks at odds with ignorant townies, or alternatively sets toffs against plebs-although reports suggest that some working-class people do themselves attend Hunts. According to the Countryside Alliance, which runs a Campaign for Hunting, legal hunting with hounds adds over £100 million a year to the nation’s economy and around 500 jobs are directly linked to registered Hunts. Conservative and Reform voters are more likely to favour the retention of trail hunting as a long-standing tradition that defines rural communities and improves social cohesion in the countryside. The concern raised by opponents is that the “sport” may serve as a “smokescreen”, covering up illegal fox hunting as the hounds pick up the scent of live animals when oversight is somewhat lax.
Annual Boxing Day Hunts have gone ahead according to plan this year, but may well become a thing of the past if trail hunting were to be banned in England, following its prohibition in Scotland, although a timetable for change has yet to be set. It must be noted that the National Trust has already banned trail hunting from its lands. Come what may, high standards of animal welfare undeniably help define humane and civilised societies, and it behoves us to make the lives of our fellow species more tolerable on a planet where members of the dominant species are far from being reconciled with one another.
Ashis Banerjee