Animal protections were conspicuously absent from Queen's Speech
Prince Charles delivered today’s speech on behalf of the Queen. Sadly, it contained few of the protections for animals the UK public was promised in the wake of Brexit.
Will Boris’s betrayals never end? Sadly not as today’s Queen’s Speech, delivered by Prince Charles, left out many measures designed to better protect animals such as a ban on foie gras and fur imports. Claire Hamlett reports.
Noble defender of freedom of choice, Jacob Rees-Mogg, will likely be looking smugger than usual today as the Queen’s Speech – delivered on the Queen’s behalf by Prince Charles – will not contain any mention of the promised ban on importing fur and foie gras into the UK. What a win for Rees-Mogg and others like him who believe that the means of producing something should have no bearing on whether it should be available for people to buy.
Along with Commons leader Mark Spencer and Scotland Secretary Alister Jack, Rees-Mogg argued that banning food and clothing produced using cruel methods was "fundamentally unconservative". Defence Secretary Ben Wallace fretted that a fur import ban would be problematic for the Queen’s guardsmen, whose hats are made from the skins of Canadian black bears. None of these ridiculous reasons should have been more compelling to Boris Johnson than the majority support of the British public who wanted him to uphold his promises on foie gras and fur. But whether he was really swayed by his ghoulish cabinet ministers or something else may forever remain a mystery, since he has so far refused to justify his backpedalling.
The bans formed part of the Animals Abroad Bill which was dropped earlier this year, but which campaigners had hoped Johnson would revive in time for the Queen’s Speech. The Bill also contained bans on importing shark fins and hunting trophies, and on advertising for cruel tourism activities abroad, such as elephant rides and elephant entertainment venues. The government says it expects people to carry out their own research before participating in such things while on holiday.
A coalition of 38 organisations including the RSPCA and Humane Society International tried to put pressure on the government before today’s Speech, asking Johnson not to “betray” animals. He has indeed not only betrayed them but shown how little the government takes the concept of animal sentience – which it recently enshrined in law – to heart. Both vertebrates and invertebrates including crabs, lobsters, and octopus are included in the law, but it functions as little more than lip service if it doesn’t serve as the basis upon which all other decisions regarding legal protections for animals are made.
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Focusing on foie gras, Animal Equality has argued that the government has not only betrayed animals today but also the British public who want to see stronger animal protection laws. “After years of hints and high hopes for a foie gras ban, the Prime Minister is turning his back on animals and the British public at the eleventh hour,” said Abigail Penny, Executive Director of Animal Equality UK. “Foie gras is a ‘luxury’ item that the UK public does not support. By ignoring the wishes of the majority, what kind of message is the Government sending to the country and the people it is meant to represent?” Animal Equality points out that public trust in the government to deliver on its promises is extremely low, and that this U-turn will do nothing to reassure them.
But if the failure to bring back the Animal Abroad Bill weren’t enough, the government slipped in a further affront to animals in the Queen’s Speech today in the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill. The Bill will relax the regulations around gene editing of plants and farmed animals to make food production more “efficient”. While gene editing of plants could have a critical role to play in ensuring food security in the future (with caveats), especially as the climate continues to warm, gene editing animals is a deeply worrying idea. Surge wrote about the topic last year after the government signalled its interest in supporting gene editing, which had previously been constrained by EU regulations, and on a report by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics which warned that gene editing could exacerbate “some unethical breeding practices” of farmed animals.
The Independent reports that “Plans for the bill include two notification systems where breeders and scientists will need to notify Defra of precision-bred organisms. The information collected on precision-bred organisms will be published on a public register.” But it is unclear how the government plans to safeguard animals who could be subject to gene editing, once more proving how little regard it truly has for the welfare of animals.
Claire Hamlett is a freelance journalist, writer and regular contributor at Surge. Based in Oxford, UK, Claire tells stories that challenge systemic exploitation of and disregard for animals and the environment and that point to a better way of doing things.
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