NEWS: On Tuesday, the Scrap Factory Farming campaign (SFF) went to court to ask a judge to grant a judicial review into the government’s failure to consider evidence that keeping animals in intensive farming conditions is a serious risk for the emergence of new zoonotic diseases and antibiotic resistance. Today, the judge refused to grant the review. SFF plans to appeal the decision.

“Today we lost in court in our Scrap Factory Farming legal challenge. We all know that our chosen pathway is not an easy one but the only defeat would be not to try at all. We lodge now for appeal,” said Jane Tredgett, founder of Humane Being, the non-profit group behind the SFF campaign.

“We keep raising the issues. Defra made NO argument about the degree of risk, relying instead on shallow assertions that the regulations are adequate to deal with the risks and scrutiny is not needed. They are wrong as we know. You have given us strength. Thank you. We march on.”

The hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Tuesday was a world first as a legal challenge to a government on the issue of intensive animal agriculture. Demonstrators including campaigners from SFF, leader of the Animal Welfare Party Vanessa Hudson and Paul Cashmore from Channel 4’s Hunted, gathered outside the court, with Animal Rebellion activists dressed in hazmat suits with their hands stained red with fake blood. Health professionals including doctors also came to show their support, citing their concerns about the pandemic potential of factory farming and antimicrobial resistance as their reasons for being there.

Dr Daisy Lund, who has been a GP for 20 years said: “I’m really concerned about the conditions on factory farms. The ways that we keep farmed animals can really contribute to disease spread. It spreads quickly, you get mutations with infectious diseases, it can spread through the animals and then jump to humans. This is what I’m really worried about. This can cause the next pandemic. We feel the government needs to look into it as a matter of urgency. People need to be informed about what’s going on and we want a full review of factory farming processes.”

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“Antibiotics are something we give to our patients every day,” said Dr Shah, a dentist from Milton Keynes. “Just treating dental abscesses could get a lot worse, people could end up in hospital and die from them. And I’ve seen more and more that patients are not responding as much as they should [to antibiotics]. I’m worried about my patients. I’m worried about my family, society. But obviously, also those that suffer the most out of all of this, which is the animals.”

If SFF is successful in securing a judicial review after an appeal, it will allow them to challenge the government - specifically the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) - on its decisions and failures to consider evidence in relation to factory farming.

Lorna Hackett, a barrister who is part of the SFF legal team, explained: “What this case is about, a world-first case, is that the government is failing to undertake its statutory obligations to undertake adequate risk assessments in relation to the risks associated with factory farming, because of antimicrobial resistance, because of the risk of the next pandemic, and because of what it’s doing to the planet.”

SFF was launched by Humane Being, a non-profit founded by animal advocate Jane Tredgett and run by a group of dedicated volunteers. The campaign has won the support of experts in animal welfare and public health, as well as celebrities such as Cashmore, Peter Egan and Jerome Flynn. It has also secured a top-notch legal team that includes Hackett and famed human rights barrister Michael Mansfield QC.

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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