Legislation passed through the House of Lords on April 7th will now require all UK government policy to be scrutinized by a new Animal Sentience Committee. The Member of the Welsh Parliament for Aberconwy, Janet Finch-Saunders, has called for the Welsh Government to follow the UK Government’s lead on this issue and introduce a similar committee here in Wales.
Commenting on this, Janet said,
“While the UK Government are leading the way in this regard, Welsh labour seem determined to do different for difference sake rather than take into consideration industry specialists and cross party advice.”
The Welsh Government make no mention of this issue in their animal welfare plan for Wales and demonstrates a lack of commitment to prioritise animal welfare within its own animal welfare plan.
Janet adds further,
“There’s strong industry support for a sentience committee here in Wales and the current administration chose to ignore it.
“This tiering exercise of having to put the obvious in front of the Welsh Government should be of serious concern to the electorate as compassion and common sense ideas are not being pursued”.
