On Monday 4 October the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF) celebrated World Animal Day with a fringe reception at The Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, hosted by Andrea Jenkyns MP.(Speech)
Our Host Andrea Jenkyns MP
The reception was attended by Ministers, MPs, Patrons, and guests. Speakers included:
- The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP, Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice; (Speech)
- The Rt Hon George Eustice MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; (Speech)
- The Rt Hon Theresa Villiers MP, former First Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Patron;
- Stanley Johnson, Patron;
- Sir David Amess MP, Patron; (Speech)
- Chris Loder MP, Patron; (Speech)
- Jane Stevenson MP;
- Christian Wakeford MP.
The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP, Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice quoted Einstein during his speech: “our task as human beings must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty”. Dominic went on to speak on a number of key policies introduced by the Government, including the ban on live exports, mandatory product labelling, increasing the maximum sentencing for animal cruelty, and measures to ban puppy smuggling.
Other speakers addressed critical animal welfare issues including ending the fur trade, banning live exports for slaughter and fattening, ending pig farrowing crates, and #BeatriceBill – the campaign to end cages for laying hens, ending glue traps, addressing non stun slaughter, ending trophy hunting imports and introducing animal welfare labelling. The reception celebrated the DEFRA’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare, a wide-reaching and ambitious plan which sets out the Government’s current and future work on animal welfare and conservation. The UK’s exit from the EU affords the opportunity to further advance domestic animal welfare standards, to act as a dynamic leader on the world stage, and to introduce measures and protections which are right in principle.
Bottom left to right: Christian Wakeford MP, Stanley Johnson, Sir David Amess MP
