How To Get Care Petitions To Default To Animal Welfare Only

Tenants should take 'default right' to pets - Labour

Published: 14 Feb 2018

Labour wants to strengthen the rights of tenants to keep a pet in their properties as part of a package of proposed animal welfare measures.

Some rental agreements drawn up by landlords insist on no animals.

Tenants can seek permission to go on pets simply Labour wants a default correct for them to exercise then unless there is evidence their pet volition exist a nuisance.

Other Labour ideas include a ban on foie gras imports and an end to the consign of alive animals for slaughter.

Shadow Surroundings Secretarial assistant Sue Hayman told the BBC that the party was promising action on issues that were "close to people'due south hearts".

She rejected claims that Labour was "playing catch-up" with the Conservatives, saying its "comprehensive, long-term" plans were in dissimilarity to the regime'due south "haphazard, piecemeal" arroyo.

In contempo months, Environment Secretarial assistant Michael Gove has proposed increasing maximum sentences for serious beast cruelty to five years in jail and said a ban on pet shops and other third parties selling puppies should be explored every bit part of a crackdown on unscrupulous breeders.

He has also published typhoon legislation which would commit the government to treat animals equally "sentient beings" when it makes future laws, following a political row over the issue at the end of last yr.

Despite the flurry of activity from the regime, Labour is insisting it remains "the political party of animal welfare", citing its backing for the 2005 hunting ban and by steps to tighten the rules on the send of live animals.

The party is now proposing to get further by prohibiting the alive export of animals for slaughter or fattening and requiring all slaughterhouses to take CCTV installed.

The 50-point draft policy certificate - entitled Animate being Welfare for the Many non the Few - also proposes:

ending the badger cull
closing "loopholes" which let illegal play a joke on hunting
creating a new zoo inspectorate to draw up revised standards
expanding affordable vet treat owners on low incomes
reviewing fauna testing to focus on minimising suffering and ending avoidable tests
obliging motorists to written report incidents where animals are injured
phasing in a ban on all fur imports
banning intensive rearing of game birds for shooting
protecting the marine surroundings around the UK through "blue belt" zone

Among the nigh eye-catching proposals is a plan to strengthen the right of tenants to have pets in their homes, which Labour said was a recognition of the growing number of people having to rent well into their 30s.

Under the 2015 Consumer Rights Act, a landlord tin only refuse permission if information technology is reasonable to do so, for instance on grounds of the animal's size, the damage it could crusade and its impact on hereafter rental prospects.

Do you wish your landlord would permit you lot accept a pet?

Nether Labour's plans, which it says it wants to discuss with landlords and tenant bodies, there would need to be show that the animal was a nuisance for permission to be refused.

The National Landlords Association said its members should have the correct to refuse tenants with pets every bit long as they justified their deportment, including in cases where properties were only non geared upwards for animals.

But the group's chief executive Richard Lambert added that "tenants who keep pets do tend to stay for longer periods of time, and there are a few elementary steps that landlords can take in social club to mitigate the perceived increased risks" - including insisting on larger deposits.

Shelter said that while it was often hard for landlords to enforce conditions relating to pets, tenants were at greater take a chance of eviction if they were in alienation of tenancy agreements.

Labour as well envisages creating a new mail of beast welfare commissioner, to ensure authorities policy is continually beside of the latest scientific testify. This would also mean animal welfare is taken into consideration in trade deals later Brexit, and in the UK'south dealings with international bodies.

'Earth leader'

Later on the UK leaves the Eu, Labour says time to come farming subsidies must reflect the demand to outlaw bad environmental exercise and move away from intensive rearing techniques.

Responding for the Conservatives, MP Steve Double said "from introducing mandatory CCTV into slaughter houses to increasing the maximum sentence for animal cruelty ten-fold, the Conservatives volition go along taking the activity needed to ensure animals receive the proper protection they deserve."

Information technology emerged earlier this calendar month that the government is considering its ain ban on the export of live animals for slaughter, and will launch a consultation in the spring.

Theresa May, meanwhile, has ruled out a Eatables vote on repealing the ban on hunting with dogs during the current Parliament, reversing a manifesto commitment for a complimentary vote.

Assay past Reality Bank check

Currently, motorists only take to written report an accident involving an creature if they hit certain animals.

The Road Traffic Deed 1988 requires drivers to inform the police if "damage is caused" to horses, cattle, asses, mules, sheep, pigs, goats or dogs.

This list excludes cats and poultry, but also wild animals such equally badgers and deer.

Last year, a petition was launched to seek parity betwixt cats and dogs in the reporting of roadside accidents, reaching 237,500 signatures.

Consummate statistics are not produced on the amount of animals killed past vehicles each twelvemonth, but data released by Highways England gives some indication of the animals most likely to be hit.

Between January 2016 and April 2017, 611 deer, 534 badgers and 471 foxes were establish dead on A-roads and motorways in England.

Around 170 cats and dogs were found also; too equally ane wallaby on the M1.