Westminster Planning Bill puts welfare at risk, say WAWC and A-LAW
WAWC and the UK Centre for Animal Law (A-LAW) have published a new briefing on the risks to animal welfare posed by the Planning and Infrastructure Bill currently being considered in the House of Lords. The Bill, which is intended to streamline housing and development in England and Wales, takes an overarching perspective on proposed developments by viewing payment into a national biodiversity fund as mitigation for local damage. Numerous conservation organisations have commented on the likely harmful effects of the Bill on protected animal and plant populations and on local biodiversity. WAWC and A-LAW support that view and also underline that this approach does not provide for proper consideration of the welfare impacts on individual animals, living in a location scheduled for development.
The two charities draw attention to concerns raised by the Animal Sentience Committee (ASC), which has statutory powers to report on whether, or to what extent, the Government is having, or has had, all due regard to the ways in which the policy might have an adverse effect on the welfare of animals as sentient beings.
In a letter to the EFRA Committee, the ASC noted that the Bill does not mention the welfare of sentient animals “although it is incumbent on the government to pay all due regard to the ways a policy might impact animal welfare. The PIB appears to conceptualise ‘biodiversity’ or ‘the environment’ as a single entity, without recognising that these are populated by individual animals capable of experiencing positive and negative welfare states.“
The ASC drew attention to the fact that “the current approach to overall net biodiversity and environmental restoration is predicated on restoring or improving future habitats without considering impacts on existing populations of sentient animals. For example, an EDP* may conclude that the destruction of an area of land inhabited by certain species (such as hares, voles, wrens, badgers, great crested newts) can go ahead if new habitats suitable for species of conservation concern are provided elsewhere. This should result in increased future numbers of some species and greater overall diversity. However, under this model the needs (and often lives) of existing animals are forfeited for the future benefits of other animals and ecosystems.”
Beyond the point the ASC makes, WAWC and A-LAW suggest that planning law should consider both overall and individual animal impacts in any consideration of development plans. The charities suggest that decisions around proposed developments should draw on the Five Domains models for assessing the welfare of individual animals and the International Consensus Principles for Ethical Wildlife Control.
Read the whole briefing here.
*Environment Development Plan