The Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation (CAWF) is an influential

animal welfare Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevity ...

organisation in the United Kingdom. According to '' The Daily Telegraph'', "it is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the Tory Party." Its patrons have included Conservative Party politicians such as David Amess, Zac Goldsmith, Carrie Johnson, Stanley Johnson, Dominic Raab, Henry Smith, and Theresa Villiers. It organised a

World Animal Day World Animal Day is an international day of action for animal rights and welfare celebrated annually on October 4, the feast day of Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. The World Animal Day movement is supported and endorsed by a nu ...

event at the 2021 Conservative Party Conference.

History

The organisation was founded in 2016 by Lorraine Platt and her husband Chris Platt from

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. A lifelong Conservative, Lorraine Platt decided to start the CAWF when she and her husband were campaigning in their constituency of Esher and Walton, and some residents said that they would not vote for the Conservative Party because local MP Ian Taylor supported

fox hunting Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase and, if caught, the killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds. A group of unarmed followers, led by a "master of foxhounds" (or "master of ho ...

. Platt wanted to counter the perception that conservatives don't care about animals and to give voice to a conservative pro-animal-welfare perspective in Parliament. Though the CAWF began as just a website, it has grown with support from MPs and has had an impact on bills in Parliament. However, support for the organisation within the Conservative Party has not been universal:

Patrick McLoughlin Patrick Allen McLoughlin, Baron McLoughlin, (born 30 November 1957) is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he first became the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Derbyshire following the 1986 by-election. The constituen ...

wrote a letter asking the CAWF to stop using the Conservative Party logo. A Conservative Party spokesperson said that the organisation was not affiliated with the party, but CAWF patron Suzy Gale, wife of Conservative MP

Roger Gale Sir Roger James Gale (born 20th August 1943) is a British politician who has served as the member of Parliament (MP) for North Thanet since 1983. He had a career in journalism and broadcasting from 1964, around the same time as he joined the C ...

, said that the organisation and the party did have ties. Lorraine Platt said that the organisation was "voluntarily redesigning its logo".

Positions

The organisation lobbies Parliament to improve animal welfare protections. Its areas of focus have expanded from fox hunting to a variety of other issues such as

live exports Live export is the commercial transport of livestock across national borders. The trade involves a number of countries with the Australian live export industry being one of the largest exporters in the global trade. According to the Australia ...

, gestation crates, and

cage-free eggs Free-range eggs are eggs produced from birds that may be permitted outdoors. The term "free-range" may be used differently depending on the country and the relevant laws, and is not regulated in many areas. Eggs from hens that are only indoors ...

. Other concerns include foie gras and trophy hunting. In 2021, the CAWF argued that the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill should include invertebrates such as lobsters and octopuses. The CAWF published a report estimating the quantity of invertebrates killed by UK fishing boats. The report said that discussions about animal welfare often fail to take into account invertebrates'

sentience Sentience is the capacity to experience feelings and sensations. The word was first coined by philosophers in the 1630s for the concept of an ability to feel, derived from Latin '':wikt:sentientem, sentientem'' (a feeling), to distinguish it fro ...

because of an "anthropocentric view hatfails to capture what it means for an animal to be sentient". Lorraine Platt described octopuses as "highly intelligent, sentient animals" and said that the foundation hoped that people would choose not to eat them. The organisation has also supported reforms for more humane slaughter. Along with the British Veterinary Association, it has argued for "an end to slaughter without stunning", and it published a report finding that the UK supply of meat from animals killed without stunning is greater than demanded by consumers. The CAWF has also argued that legal protections for

farmed animals Livestock are the domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to provide labor and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to animals wh ...

should apply to farmed fish, and it has worked to make fish slaughter more humane.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official site
Animal welfare organisations based in the United Kingdom Conservative political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom Organisations associated with the Conservative Party (UK) 2016 establishments in the United Kingdom

History

Positions

See also

References

External links