CRUEL CAGING OF FARMED ANIMALS MUST END

I led for the SNP in a parliamentary debate on the use of cages for farmed animals. Some 78% of people across the UK oppose factory-farming practices, yet millions of farmed animals are kept in cages.

There is a wealth of scientific evidence demonstrating that animal welfare is compromised in cages, but the UK is now falling behind the European Union, which is working towards a ban on the caging of farm animals and the import of food from caged systems is set to come into force.

While the Scottish Government will phase out the use of cages for gamebirds, laying hens, and farrowing crates for pigs, the UK Government must not sacrifice the high standards in Scotland’s agricultural sector for trade deals with countries with much lower standards. There is no point in banning a practice in the UK because it is cruel and inhumane whilst allowing that cruelty to be outsourced, so that produce obtained as a result of poor animal welfare still ends up on our supermarket shelves.

The UK Government must not undercut domestic farmers in trade deals with countries which treat animals in a way of which most people in the Scotland and the UK disapproves.

Watch my contribution below 👇.