General Election 2024: What’s next for animals?

It’s no secret that we’ve been extremely disappointed with many of the outgoing Conservative government’s policies on animal protection – from its introduction of the badger cull to its failure to progress the Kept Animals Bill, and even talk of repealing the Hunting Act – and so we’re hopeful that a new government might mean real action for animals. However, we mustn’t become complacent. 

While thousands of people contacted their candidates asking them to show their support for our 10 #CrackdownOnCruelty pledges, sadly most Labour candidates did not respond. While this is disappointing, the Labour manifesto did include several key commitments to animal protection issues: 

• Ban the use of snares
• Phase out animal testing 
• A ban on trail hunting 
• A ban on the import of hunting trophies 
• End the badger cull* 
• End puppy smuggling and puppy farming 

*Although their manifesto promised to “work with farmers and scientists to eradicate Bovine TB…so that we can end the ineffective badger cull” Labour has since clarified that pre-existing cull licenses will be allowed to continue until 2026, killing tens of thousands more badgers. 

Animal Aid is determined to ensure the new Labour government upholds all the pledges set out in its manifesto, particularly its promise to ban the use of snares and phase out animal testing – both areas on which we have campaigned for many years. We will also join calls for the badger cull – correctly deemed “ineffective” by Labour’s own manifesto – to be banned immediately rather than honouring pre-existing licenses until they expire in 2026. 

What you can do 

As soon as winning MPs are formally in post, we’ll be asking all our supporters to get in contact and remind them of the promises they’ve made on animal protection issues, urging them to be a voice for animals in Parliament. We’ll provide contact information and template letters as soon as we can, so watch this space! 

In the meantime, you can also: