The Scottish Government

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Animal Health and Welfare Strategy for Great Britain

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1 The challenge

The health and welfare of animals concerns not just animal livestock owners or Government but all of us. Disease outbreaks and the measures to control them can carry wide and costly consequences for public health, the economy and the environment. The way we treat animals is an important reflection of the values of our society. This means that we all have a stake in improving the national level of animal health and welfare. Collectively and individually there is much that we can do to secure that improvement.

The current animal health and welfare picture is in many ways neither adequate nor sustainable. We must work together to achieve standards which are not just acceptable today but which will also lay the foundation for meeting rising public demands in years to come. Over the next decade the challenges facing livestock owners and others will continue to grow. Common Agricultural Policy reform will impact on the way that animals are kept and managed. European Union legislation will extend food safety and hygiene controls to primary producers, requiring a step change in performance. The challenges, and the opportunities accompanying them, are great. This strategy, based on extensive consultation and dialogue with stakeholders, sets out the principles and good practice which can guide us as we seek to move forward together.

There must be a marked change in the way that the livestock industry manages risks to the health and welfare of farmed animals and copes with the consequences of disease outbreaks. If the industry is to achieve a sustainable future it will need to alter its practices and culture. Taxpayers cannot be expected to foot the bill when the industry's own practices lay it open to disease threats. The challenge is nothing less than regaining full public confidence in the way animal owners ¹, the veterinary profession and the Government manage animal health risks.

Protection of public health is the paramount issue underlying animal health policy, but society also has real concerns about the treatment of animals and the protection of the environment. With all these concerns in mind, this strategy challenges the culture and attitudes surrounding the care of all animals. It is concerned not just with farmed livestock but with the care of our growing and diverse companion animal population, with the use of animals in recreation and entertainment and with protection of our wildlife. The primary responsibility for the health and welfare of animals rest with their owners. This strategy calls for an enhanced level of skills and knowledge among all who have responsibilities for animals. There are some excellent examples of imaginative and pro-active best practice in animal care and disease prevention. All animal owners need to learn from those examples and contribute to a national advance in our animal health and welfare record.

In the past, the roles and responsibilities of Government, industry and animal owners have been based on a set of assumptions which have not consistently enabled us to work well together. We have seen the sometimes devastating consequences of the breakdown of collaborative working. This strategy does not provide a magic wand to solve all the problems affecting the health and welfare of our animals. But it sets a framework and direction for a partnership between all of us who have the capacity or the responsibility to influence the health and welfare of animals. Such a partnership is crucial if we are to ensure that the continually evolving threats to animal health and welfare are effectively identified, assessed and acted upon. We hope that all who read this strategy will rise to the challenge with enthusiasm, dedication and shared commitment.

1.2 Strategy for Great Britain

The Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs, the Scottish Executive, and the Welsh Assembly Government have developed this strategy together. Throughout this document "Government" refers to the UK Government and to the Devolved Administrations in Scotland and Wales. A separate but complementary strategy for animal health and welfare will be introduced in Northern Ireland, which retains important links with the Republic of Ireland for disease control purposes.

Although implementation of Government responsibilities under the strategy is a matter for the respective Departments, Great Britain is a single epidemiological unit for many major diseases and close co-operation and the sharing of best practice is essential in disease control. The principles and policies for a sustainable future for animal health and welfare set out in this strategy will be used by Government in policy development and implementation. It is also essential that both Government and industry are at the forefront of negotiations with our European Union partners to ensure that Directives or Regulations are soundly based and represent a proportionate solution.

1.3 Sustainable development

This strategy does not exist in isolation. It complements and takes forward other strategies ⁵ to support a sustainable agricultural sector and is crucial to the protection of public health and food safety. The health and welfare of farmed animals makes a major contribution to the sustainability of the livestock sector, to the wider farming and food industry, and more broadly to the countryside, rural communities and the rural economy. Achieving sustainability requires Government and industry to examine economic, environmental and social impacts and risks, and to look for solutions which deliver long-term benefits in an integrated way across all three areas. This strategy will play a major part in achieving a sustainable future for the British farming industry by defining roles and responsibilities, providing a more balanced framework for cost sharing, and developing a better understanding of the costs of animal health and welfare.

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