Claire Bass/Humane World for Animals, Confidential

Tell the government to introduce a law for honest labelling on meat products!

Our supermarket shelves are full of animal products carrying labels like ‘welfare assured’ and ‘from trusted British farms’, which masks the reality that the vast majority of farmed animals in the UK are kept in intensive systems that fail to meet their welfare needs. These misleading labels are bad for consumers, who are left in the dark about the cruelty behind the labels, and they are extremely bad for animals.

We’re calling for a new animal welfare labelling law to give consumers clear and accurate welfare information about the meat they buy – like the ‘free range’, ‘barn’ and ‘caged’ labels introduced over two decades ago for eggs. Take action to tell the government that the conditions farmed animals are kept in matters to you and ask them to bring in a new meat labelling law!

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Dame

Angela

Eagle

Parliament of the United Kingdom

Dear Dame Angela Eagle, 

I care deeply about animal welfare, so I am appalled to learn that so many consumers are being misled into buying products that have caused terrible suffering. Humane World for Animals UK has found that animal products in supermarkets are labelled with claims like ‘welfare assured’ even when they were produced using cruel practices, like pork from farms where mother pigs are locked up in tiny cages for up to five weeks. A recent poll commissioned by Humane World for Animals shows that over 60% of consumers don’t believe that such cruel practices would be permitted on a ‘welfare assured’ product. There is clearly a major mismatch between perception and reality of animal welfare in farming.

People deserve to know how the food on our shelves was produced so that they can align their buying habits with their beliefs. A ‘nation of animal lovers’ can’t let cruelty be hidden away behind deceptive labels. British farmers are also losing out because when they adopt higher welfare systems people aren’t always aware, so they aren’t being fairly rewarded. 

I believe that there should be clear and accurate welfare information on all meat products in shops. Egg labelling is a brilliant example – most people now avoid buying caged eggs because they are cruel, which I understand has incentivised many farmers to go cage-free. Similar labels on other animal products could provide financial support for farmers to move away from the cruelest farming methods, like farrowing crates for mother pigs and enriched cages for hens.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I hope you will introduce a requirement for honest and consistent animal welfare labelling on meat products soon.

Best wishes,

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