Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Bill

Baroness Hodgson of Abinger Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 14th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hodgson of Abinger (Con)]

My Lords, I stand to speak in support of this Private Member’s Bill and to congratulate Angela Richardson MP in the other place and my noble friend Lord Black on ensuring its introduction and safe passage through Parliament. I am delighted to support the Bill, which will ban the promotion and sale of activities abroad where animals are ill treated and harmed for tourism.

Charles Darwin wrote:

“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man”.


I am a pet owner and feel strongly that we should ensure that animals in our care are treated with kindness. Like my noble friend, I believe that animal welfare is one of the litmus tests of a civilised society, and I hope others agree that it is intolerable that animals should be subjected to trauma, fear and pain.

As has already been highlighted, the scale of animal cruelty in wildlife tourism cannot be overestimated. More than 500,000 animals are currently known to be involved in tourist entertainment in low-welfare establishments where cruel and inhumane training methods are often used to force animals into submission. World Animal Protection’s 2016 report found that three in four wildlife tourist attractions involve some form of conservation concern or animal abuse. These ratings were based on animals’ ability to experience five freedoms that we take for granted: freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury and disease; freedom from fear and distress; and freedom to behave normally. We should not and must not stand by.

This legislation will prevent UK travel companies profiting from and fuelling the problem. While I understand that there has been guidance from the Association of British Travel Agents, it is only voluntary and has not been taken up widely enough. We need to ensure that tourists are informed so that they choose not to buy holidays involving animals that have been treated cruelly. While I am proud that this country has one of the highest animal welfare records in the world, and I was pleased to read the cross-party and government support this Bill had as it passed through the other place, we must not be complacent. Exploitation and unethical methods of training should not be used to force animals into submission.

Like my noble friend, I was sent horrific and sickening photos by organisations lobbying for the Bill. My noble friend described how Asian elephants, in particular, suffer from extreme cruelty. They are often snatched in the wild, with their mothers killed in front of them, and then their spirit is broken by isolation, starvation, stabbings and beatings to make them easy to use for tourism. The captive trade in primates is threatening some species with extinction, all for an Instagram cuddle. Many big cats in captivity, such as tigers, lions and leopards, may have been deliberately separated from their mothers just days after being born, depriving them of the nutritious milk necessary for their growth and development, as well as maternal care. As we heard, when they become too dangerous to handle, they are often killed or sold. Many lions in South Africa cuddled by paying tourists when they were cubs may end up being shot by paying trophy hunters. There are around 3,500 whales and dolphins languishing in small concrete tanks around the world, deprived of their natural habitat.

It is not just the horrific treatment of the animals involved in tourist entertainment. We also need to consider the wider risks that low welfare standards bring. For example, Save the Asian Elephants research reports that the number of Asian elephants engaged in tourism in Thailand has increased by 70% in recent years, yet the global population has crashed from millions in the 19th century to barely 40,000 today, with an estimated 40% of them in captivity. Asian elephants are now considered an endangered series, and there are wider biodiversity, ecosystem and environmental impacts as the megagardeners of the forests are being enslaved. Unethical tourism has contributed to too many species suffering dramatic decline.

Before I finish, I too pay tribute to my noble friend Lady Fookes, who has spoken so often and is such a powerful advocate for animal welfare. We hope to see her back in the House soon.

To conclude, UK travel companies should not sell wildlife holidays that involve animal cruelty, and we should encourage other nations to do likewise. As it is so powerful, I beg the indulgence of the House to use Mahatma Gandhi’s quote again:

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”.


I support the Bill and wish it a speedy passage through our House.