Animals (Low Welfare Activities Abroad) Bill Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Chris Clarkson
Main Page: Chris Clarkson (Conservative - Heywood and Middleton)Department Debates - View all Chris Clarkson's debates with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Animals (Low Welfare Activities Abroad) Bill
Chris Clarkson ExcerptsFriday 17th March 2023
(1 year, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Animals (Low-Welfare Activities Abroad) Act 2023 Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Chris Clarkson (Heywood and Middleton) (Con)
Many Members want to contribute, so I will not speak at length.
I thoroughly welcome this Bill introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Angela Richardson), and I thank my hon. Friend the Minister for the personal passion with which she deals with this issue. As has already been said, the British people are animal lovers: this is a country that has a Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals but only a National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which tells us everything we need to know.
An important point arose during our earlier debate on the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Henry Smith). There are still advertisements out there showing what is effectively a price list for animal cruelty, which I find staggering in this day and age. Sadly the days when we could legislate for other countries are long gone, but, as we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Aaron Bell), we can make a stand. I think it important for us to send a signal that our British values where animals are concerned are core to our identity, and that we will not stand for this kind of cruelty.