Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made of the potential merits of strengthening protections for cruelty against (a) dogs, (b) cats and (c) ferrets.

Causing unnecessary suffering to an animal is an offence under Section 4 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, subject to a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

This Government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious plans to improve animal welfare in a generation.

The Department has initiated a series of meetings with key animal welfare stakeholders as part of the development of an overarching approach to animal welfare. We will be outlining more detail of plans in due course.