THL
Animal protection organisations, industry representatives, and Scottish parliamentarians come together for fishes.
Around 77 million fishes are killed in the UK each year. But this isn’t even the most shocking thing. It’s a horrifying fact that fishes don't have the same protection as other animals. Because of this, investigations at fish farms have revealed salmon having their gills cut while fully conscious and being repeatedly clubbed. But the tide is starting to turn for these forgotten animals.
Alongside Animal Equality UK and The Animal Law Foundation, last night The Humane League UK held a parliamentary reception in the Scottish Parliament to shine a light on the injustice that farmed fishes face.
Despite their sentience being long recognised, farmed fishes are not being given equal legal protections to land animals.
The reception was a fin-tastic success. It was incredible to bring together industry representatives, Scottish parliamentarians, and animal protection organisations to show that across sectors there is agreement that fish matter and deserve to be protected to the same extent as land-based farmed animals.
We at The Humane League UK are campaigning for species-specific legislation to be introduced to require farmed fish to be stunned prior to their slaughter, a recommendation made by the expert Animal Welfare Committee in 2023.
In Scotland, the vast majority of the farmed salmon industry have signed up to accreditation schemes that include mandatory stunning before slaughter as part of their welfare standards. But we believe it should not be up to voluntary accreditation schemes to set and enforce the minimum standards.
And most of the public agree. In fact, Compassion in World Farming and Eurogroup for Animals found that 70% of the British public believe that legislation for fish should require stunning before slaughter.
It is time for the Scottish Government, and UK Government to act, and urgently publish their next steps for addressing the recommendations made by the Animal Welfare Committee, especially detailed regulations in law to mandate pre-slaughter stunning.
If you’d like to support our campaign for forgotten fishes, you can sign our petition below.
