Voting for animal health and welfare

• Localización: Veterinary Record, ISSN-e 2042-7670, Vol. 176, Nº. 17, 2015, págs. 422-422
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • READING election manifestos can be a mind-numbing experience and it seems fair to say that the General Election on May 7 is unlikely to be won on issues relating to animal health and welfare alone. Nevertheless, it is worth looking at the manifestos of the main political parties to see how much space they devote to the subject and how their policies compare. For the 2015 election, there is relatively little direct reference to animal health in the manifestos of the main parties, as was the case during the elections of 2005 and 2010. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. The situation today is certainly very different from that in 2001, when election campaigns were being waged in the midst of the foot-and-mouth disease crisis (and the election had to be postponed because of it), and in 1997, when political battles were being fought over food safety and BSE. Having said that, some of the manifestos for this year's election make reference to bovine TB, mostly by referring to the pilot badger culls, again demonstrating that, while eliminating TB requires a comprehensive approach, arguments about culling badgers continue to overshadow all of the other efforts being made.