JMICAWE attends 2nd World Congress on Farm Animal Welfare in Beijing

JMICAWE attends 2^nd World Congress on Farm Animal Welfare in Beijing

JMICAWE Director Cathy Dwyer, along with SRUC colleague Dr Fritha Langford and PhD student Steph Easton, attended the 2^nd World Conference on Farm Animal Welfare hosted by the International Cooperation Council on Animal Welfare (ICCAW) in Beijing. This followed the previous very successful meeting in 2017 in HangZhao and was attended by 500 delegates, including about 40 from Universities, NGOs and companies based outside China, including FAO, RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming, World Horse Welfare and the Donkey Sanctuary.

The conference demonstrates the increasing interest in China in animal welfare in food-producing animals, and it was good to see the participation of so many Chinese Universities and producers in the meeting. The first day involved a plenary session with talks from Chinese and International delegates to set animal welfare in an international food security context and to explore opportunities for progress. The second day consisted of parallel meetings focusing on specific species areas, with SRUC colleague Malcolm Mitchell delivering a presentation on animal transport in the horse session, and Cathy contributing to the panel discussion in the ruminants session. A highlight of the meeting was the ceremonial signing of the Beijing Consensus on Animal Welfare, to which JMICAWE is a signatory, which was developed in conjunction with FAO and sets out an agreement to work together to improve farm animal welfare. This set out three important areas of consensus:

1.       To support the recommendations of the 43^rd session of FAO’s Committee on World Food Security on improving farm animal welfare

2.       To advocate that government agencies, international organisations, scientific research institutes, the food industry and consumers understand and support animal welfare

3.       To respect and support each country in the exploration of farm animal welfare-friendly farming models that adhere to the requirements of sustainable development.    

‘’We are very happy to be part of this Consensus and its recognition of the need to include the welfare of farmed animals within the context of sustainability and food security’ said Cathy ‘and we look forward to working with our partners to improve welfare in farming practices globally’.      

Beijing Consensus on Animal Welfare