Scottish Animal Welfare Commission

 Plenary meeting of Scottish Animal Welfare Commission

JMICAWE director, Prof Cathy Dwyer, chaired a plenary session of the Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC) on Friday 11^th September. The meeting had to be held entirely online but, despite a few hiccoughs, the technology held up well and interesting and varied discussions were held. The Commission focuses on protecting wild and companion animals, as well as providing scientific and ethical advice to the Scottish Government. The remit of the Commission is to look at how the welfare needs of sentient animals are met by policy, consider possible legislative and non-legislative routes to protect animal welfare and identify research requirements as an evidence base for future policy developments.

At this plenary session the Commission considered the impact of Covid-19 on animal welfare – of particular concern in the UK has been a significant rise in the number of people looking to acquire puppies, where those puppies are being sourced and whether this will impact on future health and welfare of dogs.  SAWC also considered what is an appropriate definition of sentience when applied to animals, and for which species is there sufficient scientific evidence to consider that they are likely to be sentient. As part of the remit of the Commission is to specifically consider the protection of wildlife, SAWC also considered whether current conceptions of animal welfare could apply to wildlife, and specific issues relating to the management of deer, beaver and Scottish wildcats.

More information about the work of the Commission can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/groups/scottish-animal-welfare-commission/