Roger has spent his working life as a Veterinary Surgeon in Whitstable after education at Kent College, Canterbury and the Royal Veterinary College. He is joint Chairman of the CAW with Suzy Gale.

Political angels often fear to tread along the pathway of animal welfare. However it is a political issue that has a significant bearing on the voting intentions of well over one million voters in the UK (according to the last poll that surveyed the issue (in 1997)). The issues in conflict are usually the defining of “animal welfare” and “animal rights” but there is a very great distinction, they are not attitudes or stances that should be confused.

The Conservative Animal Welfare (Group) has a history reaching back over a decade of putting a political slant onto animal welfare but equally making a clear distinction between animal welfare and animal rights. The parallels between how a society relates with other species and how it relates to its individual members has been acknowledged by philosophers for over two thousand years. We can see in various societies around the world these parallels and how these parallels are dictated by culture and religions as well as the societies themselves.

In the UK we have a society of diverse cultures but politically we need to build a society built on a framework of respect for others, acknowledgement of the views of others and above all we need to build a society which cares for others. A significant strand of this has to be that within our society we also have respect and appreciation of other species.

This does not bestow on animals any rights but it does demand from us responsibilities. These responsibilities are to treat other species with respect, to prevent suffering and to recognise that animals are sentient.

The Conservative Party has historically held the moral high ground with the initial Protection of Animals Act 1911 being brought to the statute book by the Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith it has essentially been the Conservative Administrations from Law (1922-1923) to Major (1990-1997) that have overseen the evolution of animal welfare legislation designed to reflect a developing morality in the way we treat other species.

The Labour Animal Welfare Act of 2008 was a calculated public relations exercise but as with so much of Labour policy had been badly thought through and was high on window dressing and very low on delivery. Despite the sterling work of Roger Gale and fellow Conservative MPs in Committee, the Act has singularly failed to deliver improvement in Animal Welfare and will represent one of the great lost opportunities for Animal Welfare of the Labour Years. Yet another case of masses of spin but little substance.

We all hope that with the new Coalition Government Animal Welfare will again have a higher profile and that the many current Conservative MPs to whom Animal Welfare is a moral issue of concern will start delivering sound policies aimed at improving the world in which we live, and especially the world for other species with which we share this planet.

RWB June 2010