Welfare of animals during transport - consultation: summary report

Summary of Responses

A total of 388 responses were received and are broken down by grouping in Table 1. Of these:

• 36 (9.3%) were from farmers/crofters and their representative organisations;
• 14 (3.6%) were from the livestock industry (including abattoir representation, meat processers and auction marts)
• 7 (1.8%) were from the veterinary profession (2 from veterinary practices and 5 from veterinary associations)
• 23 (5.9%) were from animal welfare organisations
• 9 (2.3%) were from animal welfare enforcement and advisory bodies (8 of whom are Scottish local authorities)
• 5 (1.3%) were from transport industry organisations
• 15 (3.9%) were from other organisations identified as outwith the above groupings; and
• 279 (71.6%) were from members of the general public, although a small number of these self-identified as livestock producers or supporters of animal welfare organisations.

Within the responses from the general public there were approximately 50 responses largely identical to the responses of a number of the animal welfare organisations; and around 30 responses largely identical to the responses of organisations representing farmers/crofters.

The responses to the questions asked by the consultation identified no clear majorities, either in favour or opposed to, the Scottish Government’s position on the FAWC recommendations and proposals to take those recommendations forward.

There are only 2 questions that elicited even a simple majority consensus. Those were in favour of treating all equines, registered and non-registered, equally in welfare in transport legislation and for collecting and using feedback to identify welfare risks in transport.

The individual responses to the questions asked by the consultation are considered in greater detail in this Report.