How Scotland risks falling behind England on animal welfare – Edie Bowles
England is moving away from outdated practices known to cause suffering to animals but some are still commonplace in Scotland
In 2006, Scotland introduced the Animal Health and Welfare Act. It was a significant piece of legislation, establishing a modern legal framework based not simply on preventing cruelty, but recognising that people responsible for animals have a duty to meet their welfare needs.
Twenty years later, however, there is a question Scotland needs to confront: is the law keeping pace with what we now know about animals? The answer increasingly looks uncomfortable, particularly when Scotland is compared with England.
In 2025, the UK government published a new Animal Welfare Strategy for England, setting out reforms across farmed, companion and wild animals. The strategy states it is committed to a generational step change in animal welfare, considering the developing body of scientific knowledge and our changing responsibilities. Scotland risks falling behind despite growing scientific evidence and overwhelming public support to better protect animals.
Live boiling of lobsters is unacceptable
Take lobsters and other decapod crustaceans. It’s now officially recognised that these animals are sentient, meaning they can experience pain and suffering. Scotland's Animal Welfare Commission recognised in 2022 that the scientific evidence supports improving the treatment of decapods, specifically referring to live boiling as an issue requiring consideration.
Yet unlike in England and Wales, where it’s acknowledged that live boiling is an unacceptable killing method, Scots law does not protect them from avoidable pain at the time of killing.
Fish provide another example. Scotland published guidance on the welfare of salmon at the time of killing in 2025, an important step forward. The guidance states that salmon must be stunned before death and expressly rules out methods including asphyxia in air, live chilling and ice slurry.
READ MORE: 17.5 million salmon died prematurely in Scottish fish farms in a year. Here's what we need to do
But the commitment to produce guidance for the welfare of fish during their whole lifecycle has yet to materialise, meaning legal protections that exist for fish under the Animal Health and Welfare Act are going unenforced. This is important when investigation after investigation reveals widespread welfare issues on fish farms, including sea lice infestations and high mortality.
Perhaps most fundamentally, Scotland lacks the equivalent of England's new, over-arching animal welfare strategy, which sets out a clear programme of reform to improve animals’ lives. England’s strategy involves moving away from outdated practices known to cause suffering, such as harmful breeding practices for dogs and cats, and cages and painful mutilations in farming – practices still commonplace in Scotland.
Animal welfare cannot stand still
The 2006 Act was never intended to be the end point. It was designed to provide a legal foundation for improving animal welfare as knowledge, science and societal expectations developed. The Act creates broad, overarching protections, including a prohibition on causing unnecessary suffering and a duty to meet the welfare needs of animals under human care.
How those protections are interpreted and applied should evolve as scientific evidence and our understanding of animal welfare develop. Yet, in practice, this has not happened.
An anniversary should be a moment not just to celebrate what Scotland achieved 20 years ago, but to ask whether it is now doing enough with that achievement.
Scotland has the legislation and the expertise, what is needed now is the political ambition to turn those foundations into action. Twenty years is a long time in animal welfare. The law should not be standing still while our understanding of animals moves forward.
Edie Bowles is executive director of the Animal Law Foundation
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