Crab and lobster welfare takes a step forward with first UK supermarket benchmark

27 January 2023

Crustacean Compassion

Following the inclusion of decapod crustaceans (such as crabs, lobsters and prawns) – in the UK Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, Crustacean Compassion have launched the first UK industry benchmark ‘The Snapshot’ to assess welfare standards for decapod crustaceans within the UK food supply chain.

30 UK companies – including all major supermarkets – were evaluated in the benchmark, revealing that only 50% of companies have developed formal policies on some aspect of decapod crustacean welfare, and only one is promoting decapod welfare to consumers.

On average, retailers are leading the way in areas of welfare policy, management and reporting.

The Snapshot report is the first assessment of leading seafood producers, processors, retailers and wholesalers in the UK on welfare standards for decapod crustaceans such as crabs, lobsters and prawns.

Commissioned by our member organisation, Crustacean Compassion, and facilitated by Chronos Sustainability, The Snapshot was released this week. 

Each year, more than 420 million crabs, lobsters, langoustines and prawn/shrimp are caught in the UK with a further 5 billion prawns and other crustaceans being imported from overseas. The Snapshot looks at their welfare at all stages of the supply chain: capture and handling, holding and storage, transport, mutilations, stunning and slaughter.

The Snapshot assessed 30 UK seafood companies, including household name brands, all major supermarkets and more localised seafood specialists. The report reveals that 70% of companies consider the welfare of crustaceans to be a business issue, in part due to growing consumer concerns. Contrary to this, only 50% have developed formal welfare policies.

While retailers are leading the way across several key areas, including policy commitment, enforcing their policies and reporting of welfare standards, only one company assessed is promoting decapod crustacean welfare to their customers – and this is a producer, not a retailer.

The benchmark will be repeated later in 2023 and will show which companies are taking decapod welfare seriously and making improvements in this vital area. Whilst this initial report does not share company scores, subsequent reports will publish all company scores and a ranking table, allowing consumers to make informed choices for higher-welfare products that avoid inhumane practices such as eyestalk ablation and slaughter through drowning, asphyxiation and boiling alive.

The development of The Snapshot involved consultation with industry, and this continued engagement will ensure that decapods, companies and consumers will all benefit.

You can watch the webinar launch recording here.

Since animals like crabs and lobsters were legally recognised as sentient and able to feel pain, companies have rightly been under increased scrutiny about how their practices impact the welfare of the animals involved. The Snapshot will show how decapod welfare is currently being addressed across the industry right now and will drive welfare improvements across the sector. Customers expect to be able to buy seafood that has been produced to high standards of animal welfare and we have been asked which brands and companies have the most humane practices. The food industry has a responsibility to both meet those expectations and provide the necessary information to enable consumers to make informed choices.

Claire Howard, Director at Crustacean Compassion

Read more at source

Crustacean Compassion

Regards Mark

This weekend (27 to 29 /1/23) is the RSPB big garden birdwatch for 2023.

This is only open FOR UK RESIDENTS.

Give just 1 hour of your time this weekend to take part.

The Big Garden Birdwatch is free to anyone and everyone but the information sent in by people all over the UK helps the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) build up a very accurate register of how the national bird population is doing; what species are flourishing, what are in decline, stable etc.

This birdwatch makes it an ideal family activity at the end of January.  Best of all taking part is easy. All you need to do is sign up online to take part and get a free guide.

You don’t even need a garden. You can count birds from a balcony or even your local park.

Which common garden birds will you see?

Participants are asked to spend an hour counting the birds they see and then submit their results online. Also, it’s good idea is to add a bird feeder to your garden. Watch how a wide variety of different types of birds will pop in your garden for a snack!

As you know, we have many wild bird visitors to our garden; and thus have just signed up for this years watch.  Looking forward to counting the visitors to the garden, submitting the data to the RSPB and helping to get a good overall view of the status of birds in the UK.

I hope you can sign up and take part also.

Regards Mark

Go here for more and to sign up:

Big Garden Birdwatch | The RSPB

https://worldanimalsvoice.com/?s=breakfast+buddy

Below – Breakfast Buddy.

Below – Reed Bunting photo from Pauline.

Below – Starlings enjoy their morning bath in my garden.

EU Parliament shows positive commitment toward systemic change to regulate the (exotic) pet trade

25 November 2022

AAP Press Release

Yesterday, the EP adopted a resolution on improving EU regulation through an EU positive list of (wild and exotic) pets. This was the direct result of a petition and subsequent debate at PETI Committee from Eurogroup for Animals and AAP and Dyrenes Beskyttelse.

Excitingly, it’s the second EP Resolution in as many months with encouraging language on an EU positive list. It’s a strong message to the Commission to expand upon their initial commitment for a feasibility study on the EU positive list in the revised Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking.

This resolution is the icing on the cake of a very successful year in political calls for the EU positive list, such as the May AGRIFISH position paper supported by 19 Member States, and the October EP resolution on the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), which provided the EP’s opinion on the position the Commission should take at CoP19. Incidentally, the exotic pet trade has been front and centre of the debates at this important meeting of the Parties to CITES. 

Finally, the text cites the EP’s June 2021 resolution on the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030: bringing nature back into our lives, which includes reference to a white (positive) list.

An EU-wide positive list is a tool to more effectively and efficiently regulate the pet trade, by producing a list of animal species that are allowed to be traded as companion animals: any species not on the list is de facto illegal to keep.

The resolution stresses that the European trade policy needs to ensure that pet trade practices do not compromise the welfare of wild and exotic animals or contribute to biodiversity loss, and that the keeping of such animals as pets does not jeopardise the welfare of the animal and the owner.

Moreover, it expresses the Parliament’s concern that current regulations in Member States are fragmented and not consistent, often failing to encompass much of the animal kingdom.

Additionally, it notes that the EU legal framework is currently insufficient to tackle animal welfare, public health and safety, and invasiveness risks associated with the trade and keeping of wild and exotic animals as pets.

Of vital importance, the Commission recently released a revised Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking, which had and action to “Explore the need for, added value of, and feasibility of revising existing measures or creating new tools to reduce unsustainable trade in wildlife (e.g. a ‘positive list’ of species whose specimens taken from the wild can be traded and kept as pets)”.

It’s our view that this action does not go nearly far enough, but that this resolution comes at the perfect moment to urge the Commission to expand on their initial commitment. The resolution calls “on the Commission to carry out an impact assessment of the added-value and feasibility of establishing such a list, using a science-based set of criteria to determine which species are suitable as pets, and to include a careful analysis of various criteria already used in national positive lists, in order to establish the most effective ones to be possibly adopted in an EU-wide positive list”. 

It is vital that the European Commission hears the strong message of the Member States through the Council, and the continued calls from the Parliament, to ensure a timely and strict implementation of the Action Plan, especially its feasibility study on the EU Positive List. The Commission is now mandated to be flexible in its impact assessment approach, to seek out feasible ways that an EU Positive List can fit with, and add value to the current legislative framework. It should be conducted with a view to ease the establishment of the Positive List. If not, an important and viable tool to protect animals, humans and the environment could be missed out on. This cannot be allowed to happen.

Reineke Hameleers, CEO, Eurogroup for Animals

Regards Mark