Animal welfare
History, principles, and practice

Animal protection laws were enacted as early as the 1st millennium BCE in India. Several Indian kings built hospitals for animals, and emperor Ashoka (304–232 BCE) issued orders against hunting and animal slaughter, in line with ahimsa, the doctrine of non-violence. In the 13th century CE, Genghis Khan protected wildlife in Mongolia during the breeding season (March to October).

Early legislation in the Western world on behalf of animals includes the Ireland Parliament (Thomas Wentworth) " An Act against Plowing by the Tayle, and pulling the Wooll off living Sheep ", 1635, and the Massachusetts Colony (Nathaniel Ward) "Off the Bruite Creatures" Liberty 92 and 93 in the " Massachusetts Body of Liberties " of 1641.

In 1776, English clergyman Humphrey Primatt authored A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals, one of the first books published in support of animal welfare. Marc Bekoff said that "Primatt was largely responsible for bringing animal welfare to the attention of the general public."

Since 1822, when Irish MP Richard Martin brought the " Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822 " through Parliament offering protection from cruelty to cattle, horses, and sheep, an animal welfare movement has been active in England. Martin was among the founders of the world's first animal welfare organization, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or SPCA, in 1824. In 1840, Queen Victoria gave the society her blessing, and it became the RSPCA. The society used members' donations to employ a growing network of inspectors, whose job was to identify abusers, gather evidence, and report them to the authorities.

In 1837, the German minister Albert Knapp founded the first German animal welfare society.

One of the first national laws to protect animals was the UK " Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 " followed by the " Protection of Animals Act 1911 ". In the US it was many years until there was a national law to protect animals—the " Animal Welfare Act of 1966 "—although there were a number of states that passed anti-cruelty laws between 1828 and 1898. In India, animals are protected by the " Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 ".

Significant progress in animal welfare did not take place until the late 20th century. In 1965, the UK government commissioned an investigation—led by professor Roger Brambell—into the welfare of intensively farmed animals, partly in response to concerns raised in Ruth Harrison 's 1964 book, Animal Machines. On the basis of Brambell's report, the UK government set up the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee in 1967, which became the Farm Animal Welfare Council in 1979. The committee's first guidelines recommended that animals require the freedom to "stand up, lie down, turn around, groom themselves and stretch their limbs." The guidelines have since been elaborated upon to become known as the Five Freedoms.

In the UK, the " Animal Welfare Act 2006 " consolidated many different forms of animal welfare legislation.

A number of animal welfare organisations are campaigning to achieve a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare (UDAW) at the United Nations. In principle, the Universal Declaration would call on the United Nations to recognise animals as sentient beings, capable of experiencing pain and suffering, and to recognise that animal welfare is an issue of importance as part of the social development of nations worldwide. The campaign to achieve the UDAW is being coordinated by World Animal Protection, with a core working group including Compassion in World Farming, the RSPCA, and the Humane Society International (the international branch of HSUS).

The 2019 UN Global Sustainable Development Report identified animal welfare as one of several key missing issues in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
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