Scottish Animal Welfare Commission minutes: 13 November 2025

Scottish Animal Welfare Commission (SAWC) members

• Cathy Dwyer, Chair
• Libby Anderson
• Mike Radford
• Mike Flynn
• Andrew Kitchener
• Paula Boyden
• Harvey Carruthers
• Marie Haskell

Scottish Government

• Andrew Voas, Veterinary Head of Animal Welfare
• Simon Girling, Veterinary Adviser, Animal Welfare Team
• Sam Turner, Leader, Wildlife Management Team
• Andy McKinlay, Policy Officer and Secretariat Support, Animal Welfare Team

Apologies

• Ellie Wigham, SAWC Member
• Pete Goddard, SAWC Member
• James Yeates, SAWC Member

• Madeleine Campbell – Animal Welfare Committee Chair

Items and actions

Welcome

The Chair welcomed the members to this last plenary meeting of 2025. 

Updates and Activity since last plenary meeting

SAWC

Since the last plenary meeting in August 2025, SAWC:

Responded to a letter about firework control zones from the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, following a meeting with Madeleine Campbell of the Animal Welfare Committee to discuss the animal welfare issues associated with fireworks.

Published two reports, on wildlife translocations and the use of cleaner fish in salmon farming, with other publications to soon follow (further information in Work Group Updates section)

Responded to a consultation on the 2027-32 Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture (ENRA) Research Strategy, with responses to other consultations on Rural Support (Improvement) and electrical stunning of poultry to be issued in due course

SAWC received and responded to correspondence on a variety of issues, including on:

• St Kilda sheep
• Culling of deer and night shooting
• E-collars

SAWC’s working groups have continued to work on a range of animal welfare issues (see Work Group Updates section below)

Scottish Government

Officials continue to monitor and work with  DEFRA on issues which may extend to Scotland or have a potential impact in Scotland, including the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, which is still going through the House of Lords

Work is ongoing on several Scottish Parliament bills:

• Welfare of Dogs
• Dog Theft
• Greyhound Racing (Offences)

Work is ongoing in several other areas, including on:

• Licensing of canine fertility services
• Castration and tail docking of lambs
• Livestock transport between islands and mainland Scotland; and welfare of trade
• Equine welfare

Animal Welfare Commission

A written update was provided by AWC on some of its ongoing work, including activity around the following areas:

• Livestock breeding
• Fur – responsible sourcing
• Laying hen welfare in non-cage systems
• Safeguarding the welfare of farmed animals from the effects of climate change
• Poultry stunning
• Published opinion on carbon dioxide gas stunning of pigs and alternative methods
• Published updated work plan

Work Group Updates

Aquaculture

SAWC’s report on the welfare of cleaner fish used in the Scottish salmon industry was published on 5 November.

Sentience

General work on the consideration of sentience is ongoing, including on foetal sentience.

Wildlife Welfare

SAWC’s animal welfare risk assessment report on wild animal translocations was published on 28 October.  SAWC and NatureScot will also meet to exchange current work activities in December.

An update on SG wildlife management work was also delivered, including on the Natural Environment Bill and the implementation of a wildlife traps licensing scheme.

Local Authorities Handling Animal Welfare Issues

The working group continues to discuss these issues and engage with local authorities across Scotland to learn about the issues they face.

Slaughter and Mobile Abattoirs

Members are finalising their report, which is scheduled to be published later in November.

Animal Experiences

Members continue to engage with stakeholders, discussing the welfare of animals used under a variety of different types of management, including the lives of these animals when not on exhibit/in use and how to measure their well-being.

Equine Welfare

Members are continuing to look into issues around equine welfare for leisure horses in Scotland, receiving insights from stakeholder meetings and evidence from publications.

Good Food Nation

Having been commissioned by the Scottish Government to recommend further robust, meaningful and achievable indicators of animal welfare for farmed animals which could be included in the next iteration of the Good Food Nation Plan, SAWC has set up a working group to discuss this.

Review of 2006 Act

3 sub-work groups have been established to discuss the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, with the aim of reporting on and reviewing it, 20 years on, focusing on:

• Legislation
• Science
• Public Attitudes

Work Plan Discussion

Members discussed the current work plan and are now working on a revised version, which will be published in due course.

Next Meeting/s

The next plenary meeting will take place on 24 February 2026.

Any other business

The members discussed the ongoing welfare concerns about the Soay sheep on St Kilda and agreed to set up a working group in order for further discussion and to produce a collective opinion on the wider moral and ethical issues.  Mike Radford has a conflict of interest regarding this issue, and confirmed that he will take no part in SAWC’s work on it.

Mike Flynn and Ellie Wigham represented SAWC at another Scottish Government Responsible Dog Ownership Expert Advisory Group meeting in October, along with other stakeholders.  Further meetings will take place in due course.

Mike Radford represented SAWC at a Scottish Government Gull Summit on 23 September in Inverness.  He provided a summary of the programme, which included presentations on the problems caused by gulls,  possible ways these might be addressed, gull distribution and behaviour, and group discussion about possible ways forward.

Andrew Kitchener raised the topic of Civet Coffee (Kopi Luwak) - which is widely available for sale in the UK – and some of the animal welfare concerns associated with its production.

Members discussed issues around data collection on animals, such as traceability, losses and other standardised welfare metrics.  They considered these relevant and important to understanding and managing animal welfare. A new working group will be established to address this soon.