The Myth of the UK as a ‘Nation of Animal Lovers’

Long held within the UK is the notion that we are a nation of animal lovers; this belief is fostered by media reports, our self-righteous selves and even Government reports which state in their first sentence: ‘We have the best animal welfare in the world and are a nation of animal lovers’. Unfortunately we tend to indulge this self-professed accolade without question or criticism and continue to believe this false sense of security; one reason animal abuse continues unchecked here and could possibly even increase over time.

Mindset must change, and we need to examine our animal keeping habits and regulations, otherwise no improvement can occur. Unfortunately, during my forty years in animal welfare I have observed that animal status and standards of care have not improved; indeed they may even worsened; yet we profess to be a nation of animal lovers when in reality we are no more caring than any other nation.

Aren’t we the ones keeping so many animals, pioneering welfare laws and animal charities, and spreading animal welfare ideals throughout the globe, I hear you ask?
Well, the problem with this argument is that, if we truly are animal lovers as a nation, why are there thousands of animal charities across the UK devoted to responsible ownership, as well as laws to protect animals? No civilized and animal-friendly society like ours needs the creation of more shelters; yet new shelters seem to appear every week; an estimated 10 million pets suffer physical and psychological stress each year; hundreds of thousands are treated like disposable items and sent off to animal charity recycling plants; the RSPCA receives over one million phone calls every year investigating 150,000 cruelty complaints; yet our laws seem ineffective and inadequately enforced?

We allow this to occur because too often we fall under the false impression that we are an animal-loving nation, instead of acknowledging there is an ongoing issue of uninformed and negligent animal ownership in Britain, one neither charity or government can adequately address due to misguided policies and lack of resolution.