Petitions before parliament

Every petition on petition.parliament.uk that asks for something about animals. The ask and the government’s reply are reproduced as each was published, and each row links to the petition itself.

confirmed 86 minutes ago against petition.parliament.uk, and rechecked every 6 hours. Signature counts move between checks; the petition page is always the current number.

116open now
10government responses
1debated
25closed
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116 open petitions.

Past 10,000 signatures

Petitions reaching 10,000 signatures get a written response from the government. Where one has been published it is quoted in full below, attributed to the department that gave it.

Make catapult attacks against animals a standalone criminal offence

opened 20 August 2026 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

56,508 signatures · 43,492 short of the 100,000 considered for debate

Introduce legislation in England to make it a specific, standalone criminal offence to intentionally or recklessly use, discharge or attempt to discharge a catapult or slingshot at or towards any animal.

Intentionally causing harm to wildlife is unacceptable but sufficient laws are already in place to protect wild animals from the targeted use of catapults.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 14 September 2026
animal

Provide lifelong vet care and financial support for retired service animals

opened 12 June 2026 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

55,161 signatures · 44,839 short of the 100,000 considered for debate

We want the UK Government to create a national support scheme to provide lifelong veterinary care and financial assistance for retired service animals, including police dogs, military dogs, and police horses.

Whilst the government has no plans for a national support scheme for retired service animals, government is reviewing options to improve vet fee transparency and consumer choice.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 27 July 2026
animalvet

Introduce a national strategy to tackle the cat overpopulation and rescue crisis

opened 19 August 2026 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

19,161 signatures · 80,839 short of the 100,000 considered for debate

This strategy should seek to expand affordable neutering, support overwhelmed rescue centres, strengthen responsible pet ownership education, and review measures to reduce irresponsible breeding and cat abandonment.

Government has committed to improving its understanding of management practices related to cat breeding and to consider steps to improve welfare, and is working to encourage responsible pet ownership.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 14 September 2026
cat

Add fish-eating birds to Schedule 2.1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981

opened 26 June 2026 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

15,742 signatures · 84,258 short of the 100,000 considered for debate

Amend Schedule 2.1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to list cormorants, goosanders and red-breasted mergansers that they may be managed, enabling proportionate control to protect inland fisheries and migratory fish populations where serious damage is evidenced.

The government recently consulted on amending Schedule 2.1 and invited views from stakeholders. Responses are now being considered. Final decisions will be taken by Ministers and published shortly.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 27 July 2026
birdfishwildlife

Require meat to be labelled if religiously slaughtered & stunned or not stunned

opened 12 May 2026 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

15,254 signatures · 84,746 short of the 100,000 considered for debate

We want the Government to require all meat products to be clearly labelled to show whether the animal was religiously slaughtered (RS or NRS) and if the animal was stunned before slaughter or not-stunned before slaughter (SS or NSS).

Whilst there is no regulatory requirement for labelling of meat from animals slaughtered without stunning, any information of this nature must be accurate and must not be misleading to the consumer.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 3 September 2026
slaughter

Launch a public inquiry into the regulation of animal experimentation

opened 9 September 2026 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

14,252 signatures · 85,748 short of the 100,000 considered for debate

We call on the Government to launch an independent public inquiry into the regulation of animal experimentation under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (ASPA).

Past 10,000 signatures; no government response published yet.

animal

Review and reform laws on keeping wild animals as pets

opened 27 July 2026 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

13,727 signatures · 86,273 short of the 100,000 considered for debate

Wild animals are inherently unsuited to life as pets, yet millions are kept in UK homes in conditions that fail to meet their complex welfare needs, with a growing trade and weak oversight. We call for urgent review and reform of laws on the keeping and trade of wild animals as pets.

The government takes the keeping of wild animals seriously. Effective legislation is in place and we are working with the sector and local authorities to promote better welfare and enforcement.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 24 September 2026
animalpet

Make it illegal to walk dogs during extreme heat to prevent suffering and death.

opened 24 April 2026 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

11,627 signatures · 88,373 short of the 100,000 considered for debate

Introduce legislation to make it an offence to walk or exercise dogs during dangerously high temperatures (i.e. 25°C and above), to protect them from heatstroke and burned paws.

Legislation and guidance already protects pets during extreme heat. Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is an offence to cause any animal unnecessary suffering or fail to provide for its welfare.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 31 July 2026
dog

Protect raced greyhounds from exports by introducing spay/neuter laws

opened 24 April 2026 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

11,626 signatures · 88,374 short of the 100,000 considered for debate

Make it law to spay and neuter all raced greyhounds once they finish racing on licensed race tracks to protect them from being shipped around the world to breeding/racing kennels.

The government’s animal welfare priorities to 2030 are set in the Animal Welfare Strategy published in December 2025. Defra is not currently considering changes to the neutering or spaying of dogs.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 9 June 2026
greyhound

Require tracking of companion animal euthanasia to prevent unnecessary deaths

opened 1 May 2026 · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

10,272 signatures · 89,728 short of the 100,000 considered for debate

Every day healthy and treatable companion animals are put to sleep not because they are old or because they are beyond help but because there are limited places for them to go Their lives end quietly in pounds, commercial kennels, veterinary practices and rescues, often unseen and unrecorded.

Past 10,000 signatures; no government response published yet.

animal

Everything else being petitioned

Below 10,000 signatures, so no government response is due. Listed so the page shows what is being asked rather than only what has already succeeded.

How this page decides what to show

The petitions service publishes everything as JSON and its search runs over the whole petition text, which finds a great deal that is not about animals — a petition about data centres comes back for “wildlife” because its background mentions wildlife. So the sweep asks 14 broad terms and then keeps only the petitions whose one-line ask mentions one of 86 animal subjects. Both lists are in the repository and both are printed here, because a page that filters ought to say what it filters on.

The 14 terms asked of the API

animal welfare · animals · dog · cat · pet · wildlife · horse · bird · hunting · slaughter · zoo · livestock · greyhound · snare

The 86 subjects matched against the ask

animal · pet · dog · xl bully · cat · kitten · puppy · puppy farm · horse · equine · pony · ponies · donkey · greyhound · hound · badger · fox · deer · hare · rabbit · hedgehog · otter · wolf · wolves · lynx · beaver · boar · bird · seabird · seagull · gull · songbird · waterbird · raptor · pigeon · swan · poultry · hen · chicken · duck · fish · whale · dolphin · seal · primate · monkey · wildlife · livestock · cattle · cow · sheep · lamb · pig · goat · snare · trap · glue trap · fur · ivory · vivisection · zoo · circus · aquarium · captivity · slaughter · slaughterhouse · abattoir · stunning · cull · hatching · rehoming · breeder · vet · veterinary · sentience · sentient · cruelty · endangered · dock · declaw · hunt · falconry · angling · tether · live export · fireworks

Matching allows a plural and the two common verb endings, so “cull” catches “culled” and “culling”. If a petition you expected is missing, the subject list is the thing to look at first. Method last reviewed 23 August 2026; the signature counts above carry their own timestamp.

What this page does not do

It does not say which petitions deserve support, rank them against each other, or record who signed or created one. It does not carry a name: the petitions service publishes the creator’s name and this site does not store or display it. Nor does it show how any member of parliament voted — where a petition has been debated, the link goes to the Hansard transcript, and TheyWorkForYou is where individual voting records live.

Source: Petitions: UK Government and Parliament — help, for the 10,000 and 100,000 thresholds quoted above. Petition text and government responses are reproduced from petition.parliament.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0. What the law currently is sits on the law comparison, and how it got there on the timeline.