Bishop Agnellus Andrew and five other religious leaders have written
a letter to
The Times expressing grave misgivings
about the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Bill. In the letter,
published on 22 February, Bishop Andrew, who is president of the
Catholic Study Circle for Animal Welfare, recalls that legislation
passed in 1876, on the urging of Cardinal Henry Manning, Archbishop
of Westminster, had caused subsequent dissatisfaction and that
Cardinal Manning and others had even regretted that the bill had
become law.
The letter applauds the government's honouring of its election
promise to update animal welfare legislation, but says that "the
bill in its present form is seriously inadequate". In particular,
the bill, which was debated by the House of Commons last week,
failed "to deal adequately with inflicting serious pain on animals".
Further failings of the legislation were that it allowed experiments
for trivial purposes, such as non-medical cosmetics; included a
clause protecting the secrecy of animal experiments; and did not
provide for a sufficient number of inspectors to supervise licensed
establishments. The letter calls for the bill to be suitably
amended. "As Stewards of Creation, we feel a moral duty to concern
ourselves in this matter", the letter says.
The five people who signed the letter with Bishop Andrew were
Bishop Clark of East Anglia, the Rt Revd Derek Bond, Anglican Bishop
of Bradwell, the Rt Revd John Baker, Anglican Bishop of Salisbury,
the Methodist Leader Lord Soper, and Rabbi Lionel Blue.
In comments to The Tablet last week, Bishop Andrew
expressed his concern "not only about the Bill itself, but about the
widely held belief that Catholics are very lacking in this area". He
quoted Cardinal Heenan, who said that animals had "very positive
rights because they are God's creatures . . . We must say that God
has the right to have all his creatures treated with absolute
respect". The current Bill worried him, he said, because "it has
very few prohibitions and too much about this 'control' is left to
the Home Secretary and his team".
From The Tablet dated 1 March 1986
See: Letter to The Times:
http://www.all-creatures.org/fol/let-20081102-2.html
