2025 in Review: Key Milestones and Impact
2025 has been a big year for The Animal Law Foundation. We have seen significant progress on some of our key programmes, and have released two major reports, delving deep into Food Chain Misinformation and The Enforcement Problem of animal protection law throughout the UK.
Under animal welfare legislation across the UK, farmed fish are entitled to a number of protections including the provision of a suitable environment and the prevention of unnecessary suffering. We have been arguing for over two years that the lack of official guidance on what these laws mean results in a lack of compliance amongst keepers and a lack of enforcement amongst regulators. This is evidenced by the fact that to date there have been no prosecutions for breach of fish welfare protections, despite undercover investigations repeatedly finding serious welfare concerns on UK fish farms, including sea lice, disease, and high mortality rates.
Victory!
We have made a significant step in securing victory this year. On 23 September 2025, the Scottish Government committed to producing official guidance for farmed fish throughout the whole of their life-cycle. This development is a crucial step forward in ensuring that laws on paper translate to protections in practice, and follows the Scottish Government’s initial steps to protect fish welfare taken in July this year, with the release of official guidance on welfare at the time of killing for salmon farming. This development received widespread coverage in Scotland, including in The Scotsman and The Shetland Times.
This is not the end of the story. Continued engagement will be crucial as the guidance is developed. In order to produce robust, comprehensive guidance which secures fish welfare, the development process must be fair and cannot unduly favour industry interests. We are maintaining our engagement with the Scottish Government to ensure that this will be the case. We will also continue our work to ensure this progress is built upon and reflected in England to ensure that farmed fish are protected across the UK.
On 6 March 2025, we launched our work on Food Chain Misinformation, which explores the widespread misinformation that surrounds animal-derived food products. The consumer and public are sold an idea that animal farming is small-scale and high welfare, when the reality is that 85% of animals are reared on industrial farms. This misinformation is prevalent in advertising, supermarkets, TV shows and even news reports. It can also fall foul of the law, which protects consumers and the public from being misled. .
In June, alongside Diane Morgan and Wendy Turner Webster, we launched a billboard campaign to highlight the disparity between the information provided to consumers and the conditions on industrial farms, which was displayed over 9,000 times.
We finished the year by hosting an event on Food Chain misinformation in the UK Parliament alongside Humane World for Animals and Compassion in World Farming. This event was hosted by Sarah Dyke MP, and included speeches by our Executive Director Edie Bowles, Diane Morgan, Neil Hudson MP and others! See some highlights here. The event was attended by over 60 MPs.
On 3 December 2025, we launched the third instalment of The Enforcement Problem report. This report contained data gathered from over 160 local authorities and central regulators and dove deep into the deficiencies in the enforcement of farmed animal protection law.
Our reporting revealed continued low rates of inspection and enforcement action, with just 2.2% of farms being subject to an official welfare inspection across the UK. Non-compliance on farms was detected in 28.4% of inspections; however, only 2.2% of that non-compliance resulted in inspection.
This work has been covered in various publications including Vet Times, Irish News the Sunday Post and The Law Society Gazette
The Enforcement Problem is real, it is urgent and it must be addressed.
In January this year, we brought the issue of routine tail docking of pigs to the forefront, something which is illegal yet is authorised by vets for up to 85% of pigs on UK farms. We wrote to Defra and the RCVS raising the issue and asking for investigation to be conducted into the issue and guidance to be issued. Through our engagement, we prompted DEFRA and the RCVS to consult with pig vets. We will continue to work on this matter in 2026 with a view of securing clear guidance to ensure no vet is drawn into illegal activity.
Our work has received front page coverage on the Vet Times. We also hosted a webinar alongside The Webinar Vet, bringing together experts from animal law, veterinary practice, and academia to explore how the UK can move beyond routine tail docking.
This year we secured a major milestone: securing permission for judicial review regarding the handling of chickens by their legs, a painful practice that is standard on UK farms, but up until recently was illegal.
We are challenging the dilution of law in the courts. Our work is supported by MPs like Sir Roger Gale MP, who asked an oral question in Parliament on the issue, and Adrian Ramsay MP who tabled an Early Day Motion to stop the government’s change in law from passing. While the law change did pass, the House of Lords published a damning report mentioning our case and supporting our stance that the legal change was a dilution of standards for chickens.
We will continue our challenge in court for removing legal protections for chickens, our hearing is scheduled for February 2026.
Throughout the year, we have continued to apply pressure on the government to recognise that boiling lobsters alive is illegal under Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing Regulations. We wrote an open letter to Defra with over 50 signatories from academics, animal groups and celebrities, which got exclusive coverage on the Daily Mail.
In December 2025, Defra released their Animal Welfare Strategy, which acknowledged for the first time ever that it is illegal to boil decapod crustaceans alive.
This was a landmark moment in the fight for increased protections for crustaceans. We are delighted that the government has now accepted our interpretation of the law.
Looking ahead
While we are proud of the progress we have achieved this year our reporting makes clear that there is still work to be done.
In 2026, we will continue to hold those that disregard the law and those charged with enforcing the law to account to ensure the protections the law promised to animals means something in practice.
