The UK Centre for Animal Law - A-law

12/10/2026

Registration is now open for Greyhounds Around the Globe Conference in London! 🇬🇧

Join nonprofit leaders, lawmakers and adoption experts on November 7 to learn about successful strategies to end dog racing worldwide. Plus, enjoy plant-based meals throughout the day and hear from celebrity host Roo Irvine over a 3-course gourmet dinner - all at the elegant Lumiere Underwood. You are invited to register today!

🎟️ Please click here to find out more and buy tickets: https://www.grey2kusa.org/about/worldwide/greyglobe/index.php

🎓 Free registration is available for students. Please contact Christine A. Dorchak, Esq. at [email protected]

09/10/2026

SAVE THE DATE: We are delighted to announce that the UK Animal Law Conference 2027 will take place on 2-3 June 2027 at the University of Birmingham.

Organised by the UK Centre for Animal Law (A-LAW) and the Multispecies Collective, the Conference is the UK’s definitive meeting place for academics, lawyers, NGOs, and students working toward full legal protection for animals.

Look out for further announcements later this autumn.

08/10/2026

At the Labour and Liberal Democrat party conferences, A-LAW joined conversations about how law and policy can better protect animals. We welcomed the opportunity to engage with MPs, campaigners and policymakers working to turn commitments into meaningful change for animals

07/10/2026

A-LAW Chair Sonul Badiani-Hamment joined fellow animal welfare experts on the closing panel at Defra’s Partnership for Action Against Wildlife Crime Conference at Kew Gardens.

Chaired by Dominic Dyer, the panel brought together representatives from A-LAW, the League Against Cruel Sports, Born Free Foundation, the RSPCA and Naturewatch Foundation to discuss tackling wildlife crime at home and abroad.

Sonul highlighted the vital need for clear and effective laws, backed by robust enforcement and appropriate sentencing, to ensure that legal protections make a meaningful difference for animals.

05/10/2026

28/09/2026

⚖️ What’s Parliament doing for animals?

A-LAW brings you the latest across the UK’s four nations.

A new series of updates showing how much – or how little – is going on to improve animal welfare across the nations’ parliaments. Please do keep an eye out for our next instalment.

Today, we bring you updates from Westminster 🇬🇧 and Holyrood 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

A special thank you to our volunteers for researching 👏🏼

26/09/2026

🐷 On Monday 19 October, Foodrise and other organisations will come together in Parliament for a Mass Lobby Day to call for an end to factory farming in the UK.

🐔 The event will bring together campaigners and members of the public to meet with their MPs and discuss the impact of factory farming on animal welfare, the environment and local communities.

The organisers are calling for a moratorium on new factory farms and a commitment to ending factory farming in the UK.

📍 Location: UK Parliament, Westminster, London

📅 Date: Monday 19 October 2026

⏰ Time: 2–5pm

🔗 To find out more click the link here: https://action.foodrise.org.uk/page/200042/action/1?ea.tracking.id=animal-law

24/09/2026

⚖️ Upper Tribunal rules secrecy around UK animal experiments unlawful.

🐭 The Upper Tribunal has ruled that secrecy surrounding animal experiments in the UK is unlawful, following a landmark Freedom of Information case brought by Cruelty Free International.

The case challenged rules preventing the Home Office from disclosing information about animal-testing licence applications, including how it assesses whether the expected benefits of experiments outweigh animal suffering.

The dispute arose after the Home Office began granting licences for cosmetics testing again in 2019, following a 30-year period in which such applications had been refused.

The ruling could have wider implications for public scrutiny of how animal experiments are authorised in the UK, although the case is expected to proceed to the Court of Appeal.

🐰 Read more about the ruling here: https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/upper-tribunal-says-secrecy-around-uk-animal-experiments-is-unlawful/

23/09/2026

📖 More from the latest issue of The UK Journal of Animal Law!

🐕 Criminal Liability for Dog-on-Dog Attacks: Does the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 Have Enough Bite?

Stephen Forster examines whether the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 adequately addresses dog-on-dog attacks, exploring the criminal liability associated with these incidents.

🦋 Animals in the Planning Balance: Why Biodiversity Net Gain Is Not Animal Welfare

Acland Bryant explores the relationship between biodiversity net gain and animal welfare, examining why measures designed to improve biodiversity do not necessarily address the welfare of individual animals.

📎 Read both articles and the full August 2026 edition of The UK Journal of Animal Law here:https://www.alaw.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/UK-Journal-of-Animal-Law-August-2026_compressed.pdf

20/09/2026

🎆 The UK Government’s public consultation on the regulation of fireworks and pyrotechnics closes in under three weeks.

The proposals include restricting noisier fireworks to professional users, adding products considered to carry unacceptable risks to the list of banned pyrotechnics, and reviewing the regulation of products currently classified as lower risk.

The consultation specifically recognises the negative effects fireworks can have on animals. Sudden, unpredictable explosions can cause severe fear and distress to companion animals, farmed animals and wildlife, sometimes leading animals to panic, flee or injure themselves.

This is an important opportunity to share evidence and views on how regulation could better protect animals.

🧨 The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 7 October 2026.

📎 Click on the link here to find out more and respond to the consultation: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/fireworks-and-pyrotechnics-in-the-uk