Rejected petition Introduce harsher sanctions for those found guilty under the Animal Welfare Act

In 2007, the Animal Welfare Act came into force in England and Wales, meaning animal cruelty is not only against the law, but owners have a duty of care for animals.
Current convictions mean owners can be banned from owning animals, fined up to £20,000, and/or imprisoned for a max term of 51 weeks.

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Animal cruelty levels are currently at a record high in the UK; in the last year alone, the RSPCA investigated over 143,000 reports against cats, dogs, equines, rabbits, birds and more.
This evidently shows the current max sanction of 51 weeks in prison is insufficient; if a human is capable of harming innocent animals, their lack of empathy suggests they could subsequently go on to cause harm to other people along with animals - whom have just as much of a right to be on this planet as humans.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

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https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/111351

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Date submitted 7 April 2016
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