Animal Experimentation and Research Commons^™

Updating The British Cruelty To Animals Act Of 1876: Can The Center Hold?, Judith Hampson

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Long experience with unsuccessful attempts by British animal welfare groups to promote private members' bills for reform or replacement of the 1876 Cruelty to Animals Act has convinced reformists that achieving this kind of change by lobbying Parliament may be impossible. For this reason, a small reformist group- spearheaded by the ex-chairman of the Labour Party, Lord Houghton, and an eminent surgeon, the late Lord Platt- was formed and drafted reform proposals in a document widely known as the Houghton/Piatt Memorandum (paper submitted to the Home Secretary, 1976). This report called for a substantial tightening of controls established under the …