A brief document whose subtitle is ‘Eight achievable steps to help animals, people and the planet’. The topics are:

1. Toiletries and cleaning products
2. Circuses
3. Pets as prizes
4. Spaying and neutering
5. Foie gras and veal
6. Fur
7. Humane wildlife management
8. Plastic bags

This is welcome. My recommendations would be more radical and their actualisation would depend on a load of other stuff being in place to ameliorate loneliness – particularly of homeless and older people – and to protect people who are nutritionally vulnerable, and an intense, world-wide application of ethical minds to the status of animals in human society:

1. Consumables (animal free, no gratuitous messing with animal habitats)
2. Pets (unlawful to trade in or profit from animals or animal derivatives; unlawful to detain an animal by force unless it is directly threatening a human life*
3. Farming (animal farming outlawed; arable farming to accommodate animals as far as possible)
4. Meat and other animal derivatives (outlawed)
5. No culling ever
6. Waste (legal obligation to as far as possible make it compostable, recyclable and impossible to die from e.g. almost every pigeon in London with a disabled foot has a bit of plastic mesh digging into it, if you look closely)
7. Habitat (animal populations given rights to a habitat)
8. Duty of care to animals who are trapped or in difficulty because of human action

You notice I steer clear of animal testing for medical purposes. This is because I can’t do it justice.

**These raise a lot of questions. I draw a distinction between animal companions and pets. I would hate for humans and other animals not to mix. Here’s the case for and against pets.