Pressure is building for new animal welfare laws in Wales, including a ban on tethering horses, after a Swansea politician and a petition signed by more than 13,500 people pressed the case in the Senedd.
During questions to the First Minister on Tuesday, Mike Hedges, the Labour member for Swansea’s Gŵyr Abertawe seat, set out a lengthy list of welfare measures he wants to see written into law.
Hedges told the Senedd that how a society treats animals reflects on the kind of society it is, and that scientific evidence had established a wide range of animals as sentient beings capable of feeling pleasure, pain and distress.
He called for legislation covering the microchipping of cats, a ban on tethering horses, a ban on keeping primates, an end to the cage breeding of game birds, the banning of Larsen traps, and a requirement that rabbit owners complete a short training course.
First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth said the Welsh Government wanted to build on existing standards and develop a science-led animal health and welfare plan, working with industry and welfare groups.
He said legislation was “one route, and one that we will always be open to considering”, noting that the last Senedd had legislated to ban greyhound racing.
But he struck a note of caution on cat microchipping, saying the evidence on whether a law made a difference was mixed, since Wales had similar microchipping rates to England despite England having legislation.
The First Minister said the Government would keep monitoring, adding: “If we’re lagging behind or we feel we need another string to our bow, well let’s look at other measures that we can take.”
The call for a tethering ban echoes a public petition that has gathered momentum in recent weeks.
The petition, created by Maria Lester, has passed 13,696 signatures and runs until September. Because the Senedd’s Petitions Committee considers any petition with more than 10,000 names for a debate, the issue looks likely to reach the chamber.
A tethered horse is one restrained by a rope or chain to limit how far it can move. The RSPCA, which says it receives around 5,000 complaints about tethered horses across the UK each year, describes it as one of the most common equine welfare problems its officers deal with.
The exchange took a sharper turn when Reform UK’s Cai Parry-Jones asked the First Minister to confirm he would not move to ban jump racing in Wales, pointing to a Plaid Cymru MP’s past call to ban Grand National-style racing and warning that the sport supports jobs and brings in money for the economy.
The First Minister did not answer the question directly. He replied only that he had to correct the member, saying the greyhound racing vote had been a free vote — and the presiding officer then moved the session on to the next question.
Reform later said the First Minister had “refused to rule out” banning horse racing. In the chamber, he was not drawn on the subject either way.
Horse racing remains a significant part of the sporting calendar in the area, with Ffos Las racecourse near Trimsaran staging regular meetings over both the flat and the jumps.
The greyhound racing ban, passed by the Senedd in March on a 39 to 10 vote, will wind the sport down in Wales by 2030. The horse racing industry’s governing body, the British Horseracing Authority, has said the Welsh and Scottish governments stressed there was no connection between the greyhound bans and the future of racing.
