Animal welfare bill: RSPCA backs Labour's plan

The animal welfare bill aims to protect livestock from being exported out of the UK

The RSPCA is supporting a plan to force the government to bring back the Kept Animals Bill.

This bill was dropped in May, which means it will not progress through parliament.

The Kept Animals Bill would introduce tougher laws to protect dogs and farm animals.

The Labour party has been trying to bring the bill to make it become a law, but this would involve forcing it back into Parliament.

What is the Animal Welfare bill?

This animal welfare bill is called the Kept Animals Bill, which was meant to crack down on dog thefts and exporting farm animals outside of the UK.

A bill is an idea that politicians discuss in parliament, to decide whether it should become a law.

The RSPCA rescues and protects animals and pets

Why are people talking about it now?

In May this year, the government stopped talking about the bill in parliament. This meant it stopped coming closer to becoming a law.

However, the Labour party says they want to force the bill back into parliament. Politicians can do this by tabling a motion, which is a political term that basically means choosing a topic to be talked about in the House off Commons or the House of Lords.

The plan so far is to table a motion for 12 July, to try and pass the bill through the last few steps to make it a law.

The RSPCA has said it supports the Labour party, and has put up adverts around Westminster, where politicians work in London, to try persuade MPs to get involved.

Adverts calling on MPs to back the Kept Animals Bill have been placed around Westminster

The Conservative party had promised that they would make the Kept Animals Bill a law in 2019, during the general election, but then dropped the bill in May this year.

Labour's shadow environment secretary, Jim McMahon, said passing the bill is important not just for "animal welfare", but also for "trust in politics".

The government is still looking at banning people from keeping primates, animals like apes, monkeys and lemurs, as pets. A new system is going to be put in place to make sure any primate kept in captivity in the UK is given "zoo-level standards", to protect primate welfare.