“Dear Petitioner
Thank you for the petition submitted on the change.org website requesting that the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, be a voice for defenceless animals.
The Mayor is appalled by animal cruelty. Indeed, he has taken both concerted and collaborative action, with statutory and voluntary charities, both to prevent and prosecute those offenders committing or involved in animal cruelty.
Together with the World Society for the Protection of Animals, in 2014 the Mayor hosted a joint seminar on Wildlife Crime. It brought together relevant agencies, police, politicians and frontline charities from across the capital to showcase existing work and explore new partnership opportunities to combat the international illegal wildlife trade - a trade which threatens conservation efforts and causes intense suffering for the individual animals snared, transported or killed for their fur, skins, bones or other body parts. The seminar also explored illegal poaching operations, the illegal trade in UK endangered species and the deliberate injuring and maiming of London’s wildlife.
The Mayor believes that it is crucial that agencies learn from each other and ensure that their skills, experience and specialist knowledge are pooled to tackle both wildlife crime and animal cruelty, ultimately through collaborative working, enforcement, improved awareness and education.
The Mayor has stressed that where animals have been subject to cruelty, this is a dreadful crime, causing distress to those directly involved and the wider community and that we must do all what we can to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice quickly. That is why, in such circumstances he has sought that full investigations are carried out, engagement with local communities takes place and specialist advice is sought from veterinary surgeons and animal welfare charities. He believes that it is important to treat animals well and that the punishments for these crimes should be kept continually under review to ensure they are acting as a deterrent, particularly given that a number of studies have drawn lines between abuse of animals and violence against people, especially domestic violence, which reinforces the need to be vigilant.
We hope the above demonstrates the Mayor’s commitment to tackling animal cruelty.
Yours sincerely
Public Liaison Officer
Greater London Authority
”
