UK cattle welfare legislation provides baseline protections but significant policy gaps remain, particularly around routine painful procedures and transport welfare.
UK cattle welfare legislation has improved significantly in recent decades but policy gaps allow avoidable welfare suffering to persist. Disbudding without analgesia remains legal for young calves without specific anaesthesia requirements. Transport fitness assessments are required but enforcement gaps allow unfit animals to be transported. Zero-grazing dairy systems with permanent indoor confinement are legal without outdoor access requirements. Welfare-focused policy reform would introduce mandatory pain relief for routine procedures, strengthen transport fitness enforcement, and introduce minimum outdoor access requirements for dairy cows.