Duty of Care: Protecting Animals Before Harm Is Done 

What is animal welfare?

Animal welfare is about how well an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives, the treatment it receives, and the experiences it has — both physically and mentally. 

As animal welfare scientist Professor Donald Broom explains:

“The welfare of an individual is how well it copes with its situation, physically, physiologically and mentally.”

When an animal is coping well, its welfare is good. When it is unable to cope and is suffering, its welfare is poor.

Protecting animal welfare means more than simply preventing cruelty. It means ensuring an animal’s basic needs are met and, importantly, that it can also experience positive states that support its emotional wellbeing. 

What are an animal’s needs?

Animal welfare concepts can also be understood through several widely recognised frameworks that help identify animals’ needs and how best to protect their welfare. These include:

What is a “duty of care”

A duty of care means that the person responsible for an animal must take reasonable steps, in all the circumstances and in line with good practice, to meet that animal’s needs.

This is a crucial concept because the current Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance focuses mainly on responding after cruelty or serious suffering has already occurred. In other words, the law is often strongest only once the harm has already been done. 

That is not good enough.

The SPCA supports modernising the law so that it promotes good welfare, not just punishment after the fact. A reformed law should take a more preventive and guidance-based approach, allowing action to be taken in appropriate cases before an animal suffers serious harm.

Why introduce a duty of care into the law?

Including a duty of care in the law would shift the focus from reacting to cruelty to preventing suffering in the first place.

This is important because “animal cruelty” is a legal concept defined under the law. In practice, behaviour that may appear unacceptable or concerning to the public does not automatically meet the legal threshold for cruelty unless that threshold is established through the legal process. A duty of care would therefore provide a clearer and more practical basis for intervention before conditions deteriorate to the point where a cruelty offence can be proven.

It would also allow for a practical enforcement tool such as improvement notices. These notices could be issued by authorised parties to people responsible for animals, giving them time to take the necessary steps to improve the animal’s care before the situation deteriorates into cruelty.

This approach has already shown its value elsewhere. In the United Kingdom, the introduction of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 placed greater emphasis on animal welfare, alongside protection from cruelty. According to the RSPCA, the introduction of a duty of care and the use of improvement notices have had a significant positive impact on animal welfare in England and Wales. While the law still retains strong anti-cruelty penalties where serious offences occur.

A better framework for all animals

A general, reasonable duty of care could apply to all animals in all settings. More detailed guidance could then be set out through secondary instruments such as Codes of Practice, which can provide practical standards for different species and circumstances.

This would create a clearer, more modern system — one that helps people understand their responsibilities, supports earlier intervention, and gives animals the protection they need before suffering begins.