NEW Labour's first manifesto in 1997 promised a new life for animals, which would have ended much of the legal cruelty to animals in this country.

They promised to ban wild animals in circuses, compulsory registration of dogs to fund a nation-wide warden service, a ban on the killing of badgers, a ban on using animals to test cosmetics, alcohol, tobacco and the development of weapons, a Royal Commission to review the effectiveness and justification of animal experiments and to examine alternatives, better treatment of animals reared for food, protection for wild mammals and species threatened with extinction, better conditions during transit with maximum journey times, no more commercial whaling, an EU embargo on trapping exotic birds. They also pledged a free vote on hunting and a ban on fur farming, which to their credit they have implemented.

The new Animal Welfare Bill due next year could be the ideal chance to make good their pledges but it does nothing.

They could make a huge difference by just adding the five freedoms recommended by Labour's Farm Animal Committee.

1. A suitable environment.

2. To be able to exhibit natural behaviour.

3. Be housed with or apart from other or it's own species.

4. Protected from pain, injury and disease.

5. Given adequate food and water.

The Zoo Act still doesn't apply to circuses and if it did all cruel entertainment would end.

Compulsory labelling of food and chemicals showing their origins and how they were tested would make a huge reduction in factory farming and animal testing.

J RAWLINGS, Bournemouth