UK's first animal lawyer speaks up for squirrels, pigs, lobsters, chickens and even hamsters

FORGET pet detectives…meet Britain’s most dedicated animal lawyer.

Edie Bowles fights the cause for grey squirrels, pigs, a caught in a pet custody battle, lobsters, farmed salmon and even creatures as small as hamsters. Her firm, Advocates for which she set up in 2019, is the UK’s first to be dedicated to fighting for

Edie, 39, said: “The UK prides itself on being a nation of animal lovers with high standards, yet many laws are simply ignored with little accountability. Animals can’t speak up for themselves so we are fighting to ensure all are treated fairly and given the rights they deserve.”

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Specifically, one major consequence of this flawed system is the suffering endured by hundreds of millions of chickens each year in the UK, she says.

During staggeringly short lives – from egg to slaughter in 35 days – 90% of the 1bn birds raised annually for meat in the UK can gain up to 100g a day.

As a result these fast-growing breeds, dubbed Franken-chickens, have a wide range of health and welfare issues, including heart attacks, lameness, bone deformities, muscle diseases, burns and organ failure. A third also struggle to walk and many suffer horrific injuries and illness.

This week she will be representing the lives of billions of broiler chickens in the Court of Appeal in a landmark case to determine whether Frankenchickens - birds selectively bred for rapid growth - are legal, and if the Government is acting unlawfully in allowing their use.

One of her early cases involved saving 74 pigs who were in such a bad state due to neglect they were facing a destruction order.

Following a Government raid on a farm in Pembrokeshire, Wales, an illegal slaughterhouse was discovered where all 200 animals were starving and very close to death.

Some were rehomed but 53 were due to be destroyed. That number soon jumped to 74 as a result of inadequate care in a holding facility while their plight was being decided.

But thanks to Edie’s intervention on the behalf of Beneath the Wood Sanctuary, the pigs are now living out their lives in Ceredigion, Wales. The rescue would also be the biggest reversal of a destruction order placed on animals in the UK.

Another fight is over the controversial practice of boiling lobsters alive. Several countries including Norway, Switzerland and New Zealand have introduced bans but the method is still the most common way of killing lobsters in the UK. But this is despite a new law - the Animal Welfare Sentience) Act 2022 - which recognised that decapod crustaceans, such as lobsters and crabs, are sentient animals that feel pain.

Edie said: “People might be surprised to learn that lobsters are recognised as sentient under the law and are protected from avoidable pain at the time of killing. It is also now known that they suffer during the standard practice of being boiled alive and that more humane alternative killing methods exist. Due to all these reasons we argue that boiling them alive is illegal and we are working to address this to ensure that lobsters also receive their legal protection.”

Last year, the UK’s first large-scale onshore salmon farm - a closed system which the developers said would prevent disease and invasions of sea lice, was given the green light.

But the project is now at the centre of a legal battle between North East Lincolnshire council, after animal rights campaigners, who claim it is a “new form of factory farming”. On the behalf of animal welfare charity Animal Equality UK, Edie has successfully sought permission for a judicial review over the scheme, which is supposed to produce about 5,000 tonnes of fish a year.

It is not just wild animals that Edie, who lives in Brighton with rescue cat Toby, has represented. Last year she won a pet custody battle over dog Sonny which made a break-up for Steph Kirkley even messier. Edie explained: “Animals are property under the law, although this does not align with how we all see pets, often as family members who we love dearly. This status leads to all manner of troubling outcomes when relationships break down. The law is often more interested in who did a simple act like transferring the payment for the animal to indicate the ownership, rather than who took care of the animal and what would be in the animals best interest.”