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Welcome to

Naturewatch Foundation

With your help we have been fighting to end acts of animal cruelty and improve animal welfare standards worldwide for over 30 years.

Since 1991, Naturewatch Foundation has campaigned passionately to end animal cruelty and advance animal welfare standards in the UK and worldwide.

With your help, we can keep making the world a kinder place for animals.

Please consider supporting our campaigns.

Donations and gifts in wills fund our work – there are always more animals to help and more cruelty to stop.

Together, we can make a real difference for animal welfare.

Our campaigns

Operation Recall

Livestock attacks by dogs are devastating. Find out more about what Operation Recall is trying to do to combat this.

Animal Welfare in Eastern Europe

We’ve been helping with Ukraine animal rescue and long-term improvements in stray animal management.

Protect Animals. Protect People

World Animal Day

Celebrated on October 4, find out ways to get involved.

Companion animal breeding

Ever thought about who breeds all our companion animals? Find out more.

Animal experiments

Find out more about animal experiments in the UK - and how you can help.

Wildlife crime

Find out more about wildlife crime.

What's new?

As an animal welfare charity with campaigns in the UK and beyond, it’s fair to say we have lots going on. Explore the latest news and updates from all of our current campaigns, find out about upcoming events and join our mailing list.

Actions and updates

We sought to embed the animal–human abuse link into frontline practices

Since launch, 1,922 professionals across England and Wales have been trained, with 792 attendees in 2025 alone, alongside specialist sessions delivered to police, prisons, safeguarding teams, and statutory bodies.

In February 2025, we released our ‘Forgotten Dogs’ report about the welfare of male dogs used for breeding, which highlights how regulation in England and Wales fails to protect them.

In December 2025, the UK Government committed to consulting on expanding bringing ‘stud’ dog services under animal welfare licensing as part of its pledge to end puppy farming.

We are a key partner of the Welfare and Protection Stakeholder Group that meets with the Home Office regularly to hold them accountable.

n November 2024, the UK Government published its strategy to phase out animal testing and we continue to push them to develop this quicker and further.

In 2023, we celebrated 30 years of helping ethical shoppers find cruelty-free brands in our Compassionate Shopping Guide.

For World Day for Animals in Laboratories (WDAIL) 2024, we launched our brand new Compassionate Shopping Guide website and our new look to help even more people shop cruelty-free.

In 2025, we revealed that 4 in 5 UK puppies come from unknown sources, including unlicensed breeders, illegal breeders and puppy smugglers.

In December 2025, the UK Government released its ‘Animal Welfare Strategy for England’, committing to end puppy farming and consult on strengthening dog breeding regulation in England.

In January 2024, we launched our first ever Pet Rescue Grant to help frontline animal welfare organisations rehabilitate dogs, cats and rabbits who’ve been impacted by the low-welfare pet trade.

For our second Pet Rescue Grant in 2025, we supported Hope Rescue, Bunnyjackpot Foundation, Second Chance Spaniel Rescue and Cat Supporters South Wales with grants. Read more here.

In August 2023, we launched our Force Control Room wildlife crime animated training package for police staff tasked with receiving wildlife crime reports from members of the public.

With over 5,500 police staff now trained, we are delighted to announce that our project won an award at the 2024 Charity Awards, one of the most prestigious awards schemes in the charity sector. You can read more about the award here.

At the end of 2025, Operation Major was launched at the UK Wildlife Enforcers Conference to highlight horrific injuries caused to dogs used in the commission of wildlife crime.

Alongside our Operation Major partners, we are developing resources, training, and awareness across multiple sectors. Policing, veterinary professionals, and animal welfare charities all play a vital role in protecting animals that are being exploited as tools to commit crime.

In 2023, the 44 websites run by police forces across England and Wales didn’t offer any advice to survivors of domestic abuse where pets had been harmed or threatened.

As of January 2026, all 44 forces in England and Wales (as well as the RSPCA) have now updated their pages with this crucial information.

We wanted to make sure we made everyone aware of the harm that can be done to survivors of abuse when their pet is targeted.

We have participated in many podcasts, and our campaign has appeared on ITN News and Talk TV, as well as in the Sunday Express, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Policing Insight (The National Police Magazine), and other outlets.

We want to ensure that our campaign message is heard globally. In 2022, we presented to a subcommittee of the European Parliament about animals within domestic abuse.

Recital 39 of text P9_TA(2024)0338 has now been adopted and suggests all EU states include animals harmed within human abuse cases to be incorporated in legislation by May 2027

We want to advance animal welfare in as many countries as possible and deliver awareness training as widely as possible on the need to take crimes against animals seriously.

In 2024, we presented to a conference for the prosecutors and Supreme Court judges in Athens, Greece. We helped persuade senior policing and politicians to train police officers. We have also presented to the Global Scientific Guild based in India and reached the US-based newsletter of the National Link Coalition.

We want to reach MPs to explain why animal welfare matters.

Our campaign took us to Parliament during Domestic Abuse Awareness Month, where we ran an event with partners to reach political audiences. We plan to do the same this year. The 2024 King's Speech incorporated our plans with this campaign.

In April 2025 we shared our ‘Licensed Dog Breeding in the UK & Ireland 2025’ report with government officials in Northern Ireland, highlighting a particular concern about the lack of transparency around dog breeding in the nation.

In summer 2025, DAERA consulted on introducing a new system of registration for all sellers of puppies and kittens in Northern Ireland, which would include creating a public register of sellers. Naturewatch Foundation gave evidence to this consultation and, in February 2026, DAERA confirmed it will bring forward legislation as soon as possible.

Our wildlife crime investigators are regularly submitting quality, comprehensive information to police forces across England and Wales.

2026 has already seen many police investigations rely on our information packages, ranging from offences committed by individuals acting alone to offenders organising and attending large hare coursing events across several counties.

With your support, we have contributed towards the National Wildlife Crime Unit’s online Badger persecution training video. This video, a crucial resource for law enforcement, equips officers with the knowledge and skills to combat badger persecution, a significant threat to our wildlife.

The training package has been rolled out across the UK. It is enabling police officers to initially learn and revisit the key investigation principles of badger persecution offences.

We are proud to partner with the National Rural Crime Network (NRCN). Our role is to advocate for protecting wildlife and domestic pets in rural areas, enhancing the network’s mission to improve community safety.

Naturewatch Foundation is the only animal welfare charity in the National Rural Crime Network and is widely recognised as the go-to organisation for expertise on wildlife crime and its impact on rural communities.

We’ve been campaigning for better transparency in animal testing so that the public can know all the facts.

In 2025, we launched our Forgotten Lives campaign to highlight the potentially hundreds of thousands of additional animals who are bred for British science each year and killed without being used in procedures. These hidden animals aren’t even acknowledged in official government statistics.

We sent Freedom of Information requests to every police force in England and Wales, and over 650 supporters emailed their MP calling for mandatory training on the role of pets within domestic abuse.

We launched our One Response report at New Scotland Yard and are now sharing it with key decision makers. Our report exposes a postcode lottery in how police recognise the link between animal abuse and coercive control.

We launched a campaign urging our supporters to back calls for the enactment of Law 2351 in Ukraine. We also submitted evidence and letters to the Ukrainian government.

After two years of campaigning by Naturewatch Foundation and other advocates, Law 2351 was passed in November 2021, bringing significant welfare protections animals across Ukraine.

Leave a legacy

Your support can make a real difference in the fight against animal cruelty.

Find out more

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Compassionate shopping

Support ethical brands. With our Compassionate Shopping Guide, you can buy with confidence.

Our online shop

Help support our work by purchasing from our range of cruelty free merchandise and partnership products.

How you can help

There are lots of ways to help with our work, from making a donation through to holding fundraising events or even getting involved as a volunteer. Below, you can explore the different ways to help us continue raising standards for animals.

Trail hunting consultation: have your say and make a difference.

Ask Defra to close illegal hunting loopholes to protect our wildlife.

Get involved

The Human–Animal Bond: Love, Loyalty, and Lifelong Companionship

Share your story and photos to help us celebrate the powerful bond between people and their animals.

Share your story

Call on online retailers to stop selling catapults to under-18s

This simple step would reduce harm to wildlife. Help us deliver this message directly to retailers who can make a real difference.

Send us your message

Protect Wildlife: Stop Catapult Sales to Under-18s

Weak laws leave our wildlife vulnerable and animal cruelty unchecked.

Urge the policing minister to back a ban on catapult sales to under-18s and help protect our animals.

Email the Policing Minister

The Forgotten Animals in Britain's Laboratories

Millions of animals bred for research are never used and their fate goes unrecorded.

Urge your MP to stand up for these forgotten victims.

Email your MP

Be a voice for the voiceless

UK wildlife is under threat, yet crimes against it are treated as minor offences. Urgent legal reform is needed.

Join us in telling your local MP why a change in law is vital to protect our wildlife.

Email your MP

Let's give the household product testing ‘ban’ a makeover

Join us in asking the UK Government to finally end animal testing for all everyday household products.

Sign our petition

Let’s end extreme cat breeding!

Unethical extreme designer pet trends are pushing cats and kittens to the limit.

Join us in calling for extreme cat breeding to be banned across the UK.

Sign our petition

Have you been a victim of greed breeding?

If you’ve had a bad experience with a dodgy breeder or seller, we want to hear from you.

Complete our short survey and share your story.

Share your story

Donate to Naturewatch Foundation

Your support helps us protect wildlife and tackle cruelty. Every donation makes a real impact.

Donate now

Other ways
that you can help

Take part in a way that works for you, whether volunteering, fundraising or donating items, and help create a kinder future for animals.

See how you can help