AWP 2019 General Election Fighting Fund

We're calling on animal advocates across the UK and around the world to help us raise the funds to allow us to field up to 6 candidates in the 2019 General Election which takes place on December 12th. 

After our AWP councillor, Jane Smith retained her Alsager Town Council Seat in May's Local Elections with a whopping 9.8% of the vote and our fantastic result of 25,232 votes (1.1%) in the 2019 EU Elections in the London Region, Animal Welfare Party hopes to be able to stand up to 6 candidates in locations across the UK in the General Election. But we're in a race against time. We urgently need funds to pay the £500 election deposit needed per constituency contested and, if we're lucky enough to achieve that, then to print an AWP election leaflet for every home in each constituency contested. 

In a General Election set to be dominated by human issues, will you help us to stand so that animal and environmental issues can be heard? 

In the UK, standing in General Elections is a costly business. A £500 electoral deposit is needed per constituency contested (there are 650 constituencies in total). In addition to this, funds are needed to publicise our message. An additional £500 per constituency would allow us to send an AWP election leaflet to every home there. 

Small parties like ours have only been given a few weeks' notice to raise the funds needed to stand for election and we don't want animal and environmental issues to go unheard due to lack of funds. We're asking the animal and environmental community to please support our campaign by giving whatever you can afford, allowing us to stand candidates and put forward our message on a wide range of animal welfare and environmental issues, including:

• Improving human health, saving NHS funds, protecting the environment and global food security by promoting healthy plant-based diets.
• Re-directing farming subsidies away from the livestock and fisheries industries and into sustainable, plant-based agriculture. 
• Phasing out farming practices and systems with poor welfare consequences for animals.
• Ending the badger cull.
• Phasing out animal experimentation with binding targets for reduction combined with proper funding & real support for alternatives.
• Increasing penalties for those convicted of animal abuse - with a the maximum custodial sentence for animal abuse raised to 10 years. 
• Ending live animal export and reducing journey times for animals travelling to slaughter within the UK.
• Ending all slaughter without prior stunning.
• Introducing independently monitored CCTV for all slaughterhouses.
• Ending Breed Specific Legislation, the sale of animals in retail stores and the exotic pet trade. 
• Labelling of all products with information which allows consumers to make informed choices in line with their own principles on the environment, health, animal welfare and the social circumstances in which a product is produced.

Can a party like ours succeed? The experience of our international movement, which now takes in 20 countries, tells us, yes! Our sister party in the Netherlands, PvdD / the Party for the Animals now has 5 representatives in the Dutch parliament and over 80 representatives at various levels of local government. Our colleagues at the party, PAN (Pessoas Animais Natureza) in Portugal have 4 representatives in the Portuguese parliament while our colleagues at Animal Justice Party in Australia have 3 parliamentarians. This shows that animal orientated parties can succeed in elections.

While the UK 'First Past the Post' electoral system makes it difficult for smaller parties to be heard, we believe that every additional candidate promoting our policies and every vote they receive helps push forward the idea that the fair treatment of animals and our planet must be a central part of the political discourse.

So please spare whatever you can today to help us realise our vision of a fairer, more sustainable world for all. 

Sincere Thanks 

The AWP Team

Donation Rules

• Donations of any amount are welcome.
• If you are kind enough to donate more than £500 to our fighting fund, you must be on the UK electoral register. Please note your name and address will be checked against the electoral register to ensure that you are eligible to donate. 
• For any donation over £7,500, your donation will be registered by the Electoral Commission who will publish your donation and your name (but not your address).