ANIMAL welfare is one of those issues where there is an enormous gap between the wishes of the electorate for real improvement and the response from politicians.

The promises made by the main parties in their manifestos and policy documents are, frankly, insulting in their timidity.

Of particular concern are attitudes to the World Trade Organisation, which is being used as an excuse not to legislate for animal welfare.

The Government plays to the tune of multi-nationals and conveniently exaggerates the legal difficulties. It is using the WTO to justify its refusal to support the European Parliament's recent vote to ban the sale of cosmetics tested on animals, and won't even stop the sale of cat and dog fur here.

The Conservatives say that "animal welfare must not be neglected in the important drive towards free trade" but Tory MEPs have also failed to support the cosmetics sale ban. The Liberal Democrat manifesto is silent on the issue of WTO and animal welfare.

Whatever the arguments for free trade as a general principle, the Government and the EU must be able to stop the sale of cruelly-produced goods and the stressful transportation of live animals.

In the context of farming, unbridled free trade acts as a disincentive against improvement in welfare standards here - cruel methods are usually cheap, and also risk the spread of disease.

Environmentalists and child labour campaigners as well as animal welfare campaigners have long seen the dangers the WTO poses to civilised standards. It is time the politicians woke up as well. The electorate cares about animal welfare.

MICHELLE THEW (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection), NICKI BROOKES (Respect for Animals), JONATHAN PEARCE (World Society for the Protection of Animals) and STANLEY JOHNSON (International Fund for Animal Welfare)