As heatwaves hit Britain, spare a thought for farm animals | Extreme heat

Your article rightly highlights the strain heatwaves place on farming (Adapting to global heating: which UK public services are struggling in hot weather?, 5 August). But the government’s thinking on climate adaptation has a troubling blind spot down at the farm: animal welfare.

The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022 requires ministers to consider animals as sentient beings when developing policy, yet current discourse on heatwaves and farming treats animals almost entirely as economic assets: deaths are framed as “reduced productivity”, rather than as sentient individuals enduring terrible suffering.

During the June heatwaves, French media reported that between 1 and 3 million birds died in a single week as temperatures hit 44C – deaths preceded by hours of panting, heat stress and organ failure. Pigs and poultry can begin suffering from heat above 27C, and when temperatures exceed 35C, British farms and livestock transport systems are pushing against the limits of what conventional cooling systems can contend with.

As the Met Office warns of UK temperatures reaching 45C by 2056, climate adaptation plans for farming must look beyond balance sheets, recognising that what’s at stake is not just the bottom line, but the suffering of millions of sentient beings.
Claire Bass
Senior director, campaigns and public affairs, Humane World for Animals UK

You are right to highlight the importance of libraries operating as “cool spaces” within communities. Such a facility will almost certainly become increasingly important for groups vulnerable to heat-related stress.

Yet, since 2016, over 180 libraries in the UK have been closed or turned over to volunteers, with deprived communities four times more likely to lose their library as compared with richer ones. However, poorer areas are precisely those with least access to green and blue space, tree cover and other sources of protection from extreme heat.

Given the crucial role of libraries in society – with relief from climate change now added to their many other vital functions – a programme of reversal of a decade of cuts is long overdue.
Chris Phillipson
Emeritus professor of sociology and social gerontology, University of Manchester

To help with its plans to cope with extreme heat (NHS must prepare for annual summer heat pressures, says Yvette Cooper, 5 August), why doesn’t the Labour government implement a nationwide programme of restoring and refurbishing outdoor lidos that have fallen in to disrepair? They might even build some new ones.
Mick Beeby
Bristol

So, we, working in the NHS, must prepare for summer pressures in addition to winter pressures? That’s just pressure, isn’t it? I’m unclear as to what has changed.
Dr Julian McDonough
Sheffield