Animal Welfare Bill

: Has my hon. Friend received a report from the WAVE—Worldwide Alternatives to Violence—Trust, whose chairman is Sir Christopher Ball? It sets out the causes of the massive increase in crimes of violence in this country since the 1950s. Has my hon. Friend associated crimes of violence against the person with crimes of cruelty to animals? There is a close correlation between the perpetration of crimes of violence against people—especially domestic violence—and of crimes of cruelty to animals. The report’s most telling conclusion was that the wires in the brain that create such attitudes are in place by the age of three, which is something on which the DFES should concentrate.