Animal Welfare Bill

The Government has at last published the long-awaited draft Animal Welfare Bill.  Following more than two years’ consultation and nine months late, the draft Bill picks up a lot of the issues which Dogs Trust has been urging the government to introduce for some time.

The most important new item is the ‘duty of care’, which would force anyone who keeps a dog, to do so in a manner which protects his or her welfare.  This is detailed in the Bill and includes a requirement to meet various needs.  We are delighted that this also includes ‘the need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns in addition to the dog’s physical needs’.  If properly enforced this would improve many poor neglected dogs’ lives, since the current law only protects a dog from physical harm.

The duty of care is to be supported by Codes of Practice which will have a similar legal force to the Highway Code.  The Codes are to be written by government after consultation with interested parties and we look forward to being able to put forward the dog’s point of view.

The cruelty offence is kept, but redefined to try to make interpretation by the courts easier.  It will be as much of an offence to cause cruelty by neglect as it will be deliberately and the offence can be committed by the keeper – not just the owner, of a dog.

The Bill also strengthens the law on the appalling cruelty of dog fighting.  It would be an offence to have anything to do with a dog fight – even attending one or possessing a video of one.  The penalty would be as high as £20,000 and a year’s imprisonment, as well as the offender having their dogs removed and banned from keeping animals.

The age at which a young person could buy an animal would be increased from twelve to sixteen years.  As this is the age of responsibility for a number of other things it seems logical that it should also apply to buying a dog.  It would also be illegal to give animals as prizes.

The Bill would ban mutilations with some exceptions.  However the term mutilation is not defined but it is assumed that it includes the docking of dogs’ tails.  Dogs Trust has argued for many years for such a ban - docking causes the puppy pain at the time of the operation and deprives it of a vital means of expression for life.  However we were dismayed to see that the Minister, Ben Bradshaw, is proposing to exempt some working dogs.  There is no scientific evidence to support such a move and we will continue to argue that all docking, except by a veterinary surgeon for treatment of a diseased or damaged tail, should be banned.

The Bill allows the government to regulate anything to do with animals.  The list in the Bill, which may be added to, includes breeding and boarding establishments, sanctuaries, equipment (such as electric shock devices which we would like to see banned), the use of dogs in films and entertainment, and greyhound racing.  The updating of current legislation in many of these areas is long overdue and the introduction in others, such as greyhound racing, is something for which we have been arguing for a long time.
When a person is convicted by a court of any offence they may be banned from keeping animals.  This is part of the current law but is not used enough by courts.  The Bill would force the court to state publicly why an offender has not been banned, if they decide not to do so and we hope this will mean that most people convicted of cruelty will be banned, as we believe they should be.

We don’t believe that the current system for licensing and enforcement of welfare law is good enough. Sadly, we do not see anything much in the Bill which will improve this very important issue. There seems very little point in introducing fantastic new laws, if there is no way to ensure they are put into practice.

There is a timetable for the introduction of the Codes of Practice and regulations and we were horrified to see that better regulation of dog breeding will not be introduced until at least 2010 but that one-day pet sales may be licensed by 2006.  In addition the possible licensing of all greyhound tracks will not be in place until at least 2010.  We think this could all be done far more quickly.  We, and other charities, stand ready to help draft Codes of Practice and regulations now – so why wait for years until something is done?

What can you do?  The Bill has been sent to the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons for scrutiny and their report is expected at about the same time that Wag! is published.  However government has still not decided whether the Bill should be introduced into parliament in November in the Queen’s Speech.  If it isn’t, all the hard work on the Bill will lie dormant for yet another year and dogs will continue to suffer as a result.

We were all pleased to hear that the Animal Welfare Bill was included in the Queen's Speech and will be entering Parliament during the coming session. To keep up to date with the Bill's progress you can visit the website of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

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