The Animal Welfare Bill
You will I am sure be aware that the Government are to introduce this bill during the next session of parliament. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) have been consulting with many societies who have an interest in small animal, bird, fish and reptile species. Relatively few societies were alerted in the first instance, as consultation has been ongoing since 2002. The consultation process has been widened to include as many different societies as possible. To this end we were invited to a meeting at DEFRA on 1st July last. I, as Chairman of the NCS, attended the meeting.

A short outline of the purpose of the AWB was given at the outset as some societies were on their first visit, us among them. The Aims of the Bill are to review the Protection of Animals Act 1911 + 22 other affected Acts. Pet animals and other small animals are to have the same welfare as farm and research animals. The Bill is intended to promote a Duty of Care for all owners or keepers of animals. The welfare of animals is covered by the following points.

• The need for a suitable environment in which to live.
• The need for adequate food and water at the appropriate levels.
• The need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns. ( Here they are meaning the behaviour of domesticated animals, as an example, dogs do not exhibit all their natural behaviour patterns).
• A need to be housed with, or apart from, its own or other species.
• The need for appropriate protection from, and diagnosis and treatment of pain, injury and disease.

The Duty of Care outlined above is what every owner of livestock should practice and is no more than that expected within our premises.
There is also some concern about the welfare of animals beyond the confines of our premises and to this end a Steering Committee had been formed from the initial societies contacted by DEFRA. The proposals from this group were put to the meeting that I attended and they were agreed. The concern is about the trading in animals at places beyond the confines of the property of the owner. This is to do with Pet Fairs and Shows and the licensing of venues where such events take place. Licensing would be through the local authority where the venue of the event takes place. It would be appropriate here to define what is meant by a Pet Fair. " A Pet Fair is a temporary event (which may or may not be open to the public) organised for the purposes of exhibiting or exchanging or selling animals." A Tier system of types of Pet Fair was put to the meeting as follows.

Tier 1. Private Meetings. To be exempt from licensing
Characterised by:-
Private Members Clubs. Members and Members Guests only attending
No public access. Meetings in both private and public premises.(eg. Village Hall) Principal activities. Showing and lectures, sales and exchanges of animals. No trading activity for commercial gain, sales and trading of animals on a not for profit basis. No commercial vendors. Applies principally to local groups

Tier 2. Exhibition Shows. To be exempt from licensing.
Characterised by:-
Event organised by Private Members Clubs. Attended by Members, guests and members' of other private clubs and members of the public who may or may not be paying. Generally larger events than in Tier 1 which have a wider geographical catchment area. Meetings usually in public (hired) places. Principal activity competitive showing. Trading activity: post-exhibition sales handled by organising clubs, not open sales. No commercial trading of animals to take place. Animals offered for sale must be those exhibited and must not exceed more than 10% of the total entry. (This will mean that the animals for sale must be entered as such with the registrar on a first come first served basis. Only after all entries are in will the list of animals for sale be issued on the basis of the 10% limit.) Our society must operate this system, would registrars please note.
Dry goods may be traded.

Tier 3. Hobbyists Open Shows. To be licensed
Characterised by:-
Organised by National organisations with that geographical catchment area. Attended by hobbyists and members of the public on a paying basis.
Meetings in hired public places. Wide activity: competitive showing, table sales of animals by hobbyists, Principal activity commercial traders selling 'live' and 'dead' stock.
(Dead stock refers to dry goods)

Tier 4. Commercial Animal Fairs (including auctions). To be licensed.
Characterised by:-
Organised by commercial traders for commercial gain. National catchment area. Principal activity commercial traders selling 'live' and 'dead' stock.
Private or public premises. Attended by hobbyists and members of the public paying or not.

There will be a further enabling Bill with secondary legislation which will include a Code of Practice. To this end we were asked to produce our CoP and submit it to DEFRA so that it might be incorporated in a universal CoP, produced by DEFRA. The atmosphere was pro-active as DEFRA require our input and our submitted CoP has been sent to them and tacit approval given. The CoP is to include the objectives of the Tier System outlined above. You will see that we neatly fit into Tier 2 as do most other small animal societies. I suggest that this tier will also suffice for our National Show on the basis that numbers are not high and it is a private club. This tier was asked for by Local Authority representatives as the licensing and inspection of venues for the numerous small animal shows held around the country could not be met by their staff. This does not mean that they will not inspect on a random basis and since this will be the law we must comply.
The committee have decided that as the law will be introduced shortly that the Code of Practice is adopted with immediate effect for the coming show season. In effect this agrees and supersedes the show rules of the NCS.

Please remember that animals not being exhibited are not allowed in the venue and your duty of care should be such that no animals should be left in your vehicle.

EDDIE CRUTCHLEY. CHAIRMAN N.C.S

Click to view Code of Practice