Animal Welfare Bill

I join right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House in welcoming the Bill. It is gratifying to support a Bill that has so much support in the House and, more widely, from the many agencies that are concerned with animal welfare. In speaking at this point in the debate I am faced with the dilemma that is known to all Members of the new intake. Having waited for hours to speak, it seems that much that I wanted to say has already been said. However, it is important that as many Members as possible have a chance to speak and to air their views on the issues that have been raised. We have heard from many colleagues who have a long history of concern about animal welfare issues. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State mentioned that we were the first country to legislate to protect animal welfare. Yet, as my hon. Friend the Member for South Swindon (Anne Snelgrove) said, it is curious that in a country such as ours, with so much concern for animal welfare, there are still so many instances of animals being subject to suffering and living their lives in stressful and unnatural conditions. At its extreme, this emerges as examples of cruelty sent to right hon. and hon. Members in the briefings from the RSPCA. It is to be seen in reports of, for example, the party-goers who microwaved a pet cat during a party over the Christmas season. It is therefore most welcome that the Bill promotes a duty of care among animal owners that is surely to be applied to those such as the people who had the party during which the cat was microwaved. Account must also be taken of the needs of animals. The Bill covers needs such as a suitable environment, food and water, protection from pain, the suffering of injury and disease, housing with or apart from other animals and the ability to exhibit normal behaviour patterns. From that list, I think that the two most important needs are protection from pain, injury and disease and the ability to be able to exhibit normal behaviour for the species. Those two aspects of an animal’s welfare are important in determining our responses to the issues that have been highlighted earlier, such as mutilation in the form of tail docking, electric shock collars used for training, pet fairs or intensive factory-level farming for the rearing of game birds. If we take account of an animal’s welfare needs as expressed in the Bill, it is clear what our response to many of these issues should be. Ways of mutilating animals such as the non-therapeutic docking of dogs’ tails should no longer be allowed in my view. Tail docking undoubtedly causes pain. If the reasons are cosmetic and mainly to do with the dog’s breed, that pain seems to be unnecessary. Tail docking will also inhibit normal behavioural habits. The dog cannot wag its tail or use it for balance or movement. Mutilating a dog’s tail seems to be one of those out-dated and unnecessary practices that it is time that we planned to end. In common with other hon. Members, the dog owners to whom I have spoken recently share that view. Several hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Southend, West (Mr. Amess), have raised the issue of pet fairs. Given the emphasis in the Bill on regulation, licensing and a duty of care, a fair is not the right place to buy and sell animals. There is evidence that some pet fairs sell animals caught in the wild, so there is clearly a health risk to the public, particularly given current concerns about wild birds. Pets undoubtedly suffer stress if they are taken to a crowded fair and exhibited for sale. For those reasons, we should revisit the issue of banning pet fairs. Some local authorities already do so, and it would be helpful if good practice were clarified for the benefit of all local authorities. Concern has been expressed about farming conditions for the millions of game birds reared every year for shooting. My hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood (Paddy Tipping) aired the issues very well. It is good that shooting organisations such as the British Association for Shooting and Conservation have now expressed opposition to the intensive rearing of game birds. It should therefore be clear to people who rear such birds that the time has come to look at more traditional methods, to abandon the intensive farming of game birds, and to try to return to free-range methods of rearing. I should like to close my remarks by congratulating the Government on the Bill, which will raise animal welfare standards and make owners responsible for their animals or suffer increased penalties if they fail to do what is reasonable to meet the animal’s needs. I welcome, too, the prosecution of people responsible for arranging, or being present at, animal fights, or causing unnecessary suffering in other ways described by hon. Members. When I was an elected member in local government in Trafford, we introduced our own animal welfare charter, which covered many aspects of animal welfare. It did not have the force of legislation, but we introduced it to promote debate on the issues and to foster best practice. I am pleased that the framework of the Bill will allow debate and the fostering of best practice, both now and in the months and years to come.