Animal Welfare Bill

Before the noble Duke sits down, I want to raise a few points with the Minister for clarity. First, regarding the connection between control and responsibility, those two concepts are in Clauses 2 and 3, and the noble Lord linked them in his reply to me. Am I right in thinking that if an animal is under the control of man, someone will always be responsible for it? Obviously you can have an animal that is not in the control of man, such as an escaped pig, for which someone is none the less responsible. Am I right in that understanding of the link between the two concepts? Secondly, am I right in thinking that someone who traps a mouse using a ““humane”” mousetrap, which merely drops a door behind them, and then releases the mouse a couple of miles away from their house will be committing an offence under the Bill? They will be releasing a mouse into the wild in circumstances where it is likely to die very quickly, as it is in totally unfamiliar territory. Thirdly, we discussed at Second Reading whether the use in uncontrolled circumstances of mouse papers sold through ordinary hardware stores is likely to be outlawed as a result of this legislation. I very much hope that it is. Lastly, to be clear on the issue of pheasants, are the Government saying that if the only methods of restraint used are feeding and beating-in—in other words, doing everything that you can to encourage a ““wild”” animal to occupy a particular wood but not actually physically restraining it—then under those circumstances the pheasant is a wild animal?