Animal Welfare Bill

I thank the Minister for responding to all these points. We have opened up what has turned out to be quite an interesting topic, and we are much interested in the secondary legislation that is likely to be brought in to replace what is in the current Act. I shall have to read the regulatory impact assessment on the question to which the Minister refers. In the course of our discussions, I was thinking about the point raised by my noble friend Lord Lucas and the fact that things will become even more difficult because, under the docking regulations, if breeders want to sell pups as working dogs, a lot of them will probably want to sell them more or less before the bitch is put in pup. The question of sale will therefore become even more complicated on that score. My noble friend talked about selling underage animals under the Pet Animals Act 1951. You almost wonder whether there should be some regulation against pet shops exposing puppies for sale until they are eight weeks old, because they tend not be with their mother in the pet shop. There may be other ways of going at that. I mentioned the internet. One cannot see there being much against advertising animals on the internet, but we do not want them to be sold on the internet. Perhaps some people are sufficiently stupid to buy a pig in a poke, which is what you would be doing if you tried to buy a dog on the internet. In a way, one wants to be able to prohibit that, but it would be nice if there was still room to advertise. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 13 [Licensing or registration of activities involving animals]: