Animal Welfare Bill

My Lords, I support the noble Baroness in the amendment. Like her, I am an honorary associate of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Recently I had a discussion with a neighbour who complained about the condition of some sheep near her. She said, ““I keep reporting them to the RSPCA but they don’t want to know””. At that stage she was not aware that the local authority has an animal health inspector that will come out and look at the sheep and, if the inspector is unhappy about their condition, will get in touch with the State Veterinary Service. However, if you ring the State Veterinary Service directly, you are told to go to trading standards. So at the moment the situation is very confusing, and it is not very much clearer in the Bill. I hope that the Minister considers the noble Baroness’s remarks very seriously because we need proper demarcation lines. The public need to understand to whom they can complain if they are concerned about an animal welfare problem.