animal welfare bill

I had a interesting RSPCA meeting last night which I go to every month and one of the national people were there saying about the welfare bill and it was certainly a eye opener.
They were saying most of the animal rescues and shelters will be closed as they won't meet this bill and most of their shelters won't.
Everyone will have to be licensed and be inspected the licence will cost a fortune and the cages etc will have to be huge.
Rescues won't be able to be run from homes they will have to be specific shelters.

He was asked what will happen with all the animals they will have to take in and he said this will cause a few problems for the first few months.hmmmm

Even if you have more than 6 pets you have to have a licence,

I wonder how they are going to run this in the future as I can see the unwanted rabbits going through the roof.

Yes i have been told all about this bill by a lawyer who deals with the right of animals (mostly dogs on deathrow) it made very disturbing news this guy is strongly opposed to the RSPCA "policing" the bill as it will give them absulute power over every pet owner :shock: :evil: which means that anyone who owns & loves their pet can & will be at their mercy :shock: I know that others will say that they have nothing to hide so it will not bother them BUT every owner should be afraid (very afraid) of this bill as it will give this organisation the power to take any animal that they choose :evil: they say that it will give them the power to remove an animal b/f it suffers BUT who will or can judge as to weather he/she will be likely to suffer in future :shock: :? what will happen is that they will go in willy-nilly & seize lots of pets then PTS as they cannot or will not bother to try to re-home & anyway there will be far too many for any one group to cope with :shock: rescues will be closed so they will not be able to take on unwanted animals causing even more deaths I have many issues with the RSPCA as some of you already know BUT they must appoint a regulation body of proffesinoal people such as my lawyer friend who will give an un-biased oppinion & take into account the hard work & love that goes into rescue I hope more people will take the opportunity to look again at this bill & see it for what it is a licience ti seize & kill :evil: how many will die b/c of it :evil:

I actually agree with everything you have said and I really think that they need some sort of policing as you only need a inspector with a grudge and that is it, to be honest I think they should just aim for the bad rescues and get that part sorted and where there is lots of suffering, for example the auctions they are really bad news but they are unable to touch them

I don't mind getting a licence how much will it cost and how wil I go about getting one? I know what your thinking Rabshan, hopefully things will be a lot better organised and nobody will have to go through what you did. Luckily all my hutches are already to the spec, but I don't envy the people who don't match the criteria, it could be costly changing espech if the animals spend most of the time out of the hutches anyway.

Personally I would not trust the RSPCA as far as I could spit!!
If they remove people's Pets what will they do with them.......
If they are a Cat or Dog they MIGHT get lucky. But any species 'below' that and they'll be PTS on the basis of 'economics' :evil: :evil:
Yes, I am prejudice and yes I have extreme views but I have NO TIME for the RSPCA at all......

Sorry for the rant....

Janex

Agreed jane like you & from personal experiance I have no time whatesoever for the RSPCA & you only have to have one person with a grudge ( or as in my case a complete nutter with a score to settle) & you will be on the receiving end of a visit :evil: only if that bill becomes law it is likely that your pets will be taken away & you will not be able to do anything about it nor will you know what becomes of them :shock: :? I would be quite happy to purchase a licience (whatever the cost) nor have i anything to hide as i have already been inspected but i think that they will just go in & take the animals away whatever the circumstances my lawyer friend has stood up in parliament & objected to this bill & he will keep in fighting as he believes that it is fundamentally flawed & a recipe for disaster as far as pets are concerned :shock: :evil:

No surprise is it really. Its an effing police state we are living in more and more.

Its not even like Im really a person that would make a stand pro-minorities but the recent matter with those guys suspected of terrorism and shot. Its just complete mad and some of these people just need to wind their god damn neck in, and get a life seriously.

Whoops gone off rabbit chat a bit there.

Going back to the act of parliament so your talking of a bill of animal rights where people think they have the right to make an god-like overriding position over the welfare of animals above all others, like they are *so* knowledgeable. I am infinitely more impressed by the detailed level of care and knowledge, and efforts of home run rescues for small animals, than the kind of organisations that have been mentioned.

The people who design such regs probably don't even know fa about particular animals in question, like rabbits and it would be left up for interpretation by a group that frankly, probably doesn't have a detailed background with rabbits or other specific exotic animals besides what GP already knows.

It will just turn people off wanting animals altogether, which will result in castaways, unnecessary deaths and even more on the waiting lists /death lists which would be a real tragedy. Also another further step towards a nanny police state which I detest and reserve the right to protest (oh I forgot they legislate aganst the basic right to do that too).

Rant over.

Hi

Just read the post now- . All our buns are in 4ft hutches but because they are under an open shelter they have access to the 4ftsq runs all day. I have to admit though when we have emergencies, like buns being dumped etc we do have a couple of 3fts but they too have access to their runs all day and night.

How much is the license going to be? Where can i find more info?

I can't believe they are doing this, i know that half of the rabbits here would be dead if we hadn't taken them.

Help!

Oh My God! I can't believe this. You'll need a license if you have more than 6 pets, Might be being stupid here, but is that just any 6 pets, no matter where you get them from or anything?! Also, Surely they would want the animals to be in a 3 foot hutch for a week, even a month, in a safe loved environment, than beat to death or something?! :shock: xx

All the info is here http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/welfare/bill/ , thankfully it doesn't all apply to Scotland. They've certainly not thought it all through and it's very much in the early stages however if everyone keeps on top of it, and expresses their concerns directly, they'll have to take notice. After all, look at the mess they made of the CSA, Poll Tax etc. :roll: Nothing like contacting the press to express protests at later stages though :thumb:

from what the guy was saying even a tiny rabbit will have to be in a 6ft hutch and the licences will have to come from the council

Elaine

So will it affect petshops?
When does it come into affect?

bunnyhuggger said:

All the info is here http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/welfare/bill/ , thankfully it doesn't all apply to Scotland. They've certainly not thought it all through and it's very much in the early stages however if everyone keeps on top of it, and expresses their concerns directly, they'll have to take notice. After all, look at the mess they made of the CSA, Poll Tax etc. :roll: Nothing like contacting the press to express protests at later stages though :thumb:

Click to expand...

I can't find anything in there specificly relating to rabbits, apart from farmed ones. Nor is there anything about licencing rescues not currently needing to be licensed.

Does anyone know where that info can be found? Has it even been decided yet? The bill refers to the proper agency drawing up codes of practice. It seems to me that the RWA would be the appropriate agency for rabbits. Have they been consulted?

Things seem to change every time it is talked about - at first it was 5 ft hutches, now it is 6ft. How much is people panicing and how much is actually likely to happen?

I think the new hutch size requirements are a great thing if this is true. It has already helped me rehome rabbits to better homes than they could have had before as people listen when you say it is going to be law that a hutch is a proper size, it carries more weight than just opinion. And if the expense puts people off, well it is probably better that they don't have a rabbit as they ARE expensive to keep properly.

Getting licensed would be a pain, but I'll do it if I have to.

Hiya I am registered with the Council already, but I hope a license proper will not be too expensive as it will directly take essential funds away from the bunnies :?
I am happy to apply for a licence though, as long as it is in proportion to what the set up is..ie a non profit making one :!:
We have two bunnies in smaller hutches than the minimum 6ft stipulated in the Welfare Bill but they have free run into garden every day for four hours.
I hope some allowances and good old fashioned common sense will prevail and it wont be just a matter of measuring up hutch space..surely the level of care a rabbit is getting is important too.
I fully support a Welfare Bill, but as long as it is realistic and will not inadvertently hinder more people who are helping animals than help.
We shall see what happens I guess.
Best wishes

It's all quite confusing isn't it :?

I think that what happens is they later issue codes of practice which state specifics like the hutch sizes and what 'activities' need licences. I'm not sure who it means by the appropriate national authority tho. I'm guessing more likely to be RSPCA then RWA.

I might try calling the RSPCA headoffice next week and see if they have draft codes of practice they'll send me copies of.

Tam

Jeez louise, if they cant get a grip with modern standards of IT how can they expect to get a grip on managing their more basic policy issues.
"1.8 MB. Warning: this is a large file" - Yeah, for a modem user 10 years ago, maybe :lol:

Oh and just tag this big on from the Bill, which sprung out to me:-

"52 Scientific research
(1) Nothing in this Act applies to anything lawfully done under the Animals
(Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 (c. 14)."

How hypocritical this is. So old Tony has got his protected interest of businesses torturing animals finally, at least. ie its lawful to torture animals in the interests of "scientific research".....

I'm a solicitor and I am going to have a look at the Bill over the next couple of days and see what I can make of it.

I think we should try to organise some kind of petition and draft up an alternative more appropriate clause about rabbit hutch sizes as I think it should be 6ft space in total that they have access to e.g. runs under the hutches etc. A 6ft hutch for a single rabbit is a lot depending obviosuly on the size and breed of the rabbit.

I think we should get together and do something about this as recuses are struggling for money as it is without adding this on top. Most rescues will have to close unless the government plans on giving funding to implement their changes.

I am going to start a petition on a separate link and will start looking at this now as the Bill is in its final stages and it may only be amonth or two before it receives Royal Assent meaning it will become law and will become applicable to everyone eithr by the end of the year or early next year at the earliest I would guess.

I fully agree that rabbits should have ample space but should we not be able to count the runs underneath as inclusive of the rabbit's space..???!!

Let's do something about this because we can't leave all these rabbits without a home....

mtoyah said:

Let's do something about this because we can't leave all these rabbits without a home....

Click to expand...

YAYYAYYAYYY!! I'm in :thumb: xx

OMG that is sooo pants :evil: the RSPCA already put loads of animals to sleep for no reason :evil: and what is it with them and licencing they already want to make people have licences for exotic pets.

Does anyone have an idea how much this license is going to be?:?:

Is it just rescues or did i read it right- anyone with more than 6 animals? :?:

And when is going to come into place? :?: