Contributions
578 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you, Mike, for appearing before us today. I was very encouraged by your response to the Minister about the importance of the devolved nations working together on this…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Thank you. Hopefully the Minister and the Government can help us through this process. It is really helpful for us to hear that your view is that this important stuff needs to be…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you to our witnesses for appearing before us. Peter, are you confident and encouraged that this legislation will actively improve the welfare of animals that are…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you, that is very helpful. May I pass that over to Minette? I am sure you would be supportive of animals being farm-reared and entering the food supply chain locally. That…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Finally, do you think the Bill could be strengthened if we were a bit clearer in some of the definitions and the criteria? I am thinking of things such as putting six months in…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q So the numbers could be low, but there could potentially be people who are keeping primates, not as pets, and who are affiliated with zoos and are part of conservation…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you; that is helpful. There has been a lot of debate about a ban versus licensing. Can you give us your perspective? We are still trying to get to the bottom of how many…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q You have come on to my follow-up question. If licensing came in, would there be enough vets able to get involved in that, and to deliver the health and welfare monitoring of…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Good. I am going to duck around the species a little bit, Chair, with your forgiveness. I want to go back to primates. Justine, you are a zoo vet. I take your point about being…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Certainly, there are reports of dogs in this country picking up exotic tick-borne diseases when they have never been out of this country. They have picked up a tick in this…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q The Minister will be relieved to hear that Justine has answered many of my questions already. To reiterate a couple of them, you are keen for health checks to be made on animals…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Your evidence, and the evidence we heard from Dogs Trust this morning, has really reinforced that this is good legislation but it needs an effective effector arm, if you like,…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Thank you.09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you. I think you make a very pertinent point that sometimes we are lagging behind the trends. In popular culture there is a subliminal promotion of these animals as being…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Can you put a figure on that at all? Mike Webb: Yes, but they are still fairly small numbers. I looked it up this morning. Six years ago, in 2015, we had only one animal with…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Following up on something we heard from a previous witness, are you seeing an increase over the last 12 to 18 months of animals coming in that have potentially had mutilations,…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q It was about movement of animals for breeding purposes—high-level breeding animals that still need to be moved around in the farming world. Is there enough clarity in the Bill?…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q Rob, I noted your comment that, sadly, you have noticed an increasing number of dogs with cropped ears coming through Heathrow, which really rams home the importance of visual…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q I think that is right, because a lot of people will be trying, with good intentions, to rehome an animal and will maybe import an animal, but they will not know whether the…09 Nov 2021HANSARDAnimal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill (Second sitting)Q I was interested in the statistics you gave on the number of animals coming in. I think you talked about cats, so I guess you would have a feel for the number of dogs being…09 Nov 2021