Further memorandum from the RSPCA
The RSPCA found the evidence session you held
last week most interesting and noted that the Minister suggested
the Society may have the figures to questions you raised about
statistics. I hope that the following information is of use to
your consideration of the issues.
1. ANIMAL WELFARE
BILL
The Society agrees with your concern about the
definitions of "animal" (clause 1), "good practice"
(clause 8(1)) and "lawful purpose/activity" (clause
8(3)). We hope that these and the other issues you raised will
be debated further during the Bill's progress. The Minister was
questioned about whether more problems of animal mistreatment
were caused by children or adults (Q59) and in his response, he
suggested that the RSPCA might be able to give a fairer review
of this point.
The table below shows the number of juveniles
convicted for cruelty to animals and as a percentage of the total
conviction rate. As can be seen, the percentage rate is only 1-2%
since 2002.
|
| Year | Total convictions
| Juvenile convictions
| Percentage of total convictions
|
|
| 2002 | 910
| 15 | 1.60%
|
| 2003 | 928
| 19 | 2.00%
|
| 2004 | 870
| 14 | 1.60%
|
|
Your Committee also questioned the Minister about the likely
number of cases that will occur following the Bill coming into
force (Q67).
You may find the original evidence we presented to your Committee
on the draft Bill helpful. "We have said that we think
that there will probably be an extra 100 or so prosecutions to
begin with because as the duty of care welfare offence comes into
effect that will increase, but in the long term what we should
see happen is that the number of cruelty case prosecutions declines
because the duty of care will be a precautionary approach, and
we should see through the duty of care a more educational outlook
being enforced by this legislation, so people should understand
what they are doing before they get a pet animal and that should
improve the conditions they are kept in."[34]
It is very difficult to give a precise figure as no one will
know the effect until the Bill comes into force, however the Society
is preparing for the enactment of the Bill and is ensuring it
has sufficient resources to deal with any extra casework as a
result of the new offence.
The Society has been using a new welfare assessment scheme
to record welfare advice given by RSPCA Inspectors where animals
are suffering because owners are failing to meet their animals'
needs but action cannot be taken for cruelty. Of all the people
who received this advice (covering 68,732 animals) in the scheme's
second year (1 June 2004-31 May 2005) some went on to ignore it
(affecting 2,924 animals) and, without breaking the law, continued
to neglect their pets. This may give some indication to the number
of cases that may result in proceedings however, we believe that
in cases where our advice was ignored, most of these owners would
have followed our advice if it had been backed up by the potential
for legal proceedings.
2. AVIAN INFLUENZA
As an aside, the Minister was asked what percentage of birds
coming into the UK are tested for diseases (Q52 and 53). The Minister
responded to these questions however the Society would like to
clarify this. Commission Decision 2000/666/EEC Annex C requires
that:
— if sentinel chickens are used, those chickens
must be tested, but only if the chickens test positive or inconclusive
is there any need to test the imported birds;
— in the case of positive/inconclusive sentinel
chickens, or if no chickens are used, then all imported birds
must be tested if the total consignment is less than 60, but only
60 birds tested out of consignments larger than this.
Consignments of birds for the pet trade range up to 6,000
birds. So only a small proportion is actually tested.
December 2005
34
Q 932 EFRA Select Committee oral and written evidence
on the Draft Animal Welfare Bill (HC 52-II). Back
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