• A new legal provision that would require keepers to notify local authorities of the escape of a controlled pet and allow local authorities to recoup the cost of recapturing escaped animals from keepers themselves.
• Increasing local authority powers to enter premises (having first obtained a warrant) where it is thought an unlicensed wild animal is being kept. (Pet owners can currently be fined up to £5000 if found to be in breach of the law. It is proposed that maximum penalties are maintained at this level).
• Making the selling or transfer of a controlled animal to an unlicensed keeper an offence - this will apply to any vendor, including pet shops.
• Extending the period of a controlled pet licence from one year to 18 months, but keeping the price the same, meaning an average cost-saving to pet keepers of £130 over a three year period Of interest to FBH members are the proposals that sand snakes; mangrove snakes; and the Brazilian wolf spider, all currently on the controlled list, be ‘‘de-listed’’ and that the Argentine Black-headed snake; Peruvian Racer; South American Green Racer; Amazon false viper and the Middle Eastern thin-tailed scorpion (hemiscorpius lepturus) should all be added to the list.

• the animal’s armoury - its tools and its size;
• the animal’s ferocity - its temperament and inclination to use its armoury;
• the harm the animal could do to a child;
• the animal’s likely behaviour when unrestrained or cornered outside of the keeper’’s
premises;
• recorded incident of deaths or serious injury;
• what legislation already exists for regulating the acquisition or keeping of animals (eg under the UN CITES Convention or on farmed animals).

As part of the consultation the Government would also welcome views from interested parties on whether the Dwarf Cayman and Dwarf Crocodile should remain on the controlled list and whether anacondas, the rock and reticulated python and snapping turtles should be added to it.
The Dangerous Wild Animals Act consultation closes on 20th September 2004. Those wishing to participate in the Government’’s consultation can find the papers at http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/dwaa-two/index.htm

Animal Welfare Bill
July saw the launch of DEFRA’’s Draft Animal Welfare Bill. At one hundred plus pages long it is impossible to go into any great depth here but for those on the web the full document can be downloaded at http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm62/6252/6252.htm Copies are also available from DEFRA at £17.75 each.

The draft Bill was released by Ben Bradshaw, the Animal Health and Welfare Minister on the 14th of July and described as the most comprehensive modernisation of laws on domestic and captive animals for a century.
The new law will introduce a new duty of care on pet owners to look after their pets properly, in accordance with good practice, and will, for the first time, define what constitutes cruelty. It will consolidate and modernise over 20 pieces of animal welfare legislation relating to farmed and non-farmed animals

The Bill will:-

• Strengthen and amend offences relating to animal fighting, for which provision is currently made in the Protection of Animals Act 1911;
• Modernise and re-define the offence of cruelty, which is already a substantive offence under the 1911 Act;
• Impose a duty of care to ensure the welfare of animals on owners of animals and those responsible for them based upon existing good practice. A similar provision already exists to protect farmed animals;
• Extend powers to make regulations in respect of both farmed and non-farmed animals. This will enable action to be taken as welfare needs arise. It will also facilitate compliance with EU and international obligations on animal welfare;
• Improve the way that activities are regulated, where there is a need to ensure animal welfare standards are met. This will involve bringing together many common provisions on licensing that exist in separate pieces of legislation, with a focus on improving the quality of inspections.Licensing will be required for both new and currently regulated activities but will be required only where necessary to ensure animal welfare standards;
• Impose a ban on mutilations - such as the tail docking of dogs - subject to limited exceptions only where there are welfare or good management reasons for the mutilation;
• Increase the effectiveness of animal welfare law enforcement. This will include the provision of additional powers for inspectors from central and local government and the police where it has become apparent that this is necessary. It should make it more difficult to circumvent a disqualification order made by the court; and Increase the range of sentences available to the courts when dealing with the various offences in the Bill
Under the current policy of open government many Working Groups were set up by DEFRA to advise on the new legislation and stakeholders (an awful term) were actively invited to participate in the development of this new legislation

The FBH have been involved with the AWB since its inception. The FBH Chairman, Chris
Newman, was elected to chair the Working Group on Pet Fairs, this group consisted of hobbyists,
RSPCA - legal and welfare, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Local Government
Association and other interested parties. Chris also sat on the Pet Vending (pet shops) Working
Group, Breeding Working Group and Duty of Care Working Group.

The important issue to bear in mind is that this draft Bill will only be the primary enabling legislation. The full AWB will take at least five (more likely ten) years to completed. Throughout this process it is essential that animal keepers continue to have input and influence over decisions taken and it is very important that we all take the time now to go through this draft bill and make any concerns that we might have, known to DEFRA. Things to look out for are new regulations that could be twisted and used against pet keeping. For instance, could the new laws relating to animal fighting be twisted to make it an offence to feed a live vertebrate to a snake if all other methods had failed? Or could operating on a venomous snake to make it venomoid be considered illegal under the new ban on mutilations?

RSPCA GET PROSECUTOR STATUS
When reviewing the Draft Animal Welfare Bill it’’s important to remember that on 7 June 2004 the RSPCA signed a written agreement with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to allow them to perform the functions of an "approved prosecutor" under the Protection of Animals (amendment) Act 2000. This agreement will come into effect on 1 September 2004. The area of jurisdiction applies to England only. The final model written agreement can be found at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/welfare/farmed/onfarm.htm together with updated guidance notes.

The FBH had lobbied against this back in 1999/2000. Since that time this issue had not resurfaced and we had assumed that the idea had been dropped. The discovery that it had been under discussion without our knowledge or consultation has come as a surprise A situation we consider to be outrageous. The implications of giving the RSPCA increased power are enormous for the pet industry and the FBH will be discussing this with DEFRA.

FBH Conference
This years conference is to be held from 10 am to 5 pm on the 10th of October at the Open University’’s Old Lecture Theatre, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes.
Topics will of course be covering the new DWAA draft review and the Draft AWB. We will also be having a talk by the Big Boid Society and a display of some of their animals which are still under consideration by DEFRA for addition to the DWAA, these will include a varied selection of Reticulated pythons including dwarf forms and mutations, Rock Pythons and of course Yellow and Green Anacondas, including what is probably the UK’’s biggest Green Anaconda. The RSPCA have promised to put in an appearance on stage this year and we are hoping to have a talk on chameleons and their conservation requirements.

Tickets are available from FBH, c/o Cotswold Wildlife Park, Burford, Oxfordshire,OX18 4JW and cost £10.00 each for FBH members and £15.00 each for non members.

T-Shirts
Finally, we now have a range of reptile T-Shirts available to order online from the FBH web site The T-Shirts come with an ever growing range of reptile and amphibian pictures on them, with and without the FBH logo. For clubs and web sites we can also set up a range carrying your own logo’s. please contact enquiries@f-b-h.co.uk for further details.

More shirts will be added to the range as time goes on so keep an eye on them.

The FBH receives a contribution towards it’’s funds from each T-Shirt sold.

Go on, put scales on your chest!