The Federation of British Herpetologists

CONFERENCE REPORT SPECIAL.

I guess I should start this news letter with an apology for not getting it out sooner but to be honest it was deliberately held back until now so that we could include some of the conference highlights in it.
Why only some of the highlights?
Well, because there were far too many highlights on the day to fit them all into this one news letter. But before any review of the conference itself, the Committee feel it important to issue some advice relating to an issue that arose from the question and answer session at the end of the conference. It would seem that a number of shops and organisations are setting up various schemes to enable you to register the animals you have with them. You are normally offered a simple form to fill in which asks for your name and address plus a list of the animals you keep and whether they are wild caught or captive bred, the idea being that if you are challenged by an official authority you can prove your animals are yours, that you have had them for X period of time and that you hold them legally.
The first thing to consider is that these forms quite rightly receive zero recognition from any legal authority making them worthless. The more worrying thing is what can happen to these forms after they leave you. While we are not saying that any of the people running these schemes are doing anything other than trying to be helpful, the fact has to be considered that these forms could fall into the hands of someone less reputable. Imagine a thief breaking into a shop and finding a stack of forms all containing lists of valuable animals and the address where they can be found. Very much a case of Christmas come early for the thief. You also have to consider what happens if your local shop finds itself in trouble with the RSPCA. We have seen several instances of paper work being removed from shops, to be examined for evidence. Given the current stance against reptile keeping by the RSPCA, do you really want them knowing what you have and where you are?
The best advice we can give, is that you think before filling in any of these forms. There’s no legal requirement for you to fill them in and there’s nothing to be gained by filling them in but you could be setting yourself up for future problems if you do fill them in. You are perfectly within your rights to refuse to fill in any such forms and the FBH advice would be to do exactly that.
If you do get offered a form and can take it away to fill it in, the FBH would be very interested in seeing it and hearing about the place you were offered it at.

The conference.
Presentation 1. The New Animal Welfare Bill.
Speaker: Graham Thurlow, Veterinary Adviser from the Animal Welfare Veterinary Division of the Veterinary Directorate of DEFRA.
His talk was entitled, "The New Animal Welfare Bill : Modernising Animal Welfare Legislation."
Graham told us that the Enabling Act for the new Animal Welfare Bill had already been drafted, and was currently with colleagues in Legal Branch for consideration.
Having outlined the reasons why DEFRA are preparing this Bill, Graham explained that they hope to bring most animal welfare legislation under one roof while at the same time consolidating and modernising the legislation in the process. He went on to provide the following highlights of how things are currently progressing.

• DEFRA are looking to develop workable codes of practice to cover the welfare of captive, companion and sporting
animals. He acknowledged that no one person or group would have sufficient knowledge to draft the Codes for all the species needed, so DEFRA are looking to approach interested parties (such as our herpetological organisations) to work with them

• The concept of "sentience" has been discussed and at present it has not been thought necessary to include invertebrates such as insects in welfare legislation.

• Other philosophical concepts have also been debated; for example, the notion of captivity. Is a fish in a keep-net in the captivity of a fisherman? Graham said that DEFRA are now considering that the legislation will cover animals which are dependent upon a carer.

• It is intended that the Bill will provide "pro-active legislation"; this implies a change away from the current situation whereby prosecution cannot take place until cruelty has been shown to have occurred. Graham said the Bill would be designed to allow for prosecution when an animal's treatment was so poor that it could be shown that without improvement, the animal would suffer in the future.

• It is proposed that the present bans on acts of cruelty will be maintained, with increased severity of sentences for
serious offences.

• In theory the Codes of Practice, once drawn up, will promote good welfare practice and a "duty of care".

• The "five freedoms, used already with farm animals, were acknowledged as problematic when used in the field of exotic animal husbandry, but Graham maintained that an animal's behavioural requirement code would be included.

• The age at which a child, unaccompanied by an adult, would be able to buy a pet may be raised to 16yrs

• DEFRA are looking at “Improvement Notices” like those used by the State Veterinary Service if farm animals are not being kept correctly. An "Improvement Notice" can be issued rather than taking the route of prosecution currently taken by the RSPCA. However, Graham acknowledged that the State Veterinary Service would have some difficulty in taking on such a task, not least because, in general, they would not have the expert knowledge to decide what improvements would be necessary for many exotic pets. Rather worryingly the RSPCA have volunteered their services in this area and wish to be the group responsible for issuing “ Improvement Notices” It was made clear that there were no plans to give the RSPCA rights of entry under this legislation. Whether the RSPCA should take on this role would go out to public consultation at the appropriate time.

• Graham next outlined the Consultation Procedure currently under way.

• Regulatory Control of Pet Fairs is still much under discussion, and Graham acknowledged the presence of a strong "anti" lobby and current inconsistencies between individual councils in their willingness to issue Pet Fair licences. He said that there would be much more discussion; he could not guarantee that it would happen, but the view that was emerging was that DEFRA would
be in favour of providing licences for certain Pet Fairs, with specific requirements attached regarding the welfare of, and suitable conditions for, the animals at such events. He said, "Nothing is in tablets of stone, but at the moment our view would be that unless anyone can show us that there are serious welfare problems at pet fairs, then our thinking would be to license them rather than to ban them."

• Controls on the buying and selling of pets are being considered. It is likely that it will become necessary to provide every purchaser with a Care Sheet.

• DEFRA are considering increasing the powers of the police to investigate and arrest, and increased sentences for convicted offenders but it would seem that the police have indicated that they are happy to continue with the role that they have but they do not want further responsibility for animal welfare

• The talk ended with a summary of the aims of the Bill: to streamline and update legislation, support responsible pet ownership and improve breed standards. It will not be a Bill of Rights for Animals, nor will it result in a ban on hunting, shooting, fishing, zoos or circuses. It will not include any aspect of the Dangerous Wild Animals Act. It will cover the welfare of animals in zoos, but not the licensing of zoos. The Draft Bill is expected to be ready for the Consultation process in Spring 2004.

Presentation 2. Zoonotic Diseases - Are Reptiles the Real Threat to Human Health?.
Our second speaker was Dr Mike Allen. Mike informed the meeting that for the past 25 years he has been actively involved in clinical research in the fields of critical care and infectious diseases. His comprehensive talk included a review of the scientific literature regarding zoonotic diseases, with particular reference to the risks to human health posed by salmonella carriage in reptiles. Zoonotic diseases are defined as "those infections which are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans" and as Mike was able to illustrate during his talk, reptiles are probably the least of our worries as far as zoonotic diseases are concerned.

Presentation 3. Colubrid venoms: what's new, and what does it mean for UK herpetoculture?
Our third talk was given by Dr Wolfgang Wüüster from the School of Biological Sciences, at the University of Wales. He is currently involved in research into the evolution of snake venom, and has published a number of papers on the subject, of interest to all who keep Colubrid snakes. It would appear that the ability to produce and use venom may be in far more common than we at first suspected and Wolfgang’s presentation left us all with a little more respect for the snakes we keep.

Presentation 4. The Sand Lizard Captive Breeding and Re-Introduction Programme
Chris Davis, was our next speaker, he is co-ordinator of the Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme. This was set up in 1994 as part of a 3-year Species Recovery Programme, initiated by English Nature, the Countryside Council for Wales, the Herpetological Conservation Trust (HCT) and the World-wide Fund for Nature. This captive breeding programme continues very successfully today as part of the UK Biological Diversity Plan for Lacerta agilis, our native Sand Lizard. It is a striking example of the important role the hobbyist can play in the conservation of reptiles.

Presentation 5. Proteus Reptile Trust.
The penultimate speaker of the day was Neil Swann of Proteus Reptile Trust, who gave us an informative slide-show "tour" of the wellknown reptile rescue and re-habilitation centre located in Handsworth, Birmingham. Proteus is a registered charity; it was founded in 1991, largely as the result of a mistake! A founder member, Sarah, wrote an article advising people not to buy red-eared slider terrapins on impulse. This was published by a newspaper who stated, incorrectly, that she had set up a sanctuary for unwanted terrapins! Only twelve years later, Neil, Sarah and other volunteers now run the largest reptile rescue centre in the UK.. If you can help Proteus either by volunteering your help, cash donations or by helping to re home an animal, please don’t hesitate in making yourself known to Proteus.

Presentation 6 was all about everybody’s favourite pseudo-scientist Clifford Warwick and the interesting way he gains the initials after his name, but this is a huge topic and a very much on going situation, so watch out for the full details of this one in a future news letter.

This is just a taster of what was an absolutely brilliant day. It was a chance to meet up with old friends and a chance to get the latest up to date information and we are already making plans for next years event.
For those of you with web access there are full reports on the first five presentations at the following web site:.
http://asrasouthwales.bravepages.com/FBHconference1.htm
Transcripts of the presentations will be available in the early part of 2004
Many thanks to ASRA South Wales branch for allowing us to use extracts from their report on the conference in this news letter.