Clause 4 - Unnecessary suffering
Animal Welfare Bill
12:45 pm
Ben Bradshaw (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Exeter, Labour)
As I am sure Committee members know, the Government are committed to a better regulation agenda, and that means that we try to simplify things when possible. With that in mind, the Department has simplified the Bill considerably since its first draft. If a provision did not add anything to the substance of the Bill, it has been removed. One example of that is the offence of performing an operation without due care and humanity; we considered that that did not add anything of substance to the cruelty offence in clause 4.
Abandonment is another example. We have decided that it is not necessary explicitly to replicate the Abandonment of Animals Act 1960. As hon. Members have already implicitly acknowledged with these amendments, abandonment is merely one way in which welfare or cruelty offences can be committed. If someone abandons an animal and it is unable to fend for itself, that person will have failed to take all reasonable steps to ensure that its needs are met. Consequently, he or she is likely to have committed the welfare offence in clause 8. If suffering occurred as a result of the abandonment, the cruelty provisions in clause 4 would be engaged.
Our view is that an explicit provision is unnecessary. We are also aware of some issues of definition that would arise if the term ''abandonment'' were included in the Bill, and I touched on a couple of those on Second Reading. I simply reiterate that trying to draft a definition that does not catch, for example, the release of game birds, of fish into streams or ponds, or of animals on to common land, is exceptionally difficult.
It being One o'clock, The Chairman adjourned the Committee without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.
Adjourned till this day at Four o'clock.