Clause 5 - Mutilation
Animal Welfare Bill
4:00 pm
Bill Wiggin (Shadow Minister (Agriculture & Fisheries), Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; Leominster, Conservative)
Amendment No. 100 would ensure that vets do not commit an offence when carrying out a procedure that might save an animal's life and prevent it from harm. It would also ensure that the person carrying out such procedures is suitably qualified as a vet. As drafted, clause 5 is not sufficiently detailed about the exemptions for permitting mutilation for medical treatment. That has been left to regulations, to be made at a later date, but guidance is needed now and in the Bill. For example, if a cat has a badly broken leg, it may be in its interest to have the leg amputated. In such circumstances, the person responsible for the animal and the vet will need to know that their actions and the medical treatment that they administer are not in violation of the law. The amendment would provide that guidance and protect such people from the risk of prosecution.
Amendment No. 101 has similar wording and seeks to ensure that veterinary surgeons are protected from being accused of harming animals when they are only carrying out their duty to protect the life of an animal. As drafted, clause 5 makes no exemptions for mutilation, and a cat, for example, might need to have a leg amputated after a road accident. However, the clause does not state what a prohibited procedure is, and that will not be known until the relevant regulations are made. Clause 3(3) and (4) could arguably be deemed to offer some protection to veterinary surgeons in the course of their duty, but I believe that a medical treatment exemption should be included.
Amendment No. 82 is designed to prevent current medical treatments for animals from being prohibited in future regulations. The Bill does not include contentious issues such as tail docking, and it leaves them to be determined in regulations at a later date. There is a strong scientific case for tail docking not to be banned. It is already regulated under the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 and serves a medical purpose. Around half of working dogs suffer from tail injuries if their tails are not docked, and their owners' failure to dock their tails could be defined as cruelty under clause 4(1)(b). I accept that tail docking is contentious and believe that if the Government want to ban it, the proposal should be made in a Bill and not in regulations. My colleagues may deal with that this afternoon. Amendment No. 82 would ensure that while protecting animals from vicious and unnecessary mutilation, mutilation that is necessary for an animal's health can continue.