Clause 11 - Licensing or registration of activities involving animals

Part of Animal Welfare Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:30 am on 24 January 2006.

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Photo of Philip Hollobone Philip Hollobone Conservative, Kettering 10:30, 24 January 2006

I beg to move amendment No. 207, in clause 11, page 6, line 8, at end insert—

‘(1A)A licence shall be required in all circumstances where an animal is used in a commercial activity.’.

In many respects, the amendment is a warm-up act for new clause 10, which does not appear on the selection list but which I hope to debate. My interest is in the proper statutory licensing of greyhound racing   and in the welfare of greyhounds before they arrive at the race track and after they have finished their racing lives.

The Committee may not be aware that, at any one time, as many as 30,000 greyhounds are involved in the racing industry. The average racing life is between two and three years, which means that about 10,000 greyhounds are retired from racing every year—but only about 2,500 are re-homed, and no one knows what happens to the other 7,500. There is no argument, however, that many of them meet a fairly grisly end. It is my view, therefore, that greyhound racing in the 21st century should be licensed.

The industry has gone some way by introducing a voluntary code of practice, but a large number of greyhound racing tracks do not conform to that voluntary code; at the current rate of progress, I do not foresee them being absorbed into the code in the near future.