Animal welfare

Click here for background information

Click here for your last chance to influence DEFRA before the bill goes to parliament
Submissions must be in by 4th August 2005.

Click here for details of The Birdcare Company's initiative for traders

Your last chance to influence DEFRA (Submissions must be in by 4th August 2005)

Defra has called for final inputs into the debate on Pet Fairs before representing the Animal Welfare Bill to parliament. Submissions must be in by 4th August 2005 from organisations interested in both the for and against arguments. They have prepared a discussion document that they believe summarises the two opposing cases. If you believe that you or or club or firm have a valid input to make please take the time to read the attached documents and send in your own comments. I have attached The Birdcare Company's submission in Word form so you should be able to use that as a basis for your own submission without too much retyping.

Click here to download The Birdcare Company submission and the original letter from DEFRA (my apologies for the quality of this document but it has been faxed a time or two and I have also had to reduce the file size to make it a little easier to download). You will need Acrobat Reader to open the DEFRA letter. If you don't have this software please download your free copy from here.

PLEASE ACT NOW - THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO INFLUENCE THE DRAFT BILL.
LATER IN THE YEAR LOBBYING YOUR MP WILL BECOME A PRIORITY.

Animal Welfare Bill - Background

The animal rights activists have targeted bird keeping as well as many other livestock hobbies. It is important for bird keepers that they fight this if they want to keep the right to own birds.

It is my belief that just being pig headed and saying 'we have kept birds for years' won't work. It didn't work for fox hunters. I believe that we should acknowledge that there are animal welfare issues and that we have a 'duty of care' to the birds we keep to maintain them in the very best of conditions. The Birdcare Company has been dedicated to improving the nutrition of birds since its founding in 1994.

The activists targets are bird sales. They believe that by closing down the opportunity to trade birds easily the hobby will wither. They may be right! It is certainly true that any movement of livestock is likely to increase stress.

It is my view that the welfare of birds is best served by the hobby providing suitable venues for breeders to sell their stock to other breeders. Without bird sales the trade will end up in pub car parks or through the pet trade. Being sold to pet wholesalers and pet shops must involve more stress than being taken to a bird sale and sold directly to the new owner.

The animal rights lobby are using the fact that the law on pet fairs is unclear. By threatening local councils with legal action if they allow pet fairs to take place in their areas they have now stopped the National and Harrogate. The silly thing is that these two events are amongst the very best for animal welfare. Both events have experienced bird vets in attendance and strict rules that they require bird sellers to comply with. The loss of these two events will cause a REDUCTION in animal welfare.

The last Queen's speech included a new Animal Welfare Bill. This bill would clarify the law on pet fairs. I have been told by Peter Hall at DEFRA (18 Feb 2005) that the second draft of the bill makes it clear that pet fairs are legal but they should be regulated. This is exactly the position of The Birdcare Company. We believe that a smaller number of well run bird sales are in the interest of both birds and the hobby. Anyone who wants an update can contact Peter on 020 7904 6000 (the DEFRA main switchboard).

Of course the May 2005 election has made that all ancient history. The Animal Welfare Bill was in the recent Queen's speech so there is some hope that it will be debated and passed ina year or so.

You may have a new MP by now. What is his/her position on animal welfare and pet fairs? If you don't know now is a good time to raise the issue. Ring, write or e-mail their constituency office. Labour MPs may be feeling a lot less secure right now. My own has seen his majority slahed to just 350 votes. Are labour MPs aware that the majority of bird keepers are probably natural labour voters. They should want your vote in the next election Make sure they are aware that the Animal Welfare Bill and the legalisation of pet fairs is important to you. Start now and keep up the pressure over the next few weeks.

Click here for our latest newsletter on this topic. In it we have a draft letter for you to send to your MP. Please feel free to copy it or modify and send it to your MP. The address for the House of Commons is on the draft letter.

The Birdcare Company is at the forefront of a new trade initiative

Below is a letter that will be sent to as many firms as we can track down involved in supplying bird fanciers in the UK. Our objective is to maximise the effect of political lobbying on the regulations and licensing requirements of bird sales. These regulations will be debated behind closed doors (not in the House of Commons. Read on for more information:

Friday 10^th June 2005

Dear bird industry trader,

Animal Welfare Bill

There is little doubt that the activities of a tiny number of animal welfare lobbyists pose one of the greatest threats to all the businesses supplying the bird keeping fancy in the UK. Various bird keeping organisations have been actively lobbying DEFRA over the Animal Welfare Bill and the businesses who run bird sales have been fighting their own battles with the protesters and holding negotiations with local councils.

At The Birdcare Company we have spent many thousands of pounds trying to encourage our customers to lobby their MPs. No doubt other firms have also been involved in their own activities. However the reality is that the bird trade has been relatively inactive over the past months and years. With this in mind an informal group made up of myself, Richard Johnston (Johnston & Jeff's Seeds) and Alan Baldry of Mill Lane Aviaries (organisers of the bird sales in Kings Lynn) got together to discuss what the Bird Trade could do to help secure bird sales into the future. The Parrot Society kindly offered their offices as a venue and Les Rance and Colin O'Hara attended to bring us up-to-date with developments.

Our initial plan was the creation of a 'Bird Industry Trade Association' as a source of both funds and lobbying power to help with the fight. But our discussion of what needed to be done convinced us that there was little value in setting up yet another organisation with the attendant administrative costs and overheads. Quite simply we couldn't really see an effective role for such a body.

Our understanding of the situation is as follows:

The Animal Welfare Bill is likely to be presented to parliament either later this year or early next year.

The Bill should contain clauses that specifically allow the running of Pet Fairs (including bird sales).

Secondary legislation (which need not be debated in parliament) will detail the licensing requirements of pet fairs and provide a detailed code covering veterinary supervision, caging, transport etc.

The animal rights lobby will aim their attack at two levels.

1. They will inevitably lobby MPs to try to get Pet Fairs specifically banned by the legislation. Parliament could make these amendments if MPs are convinced of the arguments.

2. They will make every effort to ensure that the secondary legislation is so onerous that legal pet fairs are impractical to run. Imagine what will happen to bird sales if all birds have to be individually displayed in large cages and given 'exercise breaks' every two hours on the way to the venue.

On the first point bird keeping (and other animal fancies) have a huge numerical advantage. There are only a handful of 'antis' while there are tens of thousands of serious bird keeping hobbyists. It is clear who has the most votes and it is imperative, when the time is right, that bird keepers make the small effort required to write to their MPs and visit their surgeries. Businesses don't have votes so we have little influence here. This is definitely in the hands of bird keepers.

As far as the secondary legislation is concerned this will all be debated in meeting rooms in parliament and Whitehall. Rightly or wrongly the antis have an equal if not stronger voice in this process. These battles will be won by the side that is most professional and presents the best arguments in a powerful and effective way. This will cost money as legal and professional veterinary opinions are bound to be required. And this is where the trade can help by making contributions to organisations that are well placed to achieve the best outcomes.

The Parrot Society is exceeding well placed to influence this process for all bird keepers(see attachment) so Alan Baldry, Richard Johnston and myself are encouraging every firm involved in the bird industry to give a donation to The Parrot Society's Animal Welfare Bill Fighting Fund. As a guideline we are suggesting that those firms that attend the Stafford Show every year should initially consider a donation of similar magnitude to their annual stand cost. Firms that don't have a stand at Stafford should still consider making a donation. Act now and help The Parrot Society use the next few months to prepare for the crucial battle ahead. All of our businesses are at risk!

Yours truly

Malcolm Green

Director

The Parrot Society and the Animal Welfare Bill

Over the past year The Parrot Society UK have managed to get members onto two key committees. One committee will debate the secondary legislation affecting the conduct of pet fairs. Colin O'Hara is involved in this committee. And the second will discuss the licensing of pet shops and pet fairs. Tony Pittman is the PS man on this committee. No other bird-keeping group has managed to get onto these committees. Indeed very few animal keepers of any sort have been invited to contribute to this process. So we would encourage bird-keeping clubs and societies or bird sale organisers who wish to have an input into these committees to contact Colin or Tony via The Parrot Society office.

Colin and Tony are not on these committees as representatives of The Parrot Society. They have been selected as private individuals with considerable expertise and knowledge of bird keeping. They are exceedingly well placed to represent all bird keepers and indeed all animal keepers. I am sure that they would welcome inputs from all bird keeping societies and private bird keepers.

But Colin and Tony cannot present an authoritative enough case on their own when faced with the financial clout the animal rights lobby can muster. They will need the support of well-argued, data-backed papers from appropriate 'eminent' people on the issues of caging and transport as well as many other topics. This evidence will have to be paid for! Inevitably legal support will be required to present the case in committee. Solicitors and barristers do not come cheap.

Last year The Parrot Society spent £13,000 attending meetings and providing legal support for their activities. So far they have clearly been very successful. This year they have allocated another £10,000. But The Parrot Society should not shoulder this whole cost themselves. This is why we believe the firms supplying the hobby should put their hands in their pockets and help to protect their businesses.