Our view of Public Policy Exchange symposium March 17th London

SUMMARY OF LONDON MEETING 1 WHITEHALL PLACE LONDON RE ANIMAL WELFARE ACT 2006 – 3 YEARS ON.
Public Policy Exchange symposium
Assess the progress made since the introduction of the Animal Welfare Act 2007
Identify and discuss new challenges faced by local authorities and their partners
Consider solutions to tackling the root causes of animal cruelty through better education and stronger enforcement
Pioneer new innovative and sustainable strategies to improve animal welfare
Discuss how to make best use of funding and increase partnership working

Siobhan and Elaine attended this meeting, travelling to London on 16^th for the all day meeting on the 17^th. The event was marred for us by the theft of Elaine’s bag containing her purse with cards, driving license and all the bits and bobs, cash and mobile phone. Sadly the thief got away within seconds, this kind of crime is constant in London and nothing will ever come back of it. We still managed to get to the meeting on time and stayed for the whole day itinerary.

The morning session we found very interesting, relevant to EMW and informative with good connections being made between other attendees although we were disappointed that there was no representation from DEFRA on the day.

There was much talk about Dangerous dogs and the need to deal with these increasing problems within the legislation of the 2006 act. 

Although licensing was briefly mentioned it is clearly not going to happen in the near future although the representative from The Dogs Trust confirmed their campaign to micro-chip all dogs. On a lighter note one good suggestion was that the owners should be micro-chipped not the animals!  We have to say it was made rather tongue in cheek before supporters of human rights start to shout about it.

During the interaction part of the morning Siobhan mentioned our work in auctions and the numbers of dogs etc we see at unlicensed and unregulated horse fairs, we also mentioned how often we see animals sold by minors to minors, something many people there were not aware of. Caging was also mentioned and very briefly the licensing of livery yards which I know is a matter this charity is very concerned about.

After lunch during the second panel session of the day we heard how various councils are dealing with anti social behaviour/dangerous dogs and other aspects of Animal Health officers work. It was also relevant tot the way EMW works as one of our first contacts when animals are in trouble outside of our areas is LAHO.

Education was mooted but again we pointed out how hard it is to try to impress upon those who commit abuse and use animals as weapons that what they are doing is not the right way to care for animals they own. We were shown PowerPoint presentations of fighting dogs, appalling injuries inflicted by people who have no regard for animals at all and only interested in the financial gain they can get from either fighting the dogs or by breeding litter after litter of puppies to earn income with no regard to the welfare of those pups.

Shelters are at bursting point, we all know that and it was confirmed by those representatives from dog shelters, with the percentages of bull breeds being held  huge to that of other breeds, and fact that few people  want status type dogs let alone family type breeds.

 At the end of the meeting we were encouraged to complete feedback forms asking for suggestions for other topics, we both suggested more discussion on equine welfare with an emphasis on livery yard licensing and control.

Just today I have received a report about a badly run livery yard but unfortunately, as it stands,  they are meeting minimum care standards and until more legislation, high standards of care and tightly controlled licensing comes in there is precious little we can do to end the misery of horses kept this way. The definition of Livery yard needs to be ascertained but generally if you have horses belonging to more two or more persons on your yard and you accept payment for those facilities used you may be classed as a livery yard. You are however liable for the duty of care for those horses and answerable to the relevant areas of the 2006 Welfare Act.

We will most certainly be attending future meetings that are relevant to changes in equine welfare.