Animal Welfare Bill
Download the Full animal welfare act

The new bill sets out to improve animal husbandry it is the NFR's belief that it has done so in most areas however, there are two sections of the bill that has caused us some concern these are Clauses 8 (Fighting), section 7. This section tries to clarify the act of Fighting, it states "animal fight" means an occasion on which a protected animal (all vertebrates) is placed with an animal, or with a human, for the purpose of  fighting, wrestling or baiting.

Unfortunately if you use the English oxford dictionary all of the aforementioned could be construed to take place in the act of ferreting however under the explanatory notes released for this act it clearly states in Clause 8 subsection 47 "Legitimate pest control activities which involve the use of one animal to catch another will not fall within the definatioion of an animal fight as the animals are not placed together for the purpose of fighting, wrestling or baiting." I pressed Defra on the fact that this section should have been included in the act and not just the explanatory notes, however I was assured that it is not the intention of this act to prevent Ferreting.

It is however even more important that we Declare ourselves as Pest Controllers when asked "What are you doing"

The second and last problem for ferreters is Clause 11 Transfer of Animals by way of sale or prize to persons under 16 Section 1 which states "A person commits an offence if  he sells an animal to a person whom he has reasonable cause to believe is under the age of 16 years."

Under other clauses this basically means the transfer of ownership of a ferret in any way to an under 16 is illegal