Animal Laws

[jennyc]

I thought it would be interesting to see what laws I could find regarding animals in the UK:

I found this on dog law: www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/1052

From what I can see there is the infamous DDA Law (Boo) But there are also some interesting ones which I didnt know about.

Ie: did you know that dogs HAVE to by law be kept on a lead by roads? I'm going to use this one next time I see an idiot who thinks its ok to let their dog wander by the road.

Also - Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953

Interestingly, there are no laws specifically for cats.

Your dog must not worry (chase or attack) livestock (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses and poultry) on agricultural land, so keep your dog on a lead around livestock. If your dog worries livestock, the farmer has the right to stop your dog (even by shooting your dog in certain circumstances).

[crazycatlady1958]

In Australia, there are lots of laws concerning dogs. I can't be too specific as I'm a cat owner, but they concern them being on leads except in specified areas/beaches/parks, fencing, laws concerning specific breeds i.e. pit bull terriers etc.

I'm not sure if there are Australia wide laws concerning cats, but there are local council bylaws that I know about, and laws which can be enforced by the Department of Wildlife. It seems that no-one has the guts to introduce actual laws that require cats to either be kept indoors or caged, but there are laws which say that cats must be kept within the boundaries of your property. How on earth can anyone expect you to keep a cat within a boundary unless they are caged or confined in some way?

I don't think that too many people are bothered by this, and accept the inevitability of cats wandering, unless of course, like me (just my damned luck grrrrr....) you live next door to a megalomaniac, cat-hating, cat-killing neighbour, who will resort to ridiculous laws so that any cats that are lucky enough to still be alive have miserable confined lives. Needless to say after a couple of run-ins with this old fa#t I now just ignore his existence. I think actually that he is Adolf Hitler's younger brother.

Most local councils expect cats to be chipped and registered. Of course I don't know the figures, but I expect that not many people obey this law. I know that in my area (rural, semirural, village-like communities), there are >3,000 registered dogs, but only 300 registered cats.

Did you know that in Ireland, and heaven knows where else, cats are classed as "vermin" and there are no laws to protect them? I recently signed a petition to the Irish PM to reclass cats so rescue organisations can start to receive funding to help the thousands upon thousands of abandoned, feral, mistreated and seriously ill cats. There was a picture of a poor little guy who'd had an eye infection that was left untreated for so long that his eyes had rotted in his head!!

One really needs to ask, why are cats deemed less worthy of life and care and freedom than dogs or birds or, as here in Australia, the native wildlife??

[jennyc]

It's worrying isn't how little animals are thought of esp in some countries.

[crazycatlady1958]

Yes, I agree.

I've found too that oftentimes country people have a different mindset about their pets. Perhaps it comes from being used to an environment where it's commonplace for animals to be wandering around the farm one minute and on the dinner table the next. While most country people look after their pets, they don't seem to get attached in the same way people like I will - to me my cats are my family, to many country people, they are "just" cats, nice to have around sometimes, but not worth wasting emotions on.

Anyway, that's how I interpret things.

I can remember mentioning to my brother-in-law that on a trip to Sydney that in the space of about 10 minutes I'd only just avoided hitting a rabbit, then a small kangaroo. He reckoned that I should have made sure I'd run over the rabbit, as they are such a pest - when I said that no animal deserves to die like that, he just looked at me as if I were bonkers!

[jennyc]

In the country alot of the times cats and dogs are workers not pets so that's probably why that mindset is there.
Although saying that I know of someone who lives on a farm who has both and they are treated as pets as well as workers which was nice to see.