The Countryside Alliance welcomes the passage through the House of Commons today (04 July) of two private members’ bills that stand to make meaningful and sensible contributions to animal welfare. They aim to tackle the important areas of unscrupulous low-welfare imports of puppies and kittens, and livestock worrying by dogs. 

Both bills have storied histories, with attempts having been made to pass them in the last Parliament. They have always had cross-party support but were prevented from progressing by the General Election. In this parliament, other MPs have picked them up and with their Commons stages now complete they will now proceed to the House of Lords, where we expect their journey will be similarly unimpeded. 

The first, the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, is now being led by Dr Danny Chambers MP (LD, Winchester). This Bill seeks to clamp down on the smuggling of dogs, cats and ferrets. It would ban the import of puppies and kittens under six months and dogs and cats that are mutilated or heavily pregnant, and also reduce the number of animals that can travel into Great Britain under non-commercial rules originally introduced when we were in the European Union. This should tackle the problem of smugglers loading up vans with several people and large numbers of animals for commercial sale under the pretence of being their own pets. It will only affect animals of foreign origin, however, so should not affect anyone returning with their pets from a trip abroad. 

The second is the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) Bill, now stewarded by Aphra Brandreth MP (Con, Chester South and Eddisbury). It is fairly unusual for a government to support a private member’s bill brought by a member from the official Opposition, which serves to highlight the strength of its support. The Bill includes a range of measures to deter and detect livestock worrying, including a power to collect and test for DNA evidence and enhanced powers around the seizure and detention of offending dogs. It also adds camelids (alpacas, llamas and vicuñas) to the list of protected livestock. 

The Countryside Alliance will always support sensible, proportionate steps to improve animal welfare and these bills make the grade. We have briefed MPs about our support and, in the case of the Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets Bill, in some detail to help them make an informed decision. We look forward to them making it through the Lords and on to the statute book.