Animal Welfare (Jersey) Law 2004: Provision of legislation on restricted procedures on animals

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A decision made 26 January 2015:

Decision Reference: MD-PE-2015-0008
Decision Summary Title :		Draft Regulations to enable licensing of restricted procedures in accordance with Animal Welfare (Jersey) Law 2004		Date of Decision Summary:	22 January 2015
Decision Summary Author:		States Veterinary Officer		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?		Written		Person Giving Oral Report:
Written Report Title :		Request for law drafting: Regulations to control restricted procedures		Date of Written Report:	22 January 2015
Written Report Author:		States Veterinary Officer		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Control application of restricted procedures on animals
Decision(s): The Minister decided to provide legislation to regulate restricted procedures in accordance with the Animal Welfare (Jersey) Law 2004
Reason(s) for Decision: To enable organisations conserving species to conduct controlled research for the benefit of the species
Resource Implications: None for provision of draft legislation
Action required: SVO to provide law drafting instructions.
Signature:			Position: Minister for Planning & Environment
Date Signed:	Initials		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Animal Welfare (Jersey) Law 2004: Provision of legislation to Control application of restricted procedures on animals

DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Animal Welfare (Jersey) Law 2004 Article 11: Introduction of Restricted Procedures Regulations

Purpose of the Report

To demonstrate the benefit of introducing Regulations in accordance with Article 11 of the Animal Welfare (Jersey) Law 2004, establishing a scheme for granting and administration of licences permitting restricted procedures.

Background

The Animal Welfare (Jersey) Law 2004 came into force in 2007. One of the provisions in the Law enables the States Assembly to introduce, by Regulations, a scheme for the grant and administration of licences by the Minister to make it lawful to apply restricted procedures to protected animals.

Discussion

Restricted procedures are defined in Article 3 of the Animal Welfare (Jersey) Law 2004. They include procedures which can be used to provide important information, particularly about minority species for which information about normal values e.g. for blood constituents, is not available. The Law prohibits taking blood samples for reasons other than veterinary diagnoses or surveillance.

Organisations which conduct research into rare and endangered species periodically require to take blood or small tissue samples, identify individuals or establish dosage for veterinary medicines e.g. anaesthetics. This work is required because there are no established standards for these rare and endangered species.

Lack of Regulations providing the legal framework and consequently a mechanism to conduct such procedures means care of various species is likely to be disadvantaged by lack of knowledge which is attainable when appropriate controls are in place.

The introduction of Regulations will enable the Minister to licence named individuals to carry out specific procedures on specific species in a specified manner and place for conservation purposes in accordance with best practice, and consequently will be of significant benefit to rare and endangered species.

Recommendation

The Minister is recommended to instruct the Veterinary Officer to provide law drafting instructions for Regulations, in accordance with Article 11 of the Animal Welfare (Jersey) Law 2004.

Written by:	Veterinary Officer

Approved by:	Deputy Chief Officer, Department of the Environment

[File Ref]

Ministerial Decision ref: MD-PE-2015-XXXX

22 January 2015