Animal Welfare

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:20 pm on 15 September 2021.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 2:20, 15 September 2021

Thank you very much. Well, I was certainly very pleased also to see the regulations that were passed on 23 March, then followed by—. Obviously, we had that six-month transition period to ensure that pet shop owners, for instance, were able to consider a different operating model, so they could mitigate any potential impact. But I was very pleased to see the legislation come in.

Whilst the legislation doesn't allow commercial third parties to sell puppies and kittens under six months of age, it is difficult to police those breeders who breed below that threshold, so I think it's really important that we continue to ensure that our local authorities have the ability to be able to use their discretion, for instance, to look at business cases that come forward, so that they can test if breeders have bred the animals themselves or if they're selling them for someone else, because that obviously then would breach the regulations. The scope of the regulations is very clearly set out in the legislation. I thought that was really important.

We've continued to work in partnership. We haven't just sat back and waited for this legislation to come forward. We've continued to work in partnership with local authorities. You'll be aware of the enforcement pilot project that we had, and the joint working group with the Animal Welfare Network for Wales and the Companion Animal Welfare Group Wales. We worked in partnership during the drafting of those regulations. We also continue to work closely with local authorities around the project that I referred to earlier, to ensure there are no other potential barriers to enforcement. And we're once again—. In my house, we're not allowed to use the 'c' word until December, but I am going to promote that, once again, ahead of Christmas we will as a Government be promoting Paws, Prevent, Protect to make sure that purchasers really think very carefully before they purchase a pet before Christmas.