2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:46 pm on 24 May 2022.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 2:46, 24 May 2022

Thank you. The Member hasn't got the position quite correct—[Interruption.]—but of course I absolutely understand that people fleeing the war in Ukraine want to have their pets close by. That's absolutely what we intend to do. The difference here in Wales is we don't have home containment. Pets will have to go into quarantine if they don't meet all the criteria. So, if a pet has been vaccinated against rabies, has a pet passport, has all the correct paperwork and is microchipped, they will absolutely be able to go with the family or with the person straight away. Home containment is very difficult to monitor and very difficult to enforce, so we are sticking with the approved quarantine units that have been there for many, many years. I have to make sure that our animals here in Wales are protected, the health of the animal coming from Ukraine is protected and, of course, that public health is protected also. So, we are expanding our quarantine facilities because we appreciate that we haven't got enough. I was telling the UK Government back in February they wouldn't have enough, and of course APHA, who I do obviously work very closely with, play an important role. But, things can go wrong, and whilst I appreciate it is a very low risk,  I have to say there were 1,800 cases of rabies in Ukraine last year. We haven't had rabies in this country for 100 years. Whilst the risk is low, the impact of having such an animal disease in this country would be very, very significant.