It's illegal in the UK to feed (or put in the same enclosure for you loop-hole searchers) any live vertebrate to another animal, as far as I'm aware
Paul
PET rats... any keep these guys as "pets" and not just feeders?
- Thread starter kittyhazelton
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Paul
paul112;4677539; said:It's illegal in the UK to feed (or put in the same enclosure for you loop-hole searchers) any live vertebrate to another animal, as far as I'm aware
Paul
Thats actually incorrect if you research it further.
**Currently under the 1911 Act it is not illegal to feed a live vertebrate to another unless you cause it unnecessary suffering, so that would have to be the result of a court case and the judge would have to make a decision.
Those of us who have been involved with reptiles will argue that a mouse that is being produced for food really has no cognizance of what is going on and exhibits no fear.
Whilst we absolutely do not want to encourage live feeding, we think we need some clarity as to whether that is going to be made illegal under this clause of fighting. Our concerns are, because of Clause 3(iv)(c), the need to be able to exhibit normal behavior patterns, that snakes in the wild feed on life prey, there are no carrion feeding snakes, so that would mean we are not going to be able to feed them frozen food; we are going to have to feed them live mice, and equally we would be opposed to having to introduce that.
this practice is currently legal so long as not practiced in a public place. There has always been confusion over the legality of this practice as no regulation directly relating to this has ever been decreed. Many millions of rodents are destroyed every year by break back traps and poison, compared to these methods the kill by a snake is swift and efficient
This was taken from the British Parliaments resources site
Firstly, there is no law that pacifically says it is illegal to feed a live vertebrate to a predator and any case taken into court based just on putting a live vertebrate in with a predator would fail very quickly.
BUT and this is a big but, there are a number of laws both in the old animal welfare laws and in the new that could be easily broken when offering a live vertebrate to a predator, for instance the law does say that you are responsible for the well being of any animal in your care and must provide it with all its requirements. This could mean that whilst you dont find yourself in trouble for live feeding, you could be in trouble for not providing food, water and sleeping arrangements for the prey animal whilst its in with the predator. Also if you look at the five freedoms in the new animal welfare laws you will see that not only do they clash with live feeding they also clash with feeding frozen so if we take these new laws to the letter we are wrong what ever we do.
In reality DEFRA have said that they do not consider the feeding of a live vertebrate to a predator to be illegal. It is however to be discouraged and only used when all other methods of natural feeding have been tried and failed. They also suggest that a vet should be involved and that a letter from the vet should be in the owners possession stating that all other methods have been tried and that in the vets opinion offering a live vertebrate is the last natural option to avoid the predator dying/suffering. (I do have a copy of the letter here but dont have the time to go looking for it at the moment).
Just for the record and all those saying live feeding is the last resort, it isnt. This method needs to be tried while the animal is still well and strong enough to be able to kill and eat its prey. There is little point in putting a live rodent into a cage with a half dead snake. The end result will be a well fed rodent and a well chewed snake.
The last resort always has been and always will be force feeding.
Those of us who have been involved with reptiles will argue that a mouse that is being produced for food really has no cognizance of what is going on and exhibits no fear.
Whilst we absolutely do not want to encourage live feeding, we think we need some clarity as to whether that is going to be made illegal under this clause of fighting. Our concerns are, because of Clause 3(iv)(c), the need to be able to exhibit normal behavior patterns, that snakes in the wild feed on life prey, there are no carrion feeding snakes, so that would mean we are not going to be able to feed them frozen food; we are going to have to feed them live mice, and equally we would be opposed to having to introduce that.
this practice is currently legal so long as not practiced in a public place. There has always been confusion over the legality of this practice as no regulation directly relating to this has ever been decreed. Many millions of rodents are destroyed every year by break back traps and poison, compared to these methods the kill by a snake is swift and efficient
This was taken from the British Parliaments resources site
Firstly, there is no law that pacifically says it is illegal to feed a live vertebrate to a predator and any case taken into court based just on putting a live vertebrate in with a predator would fail very quickly.
BUT and this is a big but, there are a number of laws both in the old animal welfare laws and in the new that could be easily broken when offering a live vertebrate to a predator, for instance the law does say that you are responsible for the well being of any animal in your care and must provide it with all its requirements. This could mean that whilst you dont find yourself in trouble for live feeding, you could be in trouble for not providing food, water and sleeping arrangements for the prey animal whilst its in with the predator. Also if you look at the five freedoms in the new animal welfare laws you will see that not only do they clash with live feeding they also clash with feeding frozen so if we take these new laws to the letter we are wrong what ever we do.
In reality DEFRA have said that they do not consider the feeding of a live vertebrate to a predator to be illegal. It is however to be discouraged and only used when all other methods of natural feeding have been tried and failed. They also suggest that a vet should be involved and that a letter from the vet should be in the owners possession stating that all other methods have been tried and that in the vets opinion offering a live vertebrate is the last natural option to avoid the predator dying/suffering. (I do have a copy of the letter here but dont have the time to go looking for it at the moment).
Just for the record and all those saying live feeding is the last resort, it isnt. This method needs to be tried while the animal is still well and strong enough to be able to kill and eat its prey. There is little point in putting a live rodent into a cage with a half dead snake. The end result will be a well fed rodent and a well chewed snake.
The last resort always has been and always will be force feeding.
