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Bleak Outlook for Equine Sector after Animals Act Amendment Fails says CLA The failure of a crucial amendment to the Animals Act to get through its second reading will have dire consequences for anybody with a business involving animals which come into contact with the public according to the CLA, the rural economy experts.
The Private Member's Bill, which sought to amend a House of Lords interpretation of the 1971 Animals Act applying strict liability to all animal owners, had been brought forward for its second reading last week by the Conservative Member of Parliament for Preseli Pembrokeshire, Stephen Crabb. It came at the end of three years campaigning and lobbying by the CLA, who had helped draft the original bill.
The Bill had been given government and cross party support and was widely recognised as providing an opportunity to reduce insurance costs by rationalising the issue of liability where ordinary animals were concerned but on Friday (March 14) it failed to win sufficient votes to carry it through.
The decision will affect the whole equine sector as well as livestock farmers and individual owners who have been hit by spiralling and often prohibitive - insurance costs since the House of Lords judgement.
Under current law, The House of Lords ruled in 2003 that "strict liability" applied to all animal owners, - even the owners of a perfectly normal animal that causes injury just by behaving in a way typical of its species - which means that owners of animals such as horses and cattle can face huge compensation
CLA experts said that the chances of insurance terms levelling out were now remote and the fact that the Bill had failed to get through its second reading would do nothing to help the victims involved in accidents where animals were involved.
CLA President, Henry Aubrey Fletcher, said: " Stephen Crabb has put a great deal of effort into this bill and we share his disappointment that it has failed to progress. We hope that the government will now pick up the baton and find another legislative opportunity to see the act amended and remedy the uncertainty it has created for animal owners.
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More articles and documents [News Archive] [14 May 2004] GN45-03: Blight [Guidance notes] [28 November 2003] CLA response to Lord Chancellor's consultative report [Consultation response archive] [9 January 2003] |
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