Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Deferred
Legislate to restrict possession, sale, and supply of DIY ear cropping kits.
Recommendation
It is all too easy to purchase DIY ear cropping kits online. This allows unscrupulous individuals to carry out this act of mutilation. Alongside closing the importation loophole, the Government should legislate to restrict the possession, hosting, sale and supply of DIY ear cropping kits. (Paragraph 61) Monitoring and enforcement
Government response summary AI-generated
The government partially accepts the concern but deflects from legislating on DIY ear cropping kits. Instead, it announces support for the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, which will provide powers to prohibit the import of puppies, heavily pregnant animals, and those with non-exempted mutilations.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
The Government shares the Committee’s concern about non-exempt mutilations. However, under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, it is already an offence in England and Wales to carry out a non-exempted mutilation, including the cropping of a dog’s ears. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021 created tougher penalties for anyone convicted of such an offence who now faces either being sent to prison for up to five years, receiving an unlimited fine, or both. Further, Defra supports the work of the Pet Advertising Advisory Group (PAAG) which includes in its membership some of the country’s key animal welfare organisations. To ensure that advertisements for pets are legal and ethical, PAAG has developed a set of advertising standards which several of the UK’s largest classified websites have agreed to meet. The standards prohibit engaged websites from hosting adverts for dogs whose ears have been cropped.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗