{"id":1225,"date":"2013-05-10T17:14:23","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T16:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/?p=1225"},"modified":"2013-05-10T17:14:23","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T16:14:23","slug":"rabbit-code-of-practice-petition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/10\/rabbit-code-of-practice-petition\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal Welfare Act &#038; the Rabbit Code of Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/epetitions.direct.gov.uk\/petitions\/49086\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1248\" alt=\"Petition for Rabbit Code of Practice\" src=\"http:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/campnibble.jpg\" width=\"283\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/campnibble.jpg 283w, https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/campnibble-212x300.jpg 212w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\" \/><\/a>We believe that a government code of practice outlining what is required to meet the welfare needs of rabbits will lay the foundations towards\u00a0shortening the huge gap between\u00a0the reality of their needs\u00a0and what many owners are\u00a0currently providing. &#8211; Camp Nibble<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>In 2006 the UK introduced a new Animal Welfare Act. The key change was instead of just being wrong to treat an animal cruelly, owners now had a duty of care to provide for all animals needs, including the need:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For a suitable environment (place to live)<\/li>\n<li>For a suitable diet<\/li>\n<li>To exhibit normal behaviour patterns<\/li>\n<li>To be housed with, or apart from, other animals (if applicable)<\/li>\n<li>To be protected from pain, injury, suffering and disease<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Codes of Practice<\/h2>\n<p>To cover all animals, the needs are expressed in a very general way &#8211; just what is a suitable diet? Obviously, the answer for a cat is very different for a rabbit. So, how would people know what the legal &#8216;suitable diet&#8217; was for their pet? The solution was included in the Animal Welfare Act &#8211; the government would issue &#8216;Codes of Practice&#8217; documents. These would explain in detail how to put the law into practice.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>14.1 The appropriate national authority may issue, and may from time to time revise, codes of practice for the purpose of providing practical guidance in respect of any provision made by or under this Act.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Although the Animal Welfare Act (2006) applies to both England and Wales (the\u00a0Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 applies in Scotland) the Codes of Practice don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>Wales went ahead and published a <a href=\"http:\/\/wales.gov.uk\/topics\/environmentcountryside\/ahw\/animalwelfare\/pets\/codesofpractice\/?lang=en\">Code of Practice for Rabbits<\/a> in 2009, which does a very good job of explaining how to care for a rabbit&#8217;s diet, housing, social, behavioural and health needs e.g.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Your rabbit should have daily access to a safe and secure run where it can run and jump. The run should be as large as possible so that your rabbit can stretch upwards to its full height and run, not just hop.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But, whilst England went ahead and issued Codes of Practice for cats, dogs, horses and primates&#8230; <strong>seven years after the Animal Welfare Act the promised Code of Practice for Rabbits hasn&#8217;t materialised for England or Scotland<\/strong>. This is despite the fact that rabbits are Britain&#8217;s third most popular pet and according to the RSPCA its most neglected.<\/p>\n<p>Concerns over this issue were noted in the 2010 &#8216;<a title=\"PDF\" href=\"http:\/\/www.google.co.uk\/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cad=rja&amp;ved=0CDEQFjAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Farchive.defra.gov.uk%2Ffoodfarm%2Ffarmanimal%2Fwelfare%2Fact%2Fdocuments%2Faw-act-2006-memo-101220.pdf&amp;ei=Sy2MUZu8GcfOOLfzgbgP&amp;usg=AFQjCNGTVnCQvP50vgr75AC0jkMq-TrRmA&amp;sig2=NIWOD5aFdo1irFf1EHopUw&amp;bvm=bv.46340616,d.ZWU\" target=\"_blank\">Memorandum to the Post-Legislative Assessment of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (PDF)<\/a>&#8216; which consulted a number of groups, such as the RSPCA and British Veterinary Association, working with the act to see what they thought of it.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;concerns include the general lack of codes for different species and the lack of training for local authority inspectors, such that some are not aware of how the code ought to be implemented. A number of groups expressed concern over Defra\u2019s priorities in introducing secondary legislation and in the choice of animals covered by Codes of Practice for e.g. private ownership of primates, but no Code of Practice for rabbits (in England).&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theyworkforyou.com\/wrans\/?id=2011-02-17a.41254.h&amp;s=%28rabbit+code+practice%29+section%3Awrans+section%3Awms+segment%3A21256882#g41254.q0\" target=\"_blank\">February 2011, William Bain MP, asked<\/a> the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when they planed to publish a <span class=\"hi\">code<\/span> of <span class=\"hi\">practice<\/span> on the welfare of pet <span class=\"hi\">rabbits<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>The answer:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We have no current plans to publish a <span class=\"hi\">code<\/span> of <span class=\"hi\">practice<\/span> on the welfare of pet <span class=\"hi\">rabbits<\/span>. We consider that the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to provide for the welfare needs of animals are sufficient to ensure the necessary protection for the welfare of pet <span class=\"hi\">rabbits<\/span>.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Which is daft!<\/strong> If we want the public to improve their care standards there needs to be a clear document explaining what those standards are &#8211; that&#8217;s where the Rabbit Code of Practice should come in. I&#8217;m not the only one to think it.<\/p>\n<h2>Campaigning for a Rabbit Code of Practice<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.campnibble.com\">Camp Nibble<\/a>, a rabbit rescue centre in Leeds, have started a petition calling for the government to introduce a code of practice. If you haven&#8217;t come across them before, petitions run through the Direct.gov website that generate 100,000 signatures within a year trigger a debate in parliament. It sounds like a lot but it&#8217;s quite a small portion of the millions of rabbit owners in the UK. I asked Hannah, from Camp Nibble, why a Code of Practice is important to their work:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Most of our rescue rabbits one way or another\u00a0have ended up\u00a0at Camp Nibble\u00a0due to people taking on rabbits with little realisation\u00a0of what is needed for them to live happy, healthy lives. They are widely misunderstood animals and are very often\u00a0mistakenly taken on\u00a0as cheap, easy pets.\u00a0In many cases\u00a0the responsibility for their care is even left in the hands of children.<\/p>\n<p>Welfare organisations now\u00a0understand well what rabbits need for their welfare to be best met. However, this information needs to\u00a0be adopted and accepted by\u00a0the general public.\u00a0We believe that a government code of practice outlining what is required to meet the welfare needs of rabbits will lay the foundations towards\u00a0shortening the huge gap between\u00a0the reality of their needs\u00a0and what many owners are\u00a0currently providing.<\/p>\n<p>With the code of practice in place we would hope to see a reduction in the currently huge\u00a0numbers of rabbits being neglected\/abandoned simply due to ignorance and a misunderstanding of their needs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>On behalf of Camp Nibble and the millions of rabbits in the UK, can I ask you a little favour now? If you are in the UK, can you please pop over here and sign the petition: <\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/epetitions.direct.gov.uk\/petitions\/49086\">http:\/\/epetitions.direct.gov.uk\/petitions\/49086<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We believe that a government code of practice outlining what is required to meet the welfare needs of rabbits will lay the foundations towards\u00a0shortening the huge gap between\u00a0the reality of their needs\u00a0and what many owners are\u00a0currently providing. &#8211; Camp Nibble In 2006 the UK introduced a new Animal Welfare Act. The key change was instead [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1248,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[52],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1225"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1253,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1225\/revisions\/1253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}