Protection of Animals (Amendment) Act 2000
Protection of Animals(Amendment) Act 2000
2000 CHAPTER 40
An Act to enable provision to be made for the care, disposal or slaughter of animals to which proceedings under section 1 of the Protection of Animals Act 1911 relate; and for connected purposes.
[30th November 2000]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Application of Act.
(1) Sections 2 to 4 apply where—
(a) a person who is mentioned in subsection (3) (referred to in this Act as ‘the prosecutor’) has brought proceedings for an offence under section 1 of the Protection of Animals Act 1911 (referred to in this Act as ‘the 1911 Act’) against the owner of the animals to which the offence relates; and
(b) the proceedings have not been discontinued or otherwise disposed of.
(2) But those sections only apply in relation to an animal which the owner keeps or has kept for commercial purposes.
(3) The persons referred to in subsection (1) are—
(a) the Director of Public Prosecutions;
(b) a Crown Prosecutor;
(c) a government department;
(d) a local authority;
(e) in relation to a prosecution in England, a person who, at the request of the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, has entered into a written agreement under which he may perform the functions conferred on a prosecutor by virtue of this Act;
(f) in relation to a prosecution in Wales, a person who, at the request of the National Assembly for Wales, has entered into a written agreement under which he may perform the functions conferred on a prosecutor by virtue of this Act.
2 Orders for the care, disposal or slaughter of animals.
(1) If, on the application of the prosecutor, it appears to the court from evidence given by a veterinary surgeon that it is necessary in the interests of the welfare of the animals in question for the prosecutor to do one or more of the things mentioned in subsection (2), the court may make an order authorising him to do so.
(2) Those things are—
(a) taking charge of the animals and caring for them, or causing or procuring them to be cared for, on the premises on which they are kept or at some other place;
(b) selling the animals at a fair price;
(c) disposing of the animals otherwise than by way of sale;
(d) slaughtering the animals, or causing or procuring them to be slaughtered.
(3) In determining what to authorise by the order, the court must have regard to all the circumstances, including the desirability of protecting the owner's interest in the value of the animals and avoiding increasing his costs.
(4) An order under this section ceases to have effect on the discontinuance or other disposal of the proceedings under section 1 of the 1911 Act; but this is without prejudice to anything done before, or done in pursuance of a contract entered into before, the order ceases to have effect.
3 Powers of entry,...
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