Pets – Legal Obligations

Recently, on our Facebook page, someone asked us for advice on the legal obligations of owning a pet. Rather than just let one person know we thought a blog would be a better idea

Firstly, have you heard of the Animal Welfare Act 2006? It goes into a lot of detail and if you want to read all of it we will add a link at the bottom of the blog, however, on a basic level it states:

Anyone who is responsible for an animal has a duty of care to take reasonable steps to ensure that the animal’s needs are met.  This means that the person has to look after the animal’s welfare and ensure that it does not suffer.  The act states the animal’s welfare needs to include:

A suitable environment

A suitable diet, including fresh water

The ability to exhibit normal behaviour patterns

Any need it has to be housed with or housed apart from other animals

Protection from pain, suffering, injury or disease

If you have a dog there are certain laws you need to be aware of.  It is against the law to let your dog be dangerously out of control in a public place or in a private place where the dog isn’t supposed to be (in a neighbours house or garden for example)

Your dog is considered out of control if it injures someone or makes someone worried that it might injure them.  Also, a court may decide that your dog is dangerously out of control if it injures someone elses animal or if the owner of the animal thinks they could be injured if they tried to stop your dog attacking their animal.

There is a lot of information relating to owning a pet on the government website such as banned dogs, DCO’s (dog control orders) , banned dogs and dog fouling. Also, it may be worth checking your local council’s website for information.

For more information about the animal welfare act , please click here 

Information about controlling your Dog, DCO’s, banned dogs and dog fouling, please click here

Information from about animal welfare from Basildon Council, please click here

If you have any questions about this please call us at the clinic or leave a message on our Facebook page