- The Government has quietly introduced tough powers to
seize and slaughter farm animals against their owners' wishes.
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- The move comes only three weeks after the House of Lords
defeated similar measures in the Animal Health Bill.
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- It gives Government officers the power to cull any cow,
sheep, goat or cat - whether healthy or not - and impose a penalty of up
to two years' imprisonment on any owner who obstructs Government inspectors
in their work.
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- Previously, inspectors had to have reason to suspect
the presence of a transmissible spongiform disease, such as BSE or scrapie.
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- Now they can use "reasonable force" to enter
any premises housing any "TSE susceptible animal" and slaughter
all animals.
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- The powers also give inspectors, and any "other
persons as he considers necessary", such as police, Army or slaughtermen,
powers to seize computers or records.
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- The new regulations came to light last night hidden among
legislation designed to assess the spread of scrapie in sheep. They were
published shortly before Easter by the Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs and came into force on April 19.
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- Under Commons procedures, MPs have until the end of next
week to debate the legislation, contained in a statutory instrument, before
it automatically becomes law.
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- MPs can seek a debate to annul the regulations through
a motion known as a prayer, but this does not allow for amendments to be
tabled and would mean either rejecting or accepting the entire 220-page
document.
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- The Lords will be given no opportunity to debate or vote
on the legislation. On March 26, peers rejected the Animal Health Bill
after questioning the Government's attempts to rush through similar laws
covering future outbreaks of animal diseases before two further Government
inquiries into the foot and mouth outbreak report this summer.
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- After peers rejected the Animal Health Bill, Lord Whitty,
the farming minister, said there might be "other channels" the
Government could use to introduce powers to enter farms and slaughter animals
at will. These measures appear to be one such channel.
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- The legislation will be debated on May 15, but opponents
pointed out it is unlikely to be defeated given the Government's large
majority.
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- Peter Ainsworth, the shadow rural affairs secretary,
said the legislation would "give the Government an inappropriate extension
of its powers".
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- He went on: "We are all in favour of measures to
eliminate scrapie but very few people are going to be in favour of measures
that will allow officials to kill just about any farm animal except the
dog."
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- Barney Holbeche, parliamentary affairs official at the
National Farmers' Union, said he could see that "Government officials
might need the powers in extreme circumstances" but was concerned
that there was a balance to be struck.
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- "Clearly there are individual rights that might
be infringed under the measures of stamping disease out."
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- A Defra spokesman said that the new legislation in the
statutory instrument had been "put out for consultation last August,
before the Animal Health Bill came into being".
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- He added: "It is a more robust package of BSE and
scrapie measures designed to bring us into line with EU regulations."
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