§ MR. J. ELLIS (Notts, Rushcliffe)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what were the severer measures which he stated had been taken in respect of the persons who were reported by the inspector as having 473 committed breaches of the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876, by performing painful experiments on living animals without the necessary licences or certificates?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTTemporary suspension of and refusal to renew licences.
§ MR. J. ELLISI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can state or lay upon the Table the terms of the conditions and regulations attached by the Home Office to the licences and certificates granted to persons for the performance of painful experiments on living animals under the Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876?
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENTThe conditions are not always the same, but may vary according to the nature of the investigation. It is hardly possible, therefore, for me to state all the conditions attached to licences and certificates. The most important conditions, however (besides the limitations as to place, time, and number of experiments), and the conditions most frequently imposed, are those as to reporting and the use of antiseptics. The latter condition is that the animals are to be treated with strict antiseptic precautions, and, if these fail and pain results, they are to be killed immediately under anesthetics. The reporting conditions are, in brief, that a written record, in a prescribed form, is to be kept of every experiment, and is to be open for examination by the inspector; that a report of all experiments is to be forwarded to the inspector; and that any published account of an experiment is to be transmitted to the Secretary of State. Another condition requires the immediate destruction under anæsthetics of an animal in which severe pain has been induced after the main result of the experiment has been attained.
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)Is it not a fact that since the Act was passed in 1876 there have never been any prosecutions under the Act?
§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILLWell, I am, Sir.