HC Deb 21 January 1971 vol 809 cc1250-1
5. Mr. Raphael Tuck

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will seek powers to ban the battery method of breeding dogs.

Mr. Carlisle

I have no evidence that such methods are used for breeding dogs.

Mr. Tuck

Is not the hon. Gentleman aware that a recent investigation by the Daily Mirror disclosed that there was a big business in the battery breeding of dogs? Bitches are kept in intolerable conditions, in old hen houses and railway carriages with holes in the roofs and walls, especially for the purpose of breeding litter after litter. Puppies are subjected to long train journeys crated in orange boxes without food and water. Is that the sort of treatment that the Minister condones?

Mr. Carlisle

I repeat that the Home Office has no evidence that battery methods of breeding dogs exist. But if there is evidence of cruelty or neglect in breeding establishments, that is already an offence under the Protection of Animals Act, 1911. It is open to any individual to initiate proceedings if he believes that unnecessary suffering has been caused. I will look at any evidence which the hon. Gentleman wishes to send me.

Mr. Rankin

The hon. Gentleman surely knows that battery methods are used for animals other than dogs. Would he equally condemn those methods and try to make the lot of the animals involved more Christianlike?

Mr. Carlisle

With respect, the Question specifically refers to dogs.

Mr. Rankin

Yes, I know.

Sir R. Cary

Does not my hon. Friend agree that battery methods, be they in kennels or on farms, are a cruel and insane way of proceeding? Should not they be abolished?

Mr. Carlisle

I speak for the whole House when I say that we are all opposed to cruelty to animals. The present provisions of the law are largely adequate to deal with cruelty when it is found.

Mr. Bob Brown

Will the hon. Gentleman assure us that he will investigate the evidence brought out in the Daily Mirror article to which my hon. Friend referred?

Mr. Tuck

And the T.V.

Mr. Carlisle

Certainly. I will look at any evidence which the hon. Gentelman or his hon. Friend care to send to the Home Office.

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