PROTECTION OF ANIMALS (SCOTLAND) BILL. (Hansard, 29 July 1912)

LORD SAYE AND SELE

My Lords, it will be in your Lordships' recollection that about this time last year a Bill was brought up to this House and eventually became law for the consolidation and amendment of enactments relating to this subject. Scotland, however, was omitted from that Bill owing to the difference of procedure in vogue in that country. The Bill to which I am now asking your Lordships to give a Second Reading is almost a facsimile of the Act for England, and therefore I do not think it will be necessary to occupy much time in describing it. There are, however, one or two points in respect of which this Bill is different from the English Act. Clause 4 not only provides for compensation for damage done by cruelty to an animal, but also provides the machinery for collecting it, and there is further on in the clause a provision that a person shall not be ordered to pay arty sum as compensation under this clause unless he has had reasonable notice of the application to be made by the person aggrieved, including notice of the amount claimed. Clause embraces the whole of the knackers legislation for Scotland, and imposes a penalty of £5 for keeping or using any building or place as a knacker's yard without first taking out a licence for that purpose. Clause 7 gives a wider defence than in the English Act to any person putting down poisoned grain and flesh. In Clause 9 the words "or any snare" are added after "spring trap," and it becomes necessary under this clause for any one who sets a spring trap or any snare to inspect or cause some competent person to inspect the trap or snare at least once every day between sunrise and sunset. Clause 12 differs slightly from the English Act in that it gives further protection to the person against whom proceedings are taken for an act of cruelty, he not being the owner; and it provides that reasonable notice should be given to him. With those few exceptions this Bill is exactly similar to the English Act which your Lordships passed into law last year. It has come from another place without any opposition being taken to it, and I ask your Lordships to give it a Second Reading today.