1. (1) “Each of the following is a “primary authority” for the purposes of this
Chapter
(a) a district council in England;
(b) a county council in England for an area for which there is no district
council;
(c) a London borough council;
(d) the Common Council of the City of London;
(e) the Council of the Isles of Scilly;
(t) a county or county borough council in Wales.
(2) Each of the following is a “secondary authority” for the purposes of this
Chapter
a) a parish council in England;
b) a community council in Wales.”
Officers must be aware of which orders effective in their area they are
authorised to enforce although an order laid down by a primary authority
always overrides that by secondary authority. Section 59 provides for fixed
penalty notices and S61 empowers an authorised officer to require a person
to whom he proposes to give a fixed penalty to give im his name and address.
Chapter 2, Section 68 removes any responsibility for dealing with stray dogs
from the police force which was enshrined in the Dogs Act 1906 S3, and the
Environmental Protection Act 1990 S150. Consequently sole responsibility for
dealing with stray dogs now lies with local authorities. DEFRA guidance is that
an acceptance point for strays should be available on a 24/7 basis.
Specific animal welfare legislation
The Animal Welfare Act 2006
The Animal Welfare Act is effective in England and Wales and is divided into
two elements: the first deals with deliberate cruelty; the second deals with all
other welfare and licensing issues. The Act is enabling legislation which
enables the government to introduce secondary legislation on a variety of
welfare issues. This secondary legislation will eventually modernise and
replace much of the existing legislation on boarding, sale and breeding of
animals.
The first element, S4 to S8, deals with deliberate cruelty from unnecessary
suffering, mutilations, poisoning and fighting. Unnecessary suffering is more
closely defined in S4(1) as:
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