Background
3.The Act supports the Animal Health and Welfare Strategy for Great Britain. The Strategy was published by the Scottish Executive, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Welsh Assembly Government in June 2004 and sets out a vision for raising animal health and welfare standards to the benefit of animals, animal keepers and society as a whole. The Act makes provisions for both the health and welfare of animals in Scotland. Part 1 of the Act makes provision in relation to animal health including supplemental powers to prevent the spread of diseases, to make provision for the establishment of a breeding programme to breed resistance to Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs) in livestock and provisions to aid the enforcement of the Animal Health Act 1981 (“the 1981 Act”). Part 1 amends the 1981 Act which provides the current legal basis for dealing with outbreaks of disease.
4.Part 2 of the Act makes provisions in relation to animal welfare through the consolidation and modernisation of animal welfare legislation for Scotland. The provisions in Part 2 implement the commitment made in “A Partnership for a Better Scotland” to introduce a Protection of Animals Bill into the Scottish Parliament by 2007. The main purposes of these welfare provisions of the Act are, firstly, to introduce a duty of care on those responsible for animals and, secondly, to allow animals either suffering or in danger of suffering to be removed.