Dear Parrots magazine,
Is Legislation required?
I remember when the Animal Welfare Act was being debated and discussed by our MPs and during that time an issue was raised as to whether or not rescue centres should be licenced. Perhaps it was because I lost track of what was going on at that time, with the result that as far as I know rescue centres are not licenced.
The reason I raise this point is that it seems that there are numerous rescue centres around the country and some are run very well indeed, but others are, at the best, just acceptable and, at the worst, totally awful. The reason, no doubt, is that there is no legislation apart from the Animal Welfare Act, which only broadly covers such facilities. I have seen and heard of so many terrible situations where birds are kept in the most depraved conditions and would be very interested to know if there has, in fact, been anything to control some of these awful places.
Ron Knowles, by email