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PET ANIMALS ACT, 1951
The Pst Animals Act,, 1951, which came into operation on the 1st April,
1952, provides for a system of licensing and inspection by local authorities
of pet shops, the main purpose being the enforcement of the Protection of
Animals Acts in their application to the business of selling pets.
Under Section 1 of the Act, no person may keep a pet shop unless he
obtains a licence from the local authority on payment of a fee not exceeding
Ten Shillings.
In deciding whether to grant a licence, the local authority is required
to have regard to the need for securing that there will be provided accommodation
suitable as regards size, temperature, lighting, ventilation and
cleanliness; that there will be an adequate supply of suitable food and
drink; that the animals will not be sold at too early an ages; that all
reasonable precautions will be taken to prevent the spread of infectious
diseases; and that appropriate steps will be taken in ease of fire or
other emergency. The local authority has, however, a discretion to withhold
a licence on other grounds, and is given power to specify in the licence such
conditions as they think necessary or expedient in a particular case. Any
person aggrieved by the refusal of the local authority to grant such a licence
or by the conditions imposed in the licence may appeal to a court of summary
jurisdiction.
During the year three persons were licensed to keep pet shops in the
borough and in each case a fee of ten shillings was paid.
DESTRUCTION OF PIGEONS
Complaints are occasionally received of nuisances caused by pigeons.
The Council does not employ an officer to deal with such a matter; reference
is generally made to a firm specialising in the trapping and despatching of
these birds, and no charge whatsoever falls on the local authority. During
the year some 800 pigeons were caught, and with the exception of seven which
ware traced to their owners, they were all humanely destroyed.
Under Section 123 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936, a local
authority is empowered to take steps to reduce the numbers of pigeons in its
area to a reasonable level, and to abate nuisances arising from concentrations
of these birds.