Freddie Starr ate my Animal Welfare Act!

[Gromit]

The Animal Welfare Act, which will become law in England soon (it already is in Wales), includes harsher fines of up to �20,000 and jail terms of up to a year for cruelty.

People will be legally liable for the basic welfare of their pets under new laws.

It has been dubbed a Bill of Rghts for Pets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6521765.stm

Is this not a bit over the top? Should keeping pets be regulated at Government level? Haven't we managed quite well with the existing laws for over 100 years? Shouldn't prisons be for murderers and not for pet abusers?

or

Long overdue and we should get tough of cruelty of any kind.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Does your mooted argument of 'prisons should be for murderers' also entend to excluding all non-murderous crimes from custodial sentences?

[Gromit]

Prisons should be chiefly for people who are a danger to other people. They should not be full of shoplifters, benefit fraudsters, drug addicts or people who are not fit to keep a dog.

[youngmafbog]

Do we use the laws we have to the full extent?

And prisons should be for those that break the law, particularly repeat offenders not just for harm against a person.

[joko]

well, given that people all over the country abuse animals in the most sickening ways and the newspapers are littered with stories of this, i hardly think we have '...managed quite well...'

many people only see the wrong in something if there is a law against it - i have had debates with people myself about many people whose sense of right and wrong is based solely on the law.

before the mobile phone bans, people weren't bothered - now those same people express indignant outrage at it, same goes for seatbelts and various other things

this is the reason laws like this must be passed - because unfortunately some members of society are brainless fools with no sense of what is right unless they are told - or they simply don't care and must be forced.

abuse is not just the willfull act hurting, it is also simply neglect and lack of care and consideration

i also think the law should insist that informational booklets on animal care are routinely given out at the point of sale.

incidentally, a great many biopgraphies of serial killers note that most of them started out by torturing animals for fun....perhaps police should take extra notice of those found guilty of animal cruelty....?