To the untrained eye, it may appear that one of these creatures is rather more dangerous than the other and therefore that it may make sense to have rules about keeping one of them which shouldn’t apply to the other:
However, to the keenly trained eye of a Cornwall County Council officer, it’s a different matter. For, as Alex Folkes reports,
Cornwall Council is forcing a woman who runs a rescue centre for pet tortoises to apply for a zoo licence if she wants to keep her project open.
According to This is Cornwall:
“Joy Bloor, owner of Tortoise Garden in Sticker, was told that she must apply for zoo status or close after Cornwall Council reclassified the creatures as wild animals — on a par with tigers, giraffes and elephants. She has been given one month to apply for zoo status for the shelter — which she says could cost her £250,000 a year.”
Just how many people have been savaged by a rampaging tortoise? Will Mrs Bloor be forced to keep her charges behind double fences of steel mesh and razor wire? Will she have to feed them by poking lettuce leaves through the bars on the end of a pointed stick? Will the next series of Britain’s Got Talent feature tortoise tamers?
As both Alex and the local media have pointed out, the council could have decided to exempt tortoises from the ‘wild animals’ classification which imposes tighter rules than those for other animails. But the council decided not to. The power to take the decision of course its perogative under the system of devolved decision making and responsibility that we usually support. That doesn’t make it the right decision though.
Now excuse me whilst I don some armour, close the metal shutters and turn on the electric fence. There’s a squirrel moving along a branch towards my garden.
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9 Comments
It’s not the first sanctuary to be closed because a council suddenly changed its mind on whether it needed a Zoo licence.
Militant animal protection societies have used the legislation maliciously (in the opinions of many) in in the past to get sanctuaries shut down.
You have to remember, when getting enthusiastic about “local” control, that local councils are staffed by people of very very low calibre, who can’t really be trusted to do anything. Giving local councils power is emphatically not the same as giving power to local people. If anything it’s quite the opposite.
I fear you are missing the point here. The ZLA is not just about protecting the public from dangerous animals, but also about protecting the welfare of (all) animals which fall within its purview.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Cornwall CC is correct in its position!
Rankersbo what motives would “Militant animal protection” societies want to close sanctuaries?
As I understand it a sanctuary is a place that cares for animals and put the animals needs first. I can understand the issue with places that call themselves sanctuaries but whose mission has morphed from caring for animals for the short term to breeding them and charging for entry/entertainment. If this is the case then such “sanctuaries” should meet the rules to protect animals in their care.
Chris I can understand the need for those caring for animals to be able to demonstrate some knowledge of how to care for them. Whether local Councils currently have staff with the qualifications or knowledge is a different issue.
As the world tortoise frisbee champion [1] I can contest they are dangerous when striking your noggin. Just as much of Ankh-Morpork is based on 19th Century Seattle, so did Terry Pratchett get his ideas for Small Gods from me.
[1] Not to mention hedgehog golf, mouse badminton, gerbil snooker, guinea pig tennis and puppy cricket. I haven’t given kitten juggling a try, though.
The idea is that it’s a crime against humanity to keep them in artificial situations. Personally, I suspect much of this is borne out of misanthropy and anti-social tendencies… unable to relate to other humans, the animal rightists project their feelings onto “non-human animals”.
See the segue from such attractive forms of misanthropy to less attractive forms. Don’t forget that betweeen the IRA ceasefire and the Admiral Duncan bombing, these were the greatest terrorist threat in Great Britain.
I cannot tell you how pleased I was, in looking for links in this remark, to find out these terrorists have lost their appeals (related to those terrorists).
Only one of these two animals has bitten me.
And Victor Meldrew hasn’t tackled the other.
Is one of these more dangerous than the other?
Depends how well cooked they are. Underdone reptile meat can be very nasty indeed.