One of the presentations at the first International Pet Insurance Conference I attended last month was given by Peter Craske who is with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in the UK [warning - some of the images on this website are pretty disturbing as you can imagine]. He gave us the state of affairs on animal welfare in the UK and the European Union, which was very interesting.
Peter talked about the new bill coming out in the UK in October 2006 called the Animal Welfare Bill. According to the RSPCA website:
As well as increasing the penalties for those who inflict the most serious cruelty offences, the Animal Welfare Bill introduces the new welfare offence. This will introduce a 'duty of care' on pet owners to provide for their animal's basic needs - such as adequate food and water, weterinary treatment when required, and an appropriate environment in which to live.
Peter said that this is extremely important for the RSPCA as it allows them to step in before an act of cruelty occurs, not after as they have to now (and you can imagine how awful that must be for the people of the RSPCA who see attrocities every day.)
This new law, "the most significant piece of animal welfare legislation for nearly 100 years", has major implications for British pet owners. For example, tail docking for dogs other than working or gun dogs is banned, and so is declawing.
While pet insurance is not mandated by the law to provide the veterinary treatment mentioned above, the RSPCA feels responsible pet parents should have pet insurance as part of their duty of care to their pet.
Why do we care about this in the US? Because you can be sure that animal organizations in the US will be pushing for a similar bill this side of the pond. Do you think that something like this legislation could pass in the US?
