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Animal Welfare Bill

The remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Kirkhill, should be qualified. I cannot accept that the training of all animals requires some degree of unpleasantness—I think those were the words he used. I have trained gun dogs all my life; occasionally, I have had to reprimand the dog in one way or another and have perhaps administered the odd hit, but no more than that. I really object to the suggestion that the general training process of most domestic animals requires pain and unpleasantness, because I just do not believe it to be the case. The reason I wanted to intervene on the Minister was to ask a simple question, to which I am sure I know the answer. Can he give an assurance that the working party will be well balanced and that there will be representatives from the circus fraternity as well as animal behaviourists and scientists?