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Animal Welfare Bill

My noble friend Lord Ferrers earlier prefaced his observations on Amendment No. 39 by saying that this was his first contribution to the debates in your Lordships’ House and in Grand Committee on this Bill. I say ““ditto””, but hope that my contribution will be mildly informative rather than mildly remonstrative. Some years back, I sat next to a man at a dinner party. Katherine Whitehorn’s father, who once taught me, encouraged us to ask strangers what they did, as a person was less likely to be boring if you asked them what their occupation was. And so it turned out on this occasion. The man next to me owned a smallholding of 35 acres near Bath on which he kept animals for sale. I remember little of the conversation—though I remember cross-examining him at length—save the fact that zebras had to have under-floor heating. I also asked him about competition. He said that he had only two competitors—one in a small house in Northampton, and one in a council flat in Lambeth—but that only small animals were kept on their premises. I asked whether they could look after me if I wanted an elephant. He said that they certainly could, but only as an incidental agent in the transaction. It was an insight into a private world of which I had no previous inkling and some difficulty in imagining. The man I sat next to has since died, so I am not in any way affecting his welfare by referring to him on this occasion.