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Animal Welfare Bill

I quarrel only with subsection (2) of the proposed new clause. I bought my current bitch when she was three weeks old, but I left her with the breeder for another six weeks. If you are buying a pedigree dog or a dog from a strain that you particularly want, the breeder may well want to secure a sale rather earlier than eight weeks. There will be a lot of competition for the dogs and he will not want to be left with a dog on his hands at the point at which it becomes difficult to train, which can be as early as 10 weeks. One should be able to sell dogs when they are young, but they should not be deprived of their mother until they are eight weeks old.