Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976
The 'Dangerous Wild Animals Act' of 1976 (22 July) is a law of the United Kingdom that was originally enacted to deal with the increasing fashion in the late 1960s and early 1970s of people keeping interesting pets which were often from the more dangerous species, as well as hybrids between wild and domestic species, such as wolfdogs and Bengal cats. It was increasingly seen as unacceptable—in regards to public safety—for the average citizen to be able to acquire a potentially dangerous animal without some form of regulatory control.
Its purpose was to ensure that when private individuals kept dangerous wild animals they do so in circumstances which do not create risk to the public and safeguard the welfare of the animals.
The Act's schedule designates the species covered, such as many primates, carnivores, larger or venomous reptiles, dangerous spiders and scorpions. Keeping such animals without a licence is unlawful and the state is also allowed to specify where and how the animal is to be kept. This law also requires keepers to have their animals covered by a satisfactory liability insurance policy.
Read more about Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976: How It Works
Famous quotes containing the words dangerous, wild, animals and/or act:
“Insane!... Ask the tyrant who is his most dangerous foe, the sane man or the insane?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Men always do leave off really thinking, when the last bit of wild animal dies in them.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Old women snore violently. They are like bodies into which bizarre animals have crept at night; the animals are vicious, bawdy, noisy. How they snore! There is no shame to their snoring. Old women turn into old men.”
—Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938)
“The ambivalence of writing is such that it can be considered both an act and an interpretive process that follows after an act with which it cannot coincide. As such, it both affirms and denies its own nature.”
—Paul De Man (1919–1983)