The
legislation that we as British Bird keepers must follow is quite
complex, it generally all falls
under the
Wildlife & Countryside act, but legislation such as the
Habitats Directive & of course Animal Welfare can also effect
the hobbyist..
The
Wildlife & Countryside Act:
This
forms the bulk of the legislation we have to follow, it is well
overdue for review & hopefully this is now
happening.
There
have been several breakthroughs over the last couple of years to
push this along and some positive moves to help
us!
But it is
slow going in negotiations with Defra & far from
concluded!
One
important and unusual aspect of this legislation is the fact that
we have a reverse burden of proof against us, in other words - we
as bird keepers are considered guilty of having a wild bird -
unless we are able to prove differently, the onus is on us to prove
a bird is captive bred & so keeping records & some
documentation, I am afraid is a must!
The
legislation has basically has been split into several
schedules (lists of birds) that effect us & each list is
treated slightly differently:
Schedule
3:
This is
the common birds, such as Dunnocks, Song Thrushes, Blackbirds and
Starlings:-
Species
listed on Schedule 3 part 1 of the Wildlife and
Countryside Act are permitted under legislation to be offered
for sale or competitively shown if ringed in accordance with
ringing regulations.
This
means that the bird is Captive Bred and ringed with the
correct size ring issued by the B.B.C. or
I.O.A.
Birds
that are not UK bred & are imported from Europe are not
considered rung in accordance with ringing regulations,
require a licence issued by Natural England to be offered for
sale or to be shown!
These
application forms WML A20 & WML A21 can be found
here:
In theory
the application should be straightforward & NE cannot expect
any paperwork to prove the bird is captive bred, as it is not
necessarily required on the continent, but of course some form of
receipt or record of who you purchased the bird from would always
be useful!
Schedule
4:
This is
for much more protected species & for these birds you need a
licence from DEFRA & the birds have to be registered & rung
with Defra Rings - fortunately for us, most softbills were removed
from this a few years ago (for instance Bearded Reedlings were once
on schedule 4) - so now it is only the very specialist & rare
birds that appear on it and it does not really effect us any
more!
Non
Schedule:
Yes
- this is where the vast majority of our softbills fall, they
are not actually listed on a DEFRA schedule, as they were not
included when it was collated - but we are now allowed to keep them
under a General Licence! Slightly Different general licences
are issues by the goverment bodies of England, Scotland &
Wales
(hence
the desperate need for a complete overhaul of the
legislation)
So we are
allowed to keep the birds under these General
licences: All users of these General
Licences should make themselves fully aware of the
conditions of the licences they use!
permits sale
of species not listed on Schedule 3 part 1 provided conditions
of the licence
are met.
The main
requirements / conditions of these licences is the necessity
for each bird you possess to have a "proof of captive breeding"
document.
This
documentation should be a signed declaration by the breeder that
states the parents ring numbers, when it was bred and his contact
details.
In addition to
this, the bird should of course be closed rung with the
"recommended" ring size as per BBC or IOA ring
lists.
It sounds
complicated, but to be honest, if we all just ensure we have some
paperwork with each bird we have as proof of captive breeding, then
we are meeting the requirements & should have no issues proving
a bird is legally captive bred.
The BBC have a
pro-forma declaration form & I suggest we all use the same
format ! :
