Abstract

This chapter explores the Animal Welfare Act 2006 (AWA 2006), which seeks to prevent animal cruelty and promote animal welfare. It explains that AWA 2006 is concerned with a person responsible for or in charge of an animal on a permanent or a temporary basis. It also emphasizes that a person who owns an animal is always regarded as being a person who is responsible for that animal. The chapter outlines offences under s 4(1) of AWA 2006, which includes an act or failure to act that causes an animal to suffer or ownership of a protected animal. It defines a protected animal as those that are commonly domesticated in the British Islands and are not living in a wild state.