Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-08-Speech-1-094"
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"en.20100308.15.1-094"2
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"Mr President, I just wanted to say a few words in praise of the legislation we have. I understand it was based upon the United Kingdom’s pet travel scheme, which was introduced about a decade ago. That helped us reduce dramatically the quarantine regulations we had in our country which had caused much distress to both pets and their owners. I understand the first animal to take advantage of the pets travel scheme was a dog called Frodo Baggins, and after that, many hundreds of thousands of animals have been able to travel more freely.
Then the EU brought in this legislation, following very similar principles, about five years ago, and it has proved a great success. Hundreds of thousands of animals now travel with their owners each year across Europe. I am told that 60% of them happen to be British animals, which may say something about the British character, but we will not go there in this forum. Of course, we have also kept the balance right. The concern was to enable movement without spreading disease, and the reality is that rabies has been kept very firmly under control – 2 700 cases 20 years ago down to less than 300 cases last year, and not one single case associated with the movement of domestic animals under this scheme.
I am somewhat disappointed that ferrets are not moving in the numbers that I originally anticipated. When this legislation was first discussed, many ferret owners in the United Kingdom came to me and asked why this legislation could not include their animals too. They wanted to take them to ferret exhibitions across Europe. The Commissioner is looking surprised, but there was a debate. Apparently you can vaccinate a ferret against rabies but the vaccination does not show, so it was problematic. Eventually, we decided that the incidence of rabies in domestic ferrets was so small that we could include them, but apparently, I am told, there have been relatively few movements. Perhaps one reason why – to answer Jo Leinen’s point – is that in some countries, like Portugal, ferrets are still classified as vermin so pet owners are reluctant to take their animals to those countries. It could be worse – it could be China, I suppose.
Commissioner, just to finish, the great advantage to me is that I can now look to my constituents and, when they ask me what the European Union has done for them, I can say that we have made it possible for you to take your pet on holiday – your cat, your dog or your ferret."@en1
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