What is the Zoo Licensing Act?
The Zoo Licensing Act 1981 came into force in 1984. The Act requires the inspection and licensing of all zoos in Great Britain. It aims to ensure that, where animals are kept in enclosures, they are provided with a suitable environment to provide an opportunity to express most normal behaviour.How does it work?
Responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the licensing system and the administration of the Act rests with Local Authorities (usually the Environmental Health Department). However Central Government does have a role. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural affairs has responsibility for maintaining a list of zoo inspectors and for setting detailed standards for zoo management with which zoos are expected to comply (the Secretary of State’s Standards of Modern Zoo Practice).What does it cover?
A zoo is defined in the Act as being ‘an establishment where wild animals are kept for exhibition… to which members of the public have access, with or without charge for admission, on more than seven days in any period of twelve consecutive months’.The wide scope of this definition means that licensed zoos range from traditional urban zoos and safari parks to small specialist collections such as butterfly houses and aquaria. The Act recognises this wide range of establishments by allowing dispensations to be granted for small zoos. Dispensations for these types of collection reduce the number of inspectors to a reasonable level for a small establishment, and do not in any way weaken a zoo’s obligation to achieve the levels of animal welfare and modern public safety set out in the Secretary of State’s standards.
The Act does not extend to circuses, or to pet shops, both of which are covered by other legislation.
