Home Office: Animals and Wild Birds (ANM, ELA and WBD Symbol Series) Files

HO 285

1914; 1947-2001

Selected files from the Home Office ANM (Animals), ELA (Experiments with Living Animals) and WBD (Wild Birds) series, covering the administration of the law relating to the protection of, and prevention of cruelty to animals.

The WBD series includes material on statutory and other provisions for protection of wild life, and the Administration of Justice Act 1964.

The papers in the series are arranged in numerical order by departmental file reference within each of the three series, ANM, ELA, and WBD which are listed separately. The inclusion of a date preceding a file reference number (as in ANM (1959) 1/1/30) indicates that the year in which the file was created was included in the reference. Thus the full departmental reference of a file listed as an ANM (1959) 1/1/30 would be ANM/59 1/1/30. The inclusion of the letter 'P' in the departmental reference number of a file in the ELA series (as in 1/2048/1,P) indicates that a publication describing the experiments performed by a particular licence holder forms part of the Home Office file.

ANM, ELA and WBD Symbol file series

Public Record(s)

English

238 file(s)

Open unless otherwise stated

From 1985 Home Office

Series is accruing

The Home Office had a general responsibility for the administration of the law relating to the protection of and prevention of cruelty to animals, with the exception of the laws relating to pest extermination and the slaughtering of animals for food (which are dealt with by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food). The various Protection of Animals Acts from 1911 onwards contain the general law relating to cruelty to animals in England and Wales and make it a criminal offence to cause unnecessary suffering to any domestic or captive animal. These Acts have been supplemented over the years by numerous Acts all introduced as private members' bills, which give protection to particular species or classes of animals or to animals under particular circumstances or conditions. The Home Office also deals with a number of private members' bills which fail to become law.

The Home Office has a particular responsibility of for the administration of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, which imposes limitations and control on all experiments likely to give pain if performed on living vertebrate animals. Under the Act no such experiment may be performed without a licence issued, or on premises not licensed and approved by the Home Office. In cases of experiments performed without anaesthetic, and any on horses, asses, mules, cats or dogs and in certain other types of experiment a special certificate as well as a licence is required. The Home Office issues licences, allows certificates and registers premises under the Act and is also responsible for the Cruelty to Animals Inspectorate. The latter consists of a number of medically qualified inspectors who advise on the technical aspects of applications for licence, inspect registered premises, instruct licencees and applicants for licence in the requirements of the Act and scrutinize publications describing experiments performed under the Act. In cases where there is an element of doubt over some aspect of an experiment, or where a precedent is likely to be set, applications can be referred to the Advisory Committee on the Administration of the Cruelty to the Animals Act 1876 (since 1980 the Advisory Committee on Animal Experiments).