The Manx SPCA says it is disappointed that a new animal welfare law has been rejected by MHKs.

It was a bill that aimed to provide protection for pets and kept animals but it failed to get its second reading in the House of Keys last week.

MHKs branded it ’half-hearted’ and questioned why the results of a public consultation had not been published.

Juana Warburton, general manager of the MSPCA, said: ’We supported the proposed Animal Welfare Bill 2021. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start.

’With primary legislation in place we could then have developed more specific secondary legislation to protect the island’s animals. Now it seems that we’re back to square one, with no timescale - that we know of - for any amended legislation to be put in place.’

She said that in the charity’s response to the public consultation it expressed a concern that deficiencies in the bill should not be allowed to delay it.

’We will be seeking clarification from the Department of the Environment, Food and Agriculture on what happens now, and will continue to campaign for animals to be afforded more legal protection than they have at the moment on the Isle of Man,’ she added.

A controversial clause which would have seen mountain hare reclassified from vermin to game was dropped from the draft legislation.

Manx Wildlife Trust had argued this did not go far enough and mountain hare, which were native to the island and subsequently reintroduced in the 1950s, should be given full ’protected’ species status.

A spokesman said: ’MWT is disappointed that the plan to reclassify mountain hares from vermin to game was removed from the bill and that the bill was then rejected.

’We hope that the next administration can bring a swift resolution to this important issue and improve protections for both companion animals and wildlife alike, bringing the Isle of Man in line with the UK in this respect.’

The MSPCA has also raised concerns about the unsatisfactory legal situation regarding the island’s hares - but said at least the bill provided more protection for the mountain hares than they currently have.

’With the bill in place, we could have campaigned for greater protection for all hare types on the island, said Juana.

There is currently no legislation in the island to provide for the welfare of companion animals such as cats, dogs and horses, a deficiency highlighted in a petition for redress of grievance submitted on Tynwald Hill in 2014.

But DEFA Minister Geoffrey Boot told MHKs that the legislative challenges posed by Brexit has meant it had not been possible to draft a detailed bill.

modifications

Instead, a short five-clause bill had aimed to provide a means of applying specific UK legislation in this area with appropriated modifications to meet the island’s needs.

Garff MHK Daphne Caine described it as a ’half-hearted attempt to come up with an animal welfare bill’.

’Shouldn’t the department just go and do a proper job of it?’ she asked.

Mrs Caine said that a detailed bill should include a register of animal cruelty offenders and protection for mountain hare.

Lawrie Hooper (Liberal Vannin, Ramsey) claimed the bill ’would not solve any of our problems’ and queried why the consultation responses had not been published yet.

Mr Boot promised that the 1,100 responses would be published before the bill’s clauses stage.

He said the provisions relating to the reclassification of mountain hare had been taken out of the bill.

The Minister suggested protection of these mammals would probably come back under the next administration as an amendment to the Wildlife Act.

But the Keys remained unimpressed and the second reading failed to carry by nine votes for to 12 against.