New welfare laws will affect trade

A new animal welfare bill will ban children under the age of 16 from buying pets and will make it a crime punishable by a year's imprisonment to give goldfish away as prizes at fairs.

The Sunday Times has obtained a leaked copy of a new animal welfare bill which is due to be publicly released on July 14. Besides making it an offence for any pet shop to sell an animal to any child under 16, and banning the use of pets as prizes, the report also claims that the new laws will introduce a "duty of care" and says that people could be banned from owning pets if they are found to be responsible for an animal's suffering.

"There are concerns that children purchase animals on a whim without realising how to look after the animal and possibly without parental consent.

"When the child loses interest in the animal its welfare may suffer or it may even be abandoned. Such purchases can arise from fads", says the leaked memo.