[too many girls]

your meant to inform DEFRA, then they charge you for taking it away.

[poultrygeist]

Glad I don't have land  :roll:

Lots more bonfires then.  

Rob

[too many girls]

there's different rules for pets, if we have a pet sheep and it dies then we can bury it, if it's not a pet we have to inform DEFRA and they charge for removal, we have 34 pet sheep at the moment, gone are the days of ringing the local kennels and your fallen livestock feeding the hounds for a week.

[Aunt Sally]

This is information is from an article by Sue Hammon of the Wernlas Collection published in August 2003.  She writes a chicken keeping column in Kitchen Garden magazine.

"DEFRA has announced new regulations for the disposal of "fallen" stock as from May 1 2003. In agricultural terms, fallen stock means animals or poultry which either die naturally or are culled and have to be disposed of.

From that day onwards, the only legal method of disposal of a "body" is incineration or rendering. (a garden incinerator is not sufficient as the temperature has to reach 850C in two seconds! Local vets will send them for cremation for approx £10). The only areas exempt from this are the remote areas of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

I spoke to DEFRA about this and they were quite adamant that the rules apply equally to "pet chicken" keepers as to the large poultry empires".

So Bodger is correct, a lot of us are law breakers  :oops:

[too many girls]

not me, i haven't got any horses, sheep, chickens, ducks, goats, cats or dogs.

[Aunt Sally]

not me, i haven't got any horses, sheep, chickens, ducks, goats, cats or dogs.

      Yeh right    

[NormandyMary]

Well Im sorry but as I live in the middle of the countryside, its a case of what the eye doesn't see.........

Mine get a cremation and a little prayer, and thats an end to it!!!!!

[Aunt Sally]

burried in the out of bounds flower bed is my chooks idea of heaven  

[doorman]

Interesting questions & answers on DEFRA's site,

Q&A Link here

[Aunt Sally]

Thanks for that Doorman

I'll quote it here so we don't lose it in the future.

Q3. Can the burial of pet animals continue?
A. Yes. The EU Animal By-Products Regulation (ABPR) allows Member States to apply various derogations regarding the disposal of animal by-products (ABPs) and, amongst others, the Government has applied the derogation to permit the burial of dead pet animals.

The definition of a pet animal given within the EU ABPR is 'any animal belonging to species normally nourished and kept, but not consumed, by humans for purposes other than farming'. Therefore the normal farm species such as sheep, cattle, pigs, goats and poultry etc. would fall out with this definition and would require disposal by an approved route other than burial.

NB: Under a strict interpretation of the Regulation there is a case for arguing that no horse should be considered a pet. This is because in the EU as a whole the horse has a rather different status than it enjoys in the UK, i.e. it may be kept for human consumption. The same is not true for cattle, sheep and pigs which throughout the EU may on occasion nominally be kept as pets but do not belong to 'a species normally nourished and kept but not consumed by humans…'.

However, the different status of the horse in the UK provides us with an opportunity to take a more flexible approach to interpreting the regulations where horses are kept as pets, and we have asked enforcement authorities (local authorities) to do this where possible.

Where local authorities decide to advise horse owners that a particular animal may be considered a pet and buried then they will want to give appropriate guidance. Location of the burial site, possibility of livestock access and potential for leaching into watercourses should be taken into account. Useful advice  (110 KB) which was provided under the previous Animal By-Products Order 1999 when burial was permitted under defined circumstances remains on the Defra website.

Please note this applies only to England - If you live in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland please contact your respective national agricultural departments for advice.

[poultrygeist]

It is interesting. I think there has been a debate on here about whether a lot of chickens, ducks, etc should be re-considered as pets. If a horse can be, then why not any animal that is kept as a companion rather than purely for production ?

If they were all livestock, they'd be culled after 2 years, or before. Any non-productive hen must, by definition, be a pet.

Wouldn't get you anywhere with defra obviously, but could be argued as a legal point.

Rob

[Aunt Sally]

It's all to do with transmission of diseases like BSE Rob.

We eat chickens and ducks in this country but not horses.  So Chickens and ducks are farm species and horses are not.

[poultrygeist]

I realise the disease implications but surely a few backyard hens pose no greater risk than wild birds or other species ??

Or would that not make any difference ??

Rob

[Aunt Sally]

I realise the disease implications but surely a few backyard hens pose no greater risk than wild birds or other species ??

I'm sure your right Rob.  

But rules is rules and to try to say yes to some, no to others, maybe here, not there. It would be a nighmare for "the authorities".

[poultrygeist]

My sentimentality tends to kick in with this sort of thing.  

How dare they call ours chickens "livestock", etc  :roll:

I know why they're saying it because so many of us on here tread a fine line between pets and small-scale farming. I know farmers have favourite sheep ( :shock: ) and cows so just because we treat out chooks like feathered people doesn't make them or us special.

BUT I doubt many will be ringing DEFRA when their Delilah falls off the perch, aged 8. And i doubt DEFRA would want them to either.

Rob