The proposed regulations on the identification of animals are creating uncertainty in the agricultural community. They appear to be imposing impossible requirements on the owners of animals, from bees to rabbits and cattle.
The main question that needs answering is: To which animals do the regulations apply?
The draft regulations published for comment have been issued in terms of the Animal Improvement Act of 1998, not the Animal Identification Act of 2002. The regulations employ the definition of “animals” in terms of the former Act, which reads:
“‘‘animal’’ means a kind of animal or an animal of a specified breed of such kind of animal which has in terms of section 2 been declared as an animal for the purposes of this Act”
So, it apparently deals with animal breeds that are registered with stud book associations and are, thus, managed by highly sophisticated stud breeders. This is something completely different from the ordinary definition of animals, such as farm and domestic animals.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) calls on the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Willie Aucamp, to clarify to which animals the regulations apply.
