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Section 5: Mutilation

Animal Welfare Act 2006 · 2006 c. 45View on legislation.gov.uk

A person commits an offence if—

he carries out a prohibited procedure on a protected animal;
he causes such a procedure to be carried out on such an animal.

A person commits an offence if—

he is responsible for an animal,
another person carries out a prohibited procedure on the animal, and
he permitted that to happen or failed to take such steps (whether by way of supervising the other person or otherwise) as were reasonable in all the circumstances to prevent that happening.

References in this section to the carrying out of a prohibited procedure on an animal are to the carrying out of a procedure which involves interference with the sensitive tissues or bone structure of the animal, otherwise than for the purpose of its medical treatment.

Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply in such circumstances as the appropriate national authority may specify by regulations.

Before making regulations under subsection (4), the appropriate national authority shall consult such persons appearing to the authority to represent any interests concerned as the authority considers appropriate.

Nothing in this section applies to the removal of the whole or any part of a dog's tail.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.