We would like to make a Freedom of Information request to your council regarding primate licensing.
Please find our questions in the document attached.
Please note that we make a request similar to this annually, but that this is a wholly new request regarding 2023 figures.
There are also additional questions in the request that have not featured before, so please be sure not to forward on responses to requests from previous years but to treat this like a new request.
This request is in 2 parts. We ask that you answer all of the questions in the first section whether or not you have any licences issued under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act (DWAA). If there are any current DWAA licences for primates in your area, please also complete all of the questions in the second section.
As of 25th February 2023:
PART 1
1) How many DWAA licences are currently issued in your area?
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2) How many of these DWAA licences are issued for primates (monkeys, apes or prosimians such as lemurs)?
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3) How many applications for licences to keep primates under the DWAA Act have been refused in your area in the last 12 months?
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On what grounds were they refused?
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4) What is the cost of obtaining a DWAA licence in your area (please indicate whether this includes any veterinary fees incurred)?
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5) What is the cost of ‘renewing’ a DWAA licence in your area (please indicate whether this includes any veterinary fees incurred)?
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6) Are you aware of any breeders or dealers of primates in your area?
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If yes how many?
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7) If a member of the public is aware of a breach of the Animal Welfare Act with regards to a primate, who do they contact in your area?
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8) In order to be granted DWAA licences for primates, must applicants
demonstrate that they meet the conditions laid out in the Code of Practice for
the Welfare of Privately Kept Non-human Primates?
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9) If a DWAA licence is not renewed, do you contact previous licence holders to establish why it has not been renewed?
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10) Would you investigate what has happened to primates that were licensed in your area but are no longer licensed?
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PART 2
11) If there are primates licensed in your area, please provide copies of all licences, and the most recent relevant veterinary and inspection report(s) for each licence (on the understanding that for data protection purposes, certain information may be obscured). If no written reports are available, please indicate the date on which the most recent report was conducted, by whom, and the outcome of the visit. If not included in the report(s), please also provide the following information:
For each licence issued for primates:
a) How many individuals of each species are covered (please provide the scientific name: i.e. Sapajus apella)?
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b) What is the age and sex of each licensed primate? If this information is not kept by your council, please indicate so.
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c) Where was each primate obtained? If this information is not kept by your council, please indicate so.
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d) Are these primates considered to be pets? If not, how are they classified?
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e) Please confirm whether any restriction is placed on the breeding of the licensed animals. If no restriction exists, please indicate whether the existing licence would automatically cover the offspring, and until what age this cover would last.
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f) Has a licence been issued to the licence holder previously?
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g) If so, what was the last year a licence was issued, and what primates were licenced?
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12) Would you or someone in your department, be willing to share any further information about DWAA licensing?
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And who can we contact for such information?
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