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Regulation

Arrêté portant modifications de l’arrêté du 08 octobre 2018 fixant les règles générales de détention des animaux d’espèces non domestiques

By January 14, 2021February 9th, 2021No Comments

Document type : Order of the Ministère de la transition écologique et solidaire

Preview: The purpose of this decree is to make minor modifications to the decree of 08 October 2018 establishing  the general rules for keeping non-domestic animals. […]

The main change is [therefore] :

  • to specify in the remarks inserted immediately preceding Annexe 2 the following comment: "In the application of the thresholds given below, account shall be taken of all kept animals, irrespective of age. By way of exception, animals born on the breeding premises shall not be taken into account while they are still at the juvenile stage";
  • to amend the cell immediately above columns (a), (b) and (c) of Schedule 2 from "Adult Livestock Holding Regime" to : "Detention regime according to the number of specimens held".

This amendment responds to the injunction in the annulment decision referred to above by establishing that, in the general case, juveniles are indeed included in the records of numbers kept.

For example, any person wishing to acquire a specimen of a species considered to be dangerous, a lion for example, even if it is a very young lion cub, must first be recognised as a breeding establishment within the meaning of Article L.413-3 of the Environment Code, i.e. have an appropriate certificate of competence and licence to operate.

By way of exception, however, juveniles born on the breeding premises will not be counted in the total number of animals kept before they reach adulthood, so as to enable amateur breeders of the species in columns (a) and/or (b) to carry out occasional breeding, without immediately being impacted should this be successful. However, these non-professional breeders will then have to ensure that they control  the numbers they keep, once juveniles have matured, in order to remain below the designated thresholds or, if these are subsequently exceeded, to apply for a change of status and to become a breeding establishment under the rules of the "certificate of competence and authorisation to operate".

It is important to make explicit that this change will only marginally affect the practice of the inspection services. In practice, there will be no tightening or easing of the rules on the keeping of non-domestic animals, bearing in mind that the thresholds to abide by remain unchanged.

From the Ministère de la transition écologique website