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Paul Milner of Urban Constrictors, primarily based in York, was considered one of a number of reptile sellers recognized by the Animal Protection Agency for a coordinated investigation.
Footage taken by World Animal Protection captured Paul Milner within the act of illegally providing snakes on the market on the occasion.
The reptile market has now moved to Rotherham the place campaigners declare that extra unlawful promoting has lately taken place.
Under the Pet Animals Act 1951 it’s an offence to ‘carry on a business’ of promoting pet animals over market stalls.
However, sellers at reptile markets pose as personal people promoting just a few of their very own surplus pets, claiming they don’t seem to be carrying on a business and are due to this fact not breaking the regulation.
Amongst them was Paul Milner, an everyday stallholder on the Doncaster Racecourse occasion, who brazenly boasted on his YouTube channel three years in the past of a £100,000 goal for his snake breeding business, Urban Constrictors.
Conditions for reptiles at these occasions are inhumane. Snakes, lizards, tortoises and turtles are usually displayed and bought in small, plastic, takeaway bins by which they’ll barely flip or transfer round.
Little or no consideration is given to the basic welfare necessities of reptiles, together with their want for finely managed temperature, humidity and light-weight ranges. Scientists have described the remedy of animals at reptile markets as ‘tantamount to animal abuse’.
Campaigners are calling on the nationwide authorities to do extra to forestall reptile markets, at which they are saying legal exercise is rife. The Animal Protection Agency declare they’ve secured proof, but once more, of widespread law-breaking at a big reptile market that occurred on the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham on 17 September 2023.
Doncaster Councillor Dave Shaw stated: “I am immensely grateful to the legal team at Doncaster City Council for pursuing the case and securing this outcome.
“The clear purpose of the law is to prevent animal suffering, but local councils are having to grapple with Defra-issued guidance that is overly complex and confusing, and often allows animal suffering to continue. The government needs to give local council inspectors better tools to prevent this type of illegal animal selling.”
Elaine Toland, Animal Protection Agency added: “To any right-minded person, trading sensitive wild animals in tiny plastic tubs is deplorable at the best of times, let alone in bustling markets where the animals are even more stressed. This case sends a message that anyone trading reptiles at these markets does so at risk of prosecution. We need more local councils to take legal action against such sellers, and venues to refuse to accommodate the events.”
Says Peter Kemple Hardy, World Animal Protection: “We are pleased that Doncaster City Council examined our evidence, conducted their own investigation and concluded that the law had been broken. But this is by no means an isolated case. Illegal selling of animals at reptile markets is widespread, blatant and unchecked, and animals are suffering in their thousands. I am convinced that without commercial sales of animals, these events simply would not exist.”
Animal safety teams are involved that Paul Milner of Urban Constrictors, who has admitted to buying and selling animals unlawfully, is providing business assist and recommendation, by way of paid subscriptions. Despite breaching animal welfare laws, Milner is providing to assist snake breeders ‘level up’ and switch their snake breeding and promoting ‘hobby’ right into a full-time business.
