{"topic_id":"animal_welfare_act_uk_2006_scope_protected","category":"animal-welfare-law","context":"---\ntopic_id: animal_welfare_act_uk_2006_scope_protected\ncategory: animal-welfare-law\ntitle: \"UK Animal Welfare Act 2006 — scope, 'protected animal' and responsibility (ss. 1–3)\"\nlang: en\nsource: \"UK legislation.gov.uk — Animal Welfare Act 2006 (c.45), ss. 1–3, extracted 2026-07-23 via Tavily\"\nsource_file: pdf-raw/animal-welfare-law/uk_awa_2006_core.txt\ndate_parsed: 2026-07-23\ntokens_estimated: 360\nverification:\n  method: substring_match\n  claims: 5\n  passed: 5\n  date: 2026-07-23\nrecovered: false\npath: animal-welfare-law/animal_welfare_act_uk_2006_scope_protected/01_animal_welfare_act_uk_2006_scope_protected.md\n---\n\n# UK Animal Welfare Act 2006 — scope, \"protected animal\" and responsibility (ss. 1–3)\n\nSource: UK legislation.gov.uk — Animal Welfare Act 2006 (c.45), ss. 1–3, extracted 2026-07-23. First-hand UK statute text; C1 substring-verified against `pdf-raw/animal-welfare-law/uk_awa_2006_core.txt`.\n\nThe Animal Welfare Act 2006 (England and Wales) is the principal anti-cruelty statute for kept and domesticated animals. Its first three substantive sections define who and what is covered and who bears the legal duty. Per s. 1, \"animal\" means a vertebrate other than man, and the Act does not apply to an animal in foetal or embryonic form.\n\nA \"protected animal\" is defined broadly: an animal is a \"protected animal\" for the purposes of this Act if it is of a kind commonly domesticated in the British Islands, is under the control of man, or is not living in a wild state. This is the threshold that brings pets (dogs, cats, and other companion animals) within the Act's offences in s. 4 and the positive duty in s. 9.\n\nResponsibility is equally broad. A person responsible for an animal includes anyone responsible whether permanently or temporarily, anyone in charge of it, and — crucially for owners — a person who owns an animal shall always be regarded as being a person who is responsible for it. A person shall be treated as responsible for any animal for which a person under the age of 16 years of whom he has actual care and control is responsible. These definitions determine who can be prosecuted under the Act's cruelty and welfare-failure offences.\n\nThis topic covers the Act's scope and responsibility framework only. The actual offences (unnecessary suffering, s. 4; duty to ensure welfare, s. 9) are covered in the companion topic `animal_welfare_act_uk_2006_offences`.\n\nVerbatim C1 claims (each a substring of the source file + this body):\n1. \"means a vertebrate other than man.\"\n2. \"commonly domesticated in the British Islands\"\n3. \"a person who owns an animal shall always be regarded as being a person who is responsible for it.\"\n4. \"a person shall be treated as responsible for any animal for which a person under the age of 16 years of whom he has actual care and control is responsible.\"\n5. \"not living in a wild state\"\n","sources":[],"tokens_estimated":555,"generated_at":null,"tip":"Use /api/v1/topics to discover more topics. /api/v1/nutrient for precise single-point queries. /api/v1/cross_compare for 2-3 standard comparisons."}