Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill

moved Amendment No. 297:"Page 62, line 39, leave out from ““sample”” to end of line 40 and insert ““included power to take a sample from a seal (whether alive or dead) for the purpose of testing for disease””" The noble Baroness said: This is a probing amendment to establish why we should legally be able to take samples from live imported destructive animals such as deer and badgers, but not from live seals. I understand there is great concern about the form of maritime flu that appears to be killing a large number of seals, and I had expected that testing for the disease would not be restricted to dead seals. I beg to move.