Animals Act 1971 (Amendment) Bill

I am grateful for that intervention —I think it was directed at me. The Government appreciate that this situation would leave some innocent parties unable to claim compensation for injuries sustained as a result of incidents involving animals, where the Animals Act cannot be shown to apply and there is no case to answer in negligence. However, the Government would contend that the law was not introduced to enable people to claim compensation in such circumstances—as the 1967 Law Commission report made clear, strict liability should not apply in respect of damage caused by all animals. Also, such cases are, in practice, relatively rare, and where they do occur the injured parties are sometimes entitled to compensation through their own personal insurance—the Mirvahedy case is an example.