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Animal Neglect 97 purchase of an animal) and those responsible for an animal by virtue of being the provider of food or shelter, even if only temporarily Thus, those housesitting for a non-human companion while owners are absent are temporarily bound by the requisite duty of care The duty to ensure welfare enshrined in the Animal Welfare Acts requires that owners or those responsible for an animal should provide for: (1) a suitable environment, (2) a suitable diet, (3) the need to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns, (4) any need to be housed with or apart from other animals and (5) the need for protection from pain The legislation thus departs from previous simplified prohibitions on unnecessary suffering which commonly defined this in practice as physical cruelty, to provide for a broader definition which includes mental distress and emotional harm linked to consideration of each non-human companion’s individual needs Donaldson and Kymlicka have argued for a change in the status of companion animals such that ‘domesticated animals must be seen as members of our community’ (2011, p 101) They contend that a notion of animal citizenship should provide relational rights for animal citizens reflecting the preferences and desires of animals which includes freedom of movement and the sharing of public space, duties of protection and effective medical care tailored to the needs of the individual (animal) citizen (2011, pp 126–142) Nurse and Ryland (2013, 2014) identify that under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 those responsible for non-human companions are required to more than simply provide a home for their companion In their assessment of the Act and DEFRA’s Code of Practice for the Welfare of Cats they identify that owners and ‘responsible persons’ (those looking after a companion) are required to consider both the interior and exterior environment of their home and to ensure that, so far as is possible, it is suitable for the individual companion (Nurse and Ryland 2013, pp 9–10) They identify that where owners and responsible persons fail to so, they may commit an offence under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 Contemporary UK legislation therefore explicitly provides for a strong principle of animal welfare with prison sentences for ‘general’ offences While not fully achieving Donaldson and Kymlicka’s (2011) notion of actual citizenship, this conception of the need to consider the individual characteristics of a companion arguably broadens the notion of companion animals as active participants in a home rather than the historical conception of non-human companions solely as ‘pets’ Both the physical and psychological needs of the individual companion animal need to be considered as UK legislation on non-human companions has changed from its original conception of preventing ‘unnecessary suffering’ which historically meant avoiding cruelty to ‘provide for a broader definition [of suffering] which includes
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