Animal disqualification orders

A court can give you an animal disqualification order if you're convicted of a crime involving animal cruelty.

Animal cruelty includes:

The court can make an order to stop you:

owning or keeping animals
selling animals
transporting animals
working with animals in any way
running a service where you’re in charge of animals, such as dog walking services

The order can be for a set amount of time, or for the rest of your life. It can apply to all animals or only certain kinds of animal.

The court and the police keep a record of people with animal disqualification orders. This information is not publicly available.

If you break the terms of an animal disqualification order

Breaking the terms of an animal disqualification order is a crime.

If you break the terms of your order, the court can:

A seizure order means your animals will be taken away, even if they are not suffering or in danger. They could also be:

The court cannot arrange for your animals to be destroyed unless a vet believes it’s the most humane option.

You'll get the chance to give information or make a statement to the court before it makes a seizure order.

An interim order arranges for continued care of your animals while the court considers an application to seize it.

This order will stay in place until the court decides if it will issue a seizure order.

You may have to pay the costs of carrying out the order.

You can appeal to get your order cancelled or changed by applying to your local sheriff court.

The court can set a minimum length of time which must pass before you can appeal.

When considering your appeal the court will look at:

They can then decide to:

refuse your appeal
cancel your order
relax the conditions of your order – for example, reducing the length of time it lasts

If you want to appeal against an order you may want to get legal advice.

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