Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-05-23-Speech-4-115-000"
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"en.20130523.10.4-115-000"2
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"Mr President, one of my favourite possessions is a 10-year-old photograph of a ferret called Pod. He is looking over my shoulder at a passport I am holding. Pod was a Manchester ferret, and he was the proud owner of a passport of his own. He had a microchip which demonstrated that he had been vaccinated against rabies, and a microchip is ideal for a ferret, because it is very hard to get a ferret to stay still long enough to have its photograph taken.
For 10 years we have allowed ferrets to have passports and dogs to have passports, and cats, I suppose, have pussports, and no doubt, when we introduced that legislation, dogs were excited, ferrets were inquisitive and cats were indifferent, because cats are always indifferent. But the pets passport law has opened up new opportunities. Pets now routinely travel across Europe for work reasons, for holiday reasons and even for sexual liaisons – to keep up the quality of the breed, of course.
There are ferret shows in Germany and Italy. I was looking at Google just yesterday at one of the German shows. There were ferrets from the UK and from countries across Europe being exhibited, being paraded around the show ring on leashes, long-haired ferrets, short-haired ferrets, angora ferrets, hybrid ferrets, albino ferrets, black ferrets – and they are judged. I am sure the British ferrets there are achieving higher marks in these competitions than their human contenders do in the Eurovision Song Contest. This was good legislation when we agreed it a decade ago, and I know that our rapporteur has spent time ferreting around to try and improve it.
The misery for pets of quarantine has gone, rabies has been kept at bay and we have taken steps here to promote the principle of free movement in ways which no one country could do alone. If British pets could have a vote, I doubt very much whether they would be giving it to Nigel Farage and the insular views of the UK Independence Party. On behalf of Pod, on behalf of Cleo and Tabitha, my cats, and their greedy brother, Findlay, next door, I commend this legislation."@en1
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