marking nights

[Pompey Mick]

I have just read the View from the Reddings in the pigeon press, and if I read it correctly it would seem that marking nights are deemed a 'gathering' by Defra and this will entail me as Club secretary to inform our local Defra office of this at least 14 days before it happens. All I can say I am glad our first race is three weeks away because I was of the opinion that the RPRA general license covered all aspects of racing. I am constantly reading the DEFRA  Q&A pages and there is no mention of 'Marking nights' as a separate issue. Am I correct in my interpretation of this statement in VFTR and if so I feel it should have been made clearer both by the RPRA and DEFRA and received more publicity.

[Guest]

yes i do belive that you are correct.

[Pompey Mick]

Panic over, just checked the RPRA website and it would seem that we do not need to contact DEFRA about marking stations after all.

[peterpau]

Hey Mick can you Help ? I Collect birds from a club, bring them to our club, pick up our own, then take the lot to meet the transporter. Q. Do I need a licence.

[Guest speckled]

:-/ Hi Peterpau.well if ya collecting pigeons from other clubs i would not think ya need a licence from the DEFRA,as all the birds are going to the same race point on the same transporter.Please if im wrong quote me, but i cant see that ya need one peterpau.Speckled/

[Guest shadow]

I think you might as any one training or transporting pigeons which do not belong to you has to have a licence, that is what we have been told.

[THE FIFER]

I THINK IF THERE IS A MIX OF BIRDS FROM DIFFERENT LOFTS ETC U MUST HAVE A LICENCE

[Pompey Mick]

I emailed my local defra about taking other fanciers birds for training when I am working on various building sites, not mixing them , in their own crates. I asked for a risk assessment, but I was told this still constituted a gathering and I would have to notify Defra of my intentions 14 days in advance of any movements.

As this is impossible for me as I dont know that far in advance where I am working I am going to try for an area permit similar to the Falconers have.

As for permits to take birds to and from clubs, I believe it should be covered in the race permit as are marking stations as all biosecurity concerns will have been met.

The licence is in effect already, it is on the DEFRA website, subject to conditions laid down by defra. In my defra region all I have to do is notify them by phone  with the details of where and when I am moving the pigeons. I will be trying this out on Monday and will let you know the response

[THE FIFER]

                     GOOD INFO.

[peterpau]

Thanks Mick as far as I can see I don't but????????????

[Guest]

Quite confusing.   :-/

 

Don't think there's a physical license issued to anyone or any one organisation. Its published on the defra website that pigeon racing is licensed (authorised) together with conditions.

 

Understand its only the liberation point that needs to be reported to the government vet office responsible for the area the lib point is in.

 

Also understand RPRA are issuing an explanatory booklet?

 

Don't quite know how group training is to be regulated.

 

Note that you've to clean & disnifect your own basket (s) before and after use (training / marking).

 

License conditions:-

 

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/ai/keptbirds/genlicence.htm

 

http://www.rpra.org/ai_news.htm

 

 

Question & Answer:-

 

http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/diseases/notifiable/disease/ai/qanda/gatherings.htm

[peterpau]

Thanks Bruno. The way I see it is I am not liberating them, so that should be OK, but other views are most welcome.