THIS week the Government is expected to announce the end of Britain's quarantine system and the introduction of Passports for Pets. The move has been welcomed by animal welfare groups, which claim shutting up cats and dogs for six months is an ordeal many never recover from. David Edwards reports.

RABIES can strike as long as two years after a person is bitten by an infected animal.

As it attacks the nervous system, the disease causes irritability, restlessness, fever and difficulty swallowing.

After a couple of days these give way to wildness or terror and almost superhuman strength.

Frothing at the mouth also occurs, which is caused by hydrophobia, a fear of water.

Bites from cats, dogs, skunks and even vampire bats can cause the disease, which if left untreated, usually results in death.

Few illnesses are more horrific than rabies and few have produced such a tough response from the Government.

Some form of legislation has been in place in the UK since 1901 in a bid to keep the disease out. It is currently dealt with by the 1974 Importation of Dogs, Cats and Other Mammals Order.

That means animals, with some exceptions such as livestock, fish and racehorses, must undergo a six-month quarantine period before they are allowed into the UK after a spell abroad.

Owners who flout the law can be hit with an unlimited fine, a year in prison and the destruction of their animal.

Tough as the legislation is, the Horsham-based RSPCA points out there have been no confirmed UK cases of rabies in cats or dogs either in or out of kennels for 30 years.

Agriculture Minister Nick Brown will announce the revision of the UK's anti-rabies laws later this week, possibly tomorrow.

New measures will draw on an Agriculture Select Committee report, published last autumn, which recommends abolishing the traditional quarantine for pets coming in from certain countries.

Instead of an expensive stay in kennels, travelling animals would be implanted with an identity microchip, the size of a grain of rice, and issued with a 'passport' which would list its vaccination records.

Owners who plan to take their pets abroad would pay an initial fee of £150 for the chip and an annual fee of £60 for follow-up vaccines and checks.

In addition, a £20.25 levy would be charged every time the animal crossed the British border.

Countries which have been designated rabies-free, including most in the EU and New Zealand and Australia, could be visited without owners having to be separated from their pets after a visit.

But animals visiting countries where the disease is still considered a problem, such as those in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and South America, would still be forced to undergo quarantine.

No decision has yet been made on the USA or Canada.

Pressure has been growing for several years to look into the laws and the Chichester-based Quarantine Abolition Fighting Fund has taken the Government to court to challenge the present set-up.

Spokeswoman June Hamilton believes the case, presently before the High Court, has forced Westminster into the rethink.

She said: "Our point is simple - what's the point of quarantining a pet which has come from a country where rabies has never existed just because the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food doesn't consider it worth looking at individual cases?"

Mrs Hamilton has been campaigning against the laws since she brought her six-year-old Dalmation Ben into the country from the USA. Ben nearly died after six months away from his owner.

The RSPCA, also campaigning for a change in the law, highlights the case of Mary Meadows, of Brighton, whose three-year-old cat died after spending six weeks in kennels after a trip to Germany.

Mrs Meadows, an interior designer, spoke to the Argus last week when the charity used her case to step up their national campaign.

She said: "Magic was housed in a kennel opposite barking dogs for more than one month which made him so terrified that staff had to handle him with a grasper.

"I noticed that Magic was passing blood but the staff merely telephoned a vet for a verbal diagnosis and didn't organise an examination.

"When I next visited, Magic was just lying on his side and he screamed when I tried to lift him. This time I said I would not move until a vet had examined Magic but I was told they would have me arrested if I didn't leave."

She later learned the animal had died after suffering from cystitis.

According to a House of Commons statement in 1996 more than 1,200 animals who entered UK quarantine kennels over ten years died while they were there.

In Sussex last year, four animals died during their stays at Hazel House Quarantine Kennels at Elsted, near Midhurst, including a three-and-half-year-old dog who had small kidneys.

During the same period Arden Grange, of Albourne, near Hassocks, took in 103 animals of which two dogs died, including an 18-month-old dog which caught a disease from cattle ticks picked up in South Africa.

The kennels' co-owner Wendy Stephens said: "We mustn't get away from the fact that rabies is the most horrific killer.

"There are lots of other exotic diseases which quarantine kennels manage to filter out."

Morgan Williams, general manager of Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare, which can hold up to 80 cats and dogs in quarantine each year, said no jobs would be lost at the Ringmer site when the laws change.

"But there are concerns the passport and tagging system would be very expensive and I think it might be difficult to enforce."

Lewes MP Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrats' animal welfare spokesman, is in favour of scrapping the current laws."The current legislation is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut."

Brighton Pavilion MP David Lepper said: "I like the idea of passports for pets. But in an area like ours by the coast we would want to be sure any relaxation of the laws is as foolproof as possible."

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