18 November 2022
Your questions
- how many a) dogs and b) cats are currently registered under the Performing Animals (Regulation) Act 1925 in your area to be trained and/or exhibited for performance?
- please can you provide a sample of the types of performances in which some of the registered dogs and cats are engaged?
Our response
- our licensee trains dogs to perform on both TV, film, social media, theatre and for events. These could be held in domestic situations, on location or in a studio. An example of some of the training they have undertaken includes interacting with children and adults as a family member (eg lying on a sofa, eating from a bowl, carrying an object). Outdoor work includes swimming and playing with a ball. More complex actions include opening a drawer, taking out an object then closing the drawer again. They also train for studio stills work where the dog would pose with a model.
- we have 2 companies who are licensed to keep and train animals for exhibition. One is a farm and the other is a training facility for dogs. The latter does not have a set number of dogs at one time as they train animals for a number of clients. At present they have around 100 dogs on their books. The farm has 18 different species of animals with 76 individuals.