# Transporting DWA reptiles by road.



## Scales and Fangs (Mar 22, 2007)

This is something I have done a few times and will be doing again on Monday.

I just want to share with you a precuation I take and hope that others use this too.

Before I set off, I ensure I am 100% sure of the destination and plan a route that I'll be taking.

I then work out what police force areas I will be travelling through.

I then contact the police force of the area that I am travelling from on their non emergency number and tell them that I am going to be transporting DWA animals and I would like to create an incident number.

At this point you might get a funny response but it will come clear when you explain why.

Ask them to make a note on the incident of all the DWA animals that are being carried and what they are secured in.

Then give them the vehicle details that they are being carried in and the location in the vehicle where they will be.

Then explain the route, this hasn't got to be very specific but a general idea such as what towns and major roads you will be using.

At this point it's an idea to ask them if they have any reported incidents along the route, if so decide if its worth re routing.

Then tell them what time you are setting off.

Once all this has been added, ask them to attatch the incident as a marker on your vehicle and ask them for the incident number and make a note of it.

If you are travelling into any other police force area, contact them and briefly explain and give them the incident number you took down.

You should mark the box with a notice warning of its contents and you can also write the incident number on it.

Then set off at the time you agreed following the route you explained. 

I would like to point out that this is not a legal requirement and so if your route does change for any reason its not a problem.

On arrival at your destination, contact the police force that issued the incident number and ask them to look it up. when they find it, explain you have arrived safely and request the incident is closed.

If you are returning with any DWA animals, repeat the process but contact the police force whos area you are in.

Now then, why bother doing all this???

Public safety is priority when it comes to DWA animals and as a responsible keeper, other peoples safety is extremely high on my priority list.

If my vehicle is involved in an accident resulting in all ocupants being un able to comunicate then no one will have a clue whats in there. unsuspecting members of the public that try and help will be put in danger along with members of the emergency services.

However, by following the above, this is what should happen.

Lets say you are witness to a traffic collision and its looking serious. you dial 999 and you are put through to the police, they will take details and summonse other services. They will ask you a number of questions such as location, how many vehicles involved, they will also ask you for vehicle registration numbers. This is where they enter the reg numbers onto their system which will run a Police National Computer (PNC) check and any flags will then appear. They then see the details and inform you of the dangers and warn you not to go near the vehicle. You would hopefully warn others around too. The operater will also inform any responding emergency crews. Resulting in everyone staying safe.

Hopefully this has given you something to think about, i'm not trying to insist that everyone does this, i'm just letting you know what I do and why I do it and if you are considering transporting DWA animals, this might be something you consider doing yourself.

Thanks for reading.

Rob.


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## kingball (Jun 21, 2009)

Very good post:no1:


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

Absolutely spot on. These protocols should be adopted by everyone transporting DWA's. In one of my many job roles, what has been described is absolutely what I would recommend.
It is vital that emergency services are made aware of such species being transported, just in case there is an accident involving the vehicle.


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## Scales and Fangs (Mar 22, 2007)

Thats the exact reason I follow this procedure.

After 6 years on a response team in the Met, i'm fully aware of knowing to expect anything when arriving at any scene and any info would be great before we got there, luckily I never came accross this situation and I think most people would fill their pants if come face to face with a Rattler when attending an RTC lol

Thanks for reading guys.


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## slippery42 (Mar 23, 2008)

A good post and fair play to you however it is in my opinion way over the top.

I simply have a secure container in which to transport critters and have it clearly marked.

I also have warning stickers on the car.

There is no legal need to inform police and whilst in transit there is no DWAL.

I would fear that going down that route could come back to haunt us all in the end.


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## Chris Newman (Apr 23, 2007)

Interesting and thought provoking post, I must concede that I am somewhat circumspect about suggesting that such a procedure should be universally adopted as it is rather draconian. However, it has prodded me into think that perhaps we should try and develop a standardise code of practice for transporting venomous reptiles/inverts! Formal guidance on the Dangerous Wild Animals Act should be issued shortly by government, and it will be underpinned by various sets of guidance/codes of practice, therefore developing one for transportation could be prudent.


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## bloodpython22 (Feb 19, 2010)

Good read but im thinking the same as graeme way over the top. . 
I put snakes in bags or rubs then place the rub or bag in a larger rub and tiewrap the haldles and label the tub. .Also a car sticker saying venomous reptiles in transit. . Im surprised to hear that police are willing to do as you said aswell


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## Owzy (Jan 19, 2009)

Wow. Lot's of paperwork and police time taken up. I would go with Graeme's way.

At the same time it's good of you to post it for those that want to ensure they are covering almost every possible scenario.


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## slippery42 (Mar 23, 2008)

So here is another thought on the idea placed by the OP.

What would you suggest for bringing back vemonous from a European Show?

How practical is it to contact every police force between Dover and say Scotland and say I will be coming back with a number of DWA species however I cannot tell you which species or the number as it depends on what I see and what takes my fancy

Personally I think it takes up too much of the police time and they have more important things to do.

The other danger is that this would become policy and potentially restrictive.

Do we need more complicate legistlation?

NO!


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## tarantulabarn (Apr 21, 2005)

Great post, though transporting through europe would be a tad more difficault, i do a very similar thing and also find the details of medical centres en route as well, i also mark the van with signage ( small but noticable) in places that will be seen by any emergency services that attend. I also carry bite and escape protocols for the DWA species that i carry.


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## Scales and Fangs (Mar 22, 2007)

bloodpython22 said:


> Im surprised to hear that police are willing to do as you said aswell


Public safety and protecting their colleges, wouldn't you?



Owzy said:


> Wow. Lot's of paperwork and police time taken up. I would go with Graeme's way.
> 
> At the same time it's good of you to post it for those that want to ensure they are covering almost every possible scenario.


There is no paperwork involved at all, simply an operator in the control room taking details for 5 - 10 mins, no officers prevented from doing "more important thins"



slippery42 said:


> So here is another thought on the idea placed by the OP.
> 
> What would you suggest for bringing back vemonous from a European Show?
> 
> ...


With regards to practicality, contacting that amount of forces would be ridiculous, by contacting the force you are departing from, they can add a marker to your vehicle which is picked up by the Police National Computer which is accessible by all uk police services so regardless of where you are in the UK, the information will be easily accessed by the force you are in.

If this is something you do on a regular basis, you could have a permanent marker on your vehicle simply stating "known to be carrying venomous animals"

I tell them the species of animal because I only normally carry one at a time, for anyone carrying a large amount could simply state, X amount of venomous snakes and X amounts of DWA inverts etc....

Why would this be a "danger" to have this as policy, I honestly feel that the laws surrounding DWA are far to relaxed anyway, as already mentioned, there is no legal requirement for this and DWA means didily squat while in transport.

As already mentioned, very little police time is used and absolutly no paperwork involved.

Hope this clears things up.


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## wezzer (Mar 11, 2011)

think this is way over the top as others said, when we have transported dwa it is covered via our public liability insurance, we have a seperate section of the cover for transport
all rubs are padlocked!! and each animal is bagged or boxed then placed in outer rub
there is no need to contact police atall and like other said this would end in yet more trouble for dwa keepers to deal with: victory: its bad enough as it is these days without added paperwork etc


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## PDR (Nov 27, 2008)

As others have said.... way over the top.

We use secure, heavy duty transport boxes and the snakes will be bagged and normally placed inside separate inner boxes. The transport boxes will be strapped down with luggage straps.... regardless of what happens in a RTA the snakes would be unlikely to escape from one or two bags, an internal box and finally the transport box. We place warning labels on the outside of transport boxes along with a "to whom it may concern" letter giving details of what the boxes contain, antivenoms required and contact numbers for our clinicians / snake-bite consultants. 

We have never felt the need to notify any police authorities. The DWAL is not applicable to me or my employer.

We normally use a van but I will sometimes use my Jeep which will already be flagged up on ANPR cameras as I am a firearms and shotgun license holder.


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## baz69 (Jul 23, 2010)

scales and fangs an excellent post in my opinion, shame more people wernt as conciencious(sp) as you are, i believe you cant be too careful where dwa is concerned,the police obviously think its a good idea otherwise when you make the initial phone call they would tell you not to bother, if the unthinkable happened and the vehicle was in a bad accident,there is a chance that whatever the dwa was being transported in could be damaged enough to allow whatever to escape which then could put people at risk,


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## eco_tonto (Aug 1, 2008)

Scales and Fangs said:


> Public safety and protecting their colleges, wouldn't you?


I have to be honest this also surprises me, I tried to get my premises red flagged with the emergency services so that in the event of an emergancy they know what is on the premisis.

Every one i spoke to seemed completely disinterested, and spoke to me like i was wasteing there time.

However this is my only my experience with the emergency services regarding


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## Chris Newman (Apr 23, 2007)

eco_tonto said:


> I have to be honest this also surprises me, I tried to get my premises red flagged with the emergency services so that in the event of an emergancy they know what is on the premisis.
> 
> Every one i spoke to seemed completely disinterested, and spoke to me like i was wasteing there time.
> 
> However this is my only my experience with the emergency services regarding


Notifying the emergency services such as police, fire and local hospital of what is kept on the premises is reasonable and indeed a condition attached to most DWAA licences, the recommendations discussed above are disproportionate in my view.


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## Khaos (Jul 9, 2007)

wezzer said:


> think this is way over the top as others said, when we have transported dwa it is covered via our public liability insurance, we have a seperate section of the cover for transport
> all rubs are padlocked!! and each animal is bagged or boxed then placed in outer rub
> there is no need to contact police atall and like other said this would end in yet more trouble for dwa keepers to deal with: victory: its bad enough as it is these days without added paperwork etc


PLI covers any costs incurred should there be an incident but, for the interests of absolutely everyone (animals, innocent bystanders, keepers, insurance brokers, other policy holders) it's far better to prevent an incident than compensate for it.

While the initial post and its suggestions are very thorough, there are aspects of it that all DWA keepers and pet shop owners could consider and perhaps take on board.

Prevention is always better than cure.


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## slippery42 (Mar 23, 2008)

Its surprising how many people are prepared to give views on DWA issues who do not have DWA species and will never have any interest in keeping this type of creature.

On the whole I think the DWA community does a reasonable job of policing itself.

Still what do I know about anything


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## Scales and Fangs (Mar 22, 2007)

On Monday, I made the journey to the vets and did indeed notify the police of everthing I had mentioned in the first post.

The initial call took about 3 minutes and the operator was more than happy to take the details.

On arrival at the vets I updated the control room and asked them to update the incident accordingly. This convo lasted about 30 seconds.

I did however do the next part slightly different and that was to request the incident remain open.

When we left the vets I called again and updated the incident, again took about 30 seconds.

Once I had arrived back at the shop I made 1 final call with an update and requested that the incident is closed. this still only took about 30 seconds.

So in all, I had taken up approx 4.5 minutes to increase the safety of others.

As I said in the first post, I wrote this up on here to let you guys know what I do as an extra measure. If others decide to do the same then great, if not then thats fine too. I wasnt seeking the seal of approval of RFUK as I will continue to use this method regardless of others opinions.

I am glad it has sparked a topic of conversation and request that it remains just that.

Thank you for all your comments on this matter.

Rob.


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## jaykickboxer (Feb 11, 2008)

What longage is be surprised if they actually logged anything probably just thought this waffle again


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## Scales and Fangs (Mar 22, 2007)

jaykickboxer said:


> What longage is be surprised if they actually logged anything probably just thought this waffle again


Fine example here ^^^ Slippery!

Thanks for your input Jay, your inteligence is overwelming!!


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## snakewhisperer (Nov 13, 2009)

It sounds to me, a fairly simple control measure for a risk assessment that is little trouble to anyone but if the worst were to occur the emergency services would, no doubt be very grateful for the information. 
You have to think of every possible scenario. What if you're on a long journey and have to stop for the loo and the vehicle is nicked. There could be an awful lot of different situations whith an awful lot of what ifs... The only disadvatage that might worry me is that if you were involved in a collision and when help arrived they were advised to hold back because of a potential danger, could that put the driver at greater risk from delayed assistance.


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