Länsstyrelsernas användning av de allmänna råd som är kopplade till Jordbruksverkets djurskyddsföreskrifter

Sammanfattning: Animal welfare is a global issue that affects many people and the development of animal welfare legislation has progressed. Within the EU, there are both animal welfare directives and regulations, and in Sweden, the animal welfare legislation is divided into three parts; the Animal Welfare Act, the Animal Welfare Ordinance and the Swedish Board of Agriculture's (SBA) regulations and general advice. It has previously been shown that the different County Administrative Boards (CAB) have different views on the SBA's regulations and general advice. Some CABs think that the general advices are good and easy to use while others think that it is unclear how they should be used. When updating the regulations, they are also handled differently by SBA and in some regulations the general advices are retained while they are removed in others. In a perfect world, regulations and general advices are used in the same way everywhere and all CABs make uniform assessments and interpretations. This may not be entirely realistic, but in order to promote reasonable coherence, all CABs should feel secure that the regulations and general advices are easy to understand and use in their daily work. The purpose of the study was to, with the help of a questionnaire, investigate what the animal welfare officers at the CABs think about the SBA's regulations and general advices and how they are used in their daily work. The focus has been on the recently updated regulations L 101 for horses and L 102 for dogs and cats. The survey consisted of 19 questions, it was sent by email to Sweden's 21 CABs and 136 of Sweden's approximately 200 animal welfare officers responded to the survey. The results showed that there is an uncertainty about how the general advices should be used. Of the officers who responded to the survey, 34% thought that the general advices were easy to understand, but 38% also thought that they needed to be clarified. A total of 64% responded that they wanted the general advices to be more detailed and 52% thought that the general advices contribute to a more uniform interpretation of the requirements. In the recently updated national regulations for horses, most general advices have been removed and 43% of the officers thought that this was a deterioration of the regulations. Of the officers who responded to the survey, 71% stated that they use the general advices in authority decisions together with the regulations, but they are not perceived to give any weight to the decisions, instead they mostly serve as support for the regulations. They provide support to both officers and animal owners and can provide solutions on how the requirements can be met in different situations. However, the handling, dignity and wording of the general advices needs to be clarified and there is also a need for more collaboration on equivalent assessment of the animal welfare legislation and clear guidance from the SBA