Legislation

My favourite piece of legislation for training - and usually a source of amusement - is the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976. Schedule 1 to this Act contains the list of animals considered dangerous in the UK (excluding Northern Ireland which has its own Order).

This Act lends itself to using Westlaw as it has been amended a couple of times in the last five years. So using the Westlaw advanced search function to find an Historic version is perfect. I suggest starting with a time in 2005.

In the Schedule for 2005, there are animals such as:

The Sloth ("dangerous? What's it going to do, bore you death?")

The Euro ("once a dangerous wild animal and now a dangerous world currency")

The Brazilian Wolf Spider

And many more (see below for some other examples that could be used)

There were large scale changes from 30/9/2007 which saw some animals removed and others added. All of the three above were declassified as dangerous and others were added.

("The Brazilian Wolf Spider: yes, it eats wolves, but it's not dangerous").

Checking the up to date version will show that Scotland now has its own list inserted into the Schedule. Northern Ireland amended their Order in 2010

Other animals that could be mentioned:

There are a lot of spiders e.g.:

Violin Spiders ("not too bad alone, it's when the whole string section turns up…")

Wandering Spiders

There are a lot of snakes e.g.:

Moccasins

Stilletto snakes ("brings new meaning to the phrase: these heels are killing me")

Japanese Tiger Snake

There are others depending on your mood, some with strange names: Cacomistles, Hyraxes, Kinkajou etc etc.

Some quiz questions that might use this:

Is the Little Spotted Cat a dangerous wild animal? (It's exempted from the felines)

Where in the UK is the Brazilian Wolf Spider considered dangerous? (It's still listed in the Northern Irish legislation, but nowhere else as at Aug-12).