Summary:
We have been asked to consider the meaning of a public place within the meaning of the Pet Animals Act 1951 and specifically whether the Trafford Centre is a public place or a place to which Section 1 of the Act can apply.
The Trafford Centre is a large shopping centre containing thoroughfares, shops, eating places, etc. The public have free access to the centre during its extensive opening hours under a private contractual right. Staff can exercise discretion as to entry or removal of members of the public.
The "Aquababies" are sold from free-standing large moveable structures designed to look and operate like a street barrow placed in one of the thoroughfares in the centre. At all times where the animals are sold the public have free and ready access to the stall. The Pet Animals Act provides no specific definition as to public place which limits or modifies its meaning.
We are therefore being asked to give the words their ordinary meaning in accordance with the principle in Brutus and Cozens . In doing so we have considered the mischief the Act is designed to address, the fact that Section 1 positively licenses premises that need not be private dwellings, and the exceptions in Section 2. In all these circumstances we find that the Trafford Centre is a public place within the ordinary common sense meaning.