Monkey Business: Lemurs, Emus, and Arcus Licensing Systems

What a fantastic read, and great to see Arcus products being used out in the wild… see what I did there? Why is everyone groaning?

Posted with permission from Emma McHugh, Licensing Services Manager at South Derbyshire DC. Full LinkedIn post here.

It’s not every day you see an emu chilling in a field whilst carrying out a primate licensing inspection. In fact, it’s not every day you carry out a primate licensing inspection. This was my first and something that I was apprehensive about. You never know what you are going to find and how do you explain to the boss that you’ve seized a primate! Luckily, this keeper was very experienced and had a set up that would rival any zoo so it was a fairly straightforward inspection.

Few takeaways from it include finding out we have a lemur keeper in our district who (like most keepers) doesn’t intend to apply for a licence! I suspect that their set up wouldn’t be good enough to pass the requirements of the legislation. So if you don’t think you have any primates in your area you more than likely do.

Also, it appears the differing standards have already commenced with one authority allowing an enclosure that doesn’t meet the size requirements. This frustrates me as it does defeat the whole point of the legislation which is the primate’s welfare. We’ve got to ensure each keeper meets the requirements even if it results in a difficult conversation. We can’t take the easy way out especially if it comprises the animal’s welfare.

All this in a week when we went live with a new licensing system which luckily hasn’t gone too bad. Few glitches as expected but all easily sortable. This is a credit to my team who have been prepping for this for the last two years and credit to the Arcus Consultants who have gone above and beyond in helping us get the system exactly how we want it to work even accommodating my random thoughts! It’s now just a case of the team getting used to the new way of working and I’m sure the Emma Emma Emma’s will stop soon 😊

A very challenging but rewarding week and it just shows how varied and random licensing can be. Love it!

And on that note, I’m going on a lemur hunt #swishyswashy

Please note this is an AI enhancement of the emu as my photo looked like a blob