BARKING MADNESS; Pet quarantine law is cruel and barbaric.

EVERY year thousands of loved family pets are forced to spend a miserable six months in quarantine before starting new lives in Britain.

The barbaric system has remained largely unchanged for nearly a century.

More than a year after Labour's election victory, the Government still hasn't proposed any reforms.

Mirrorman KEVIN O'SULLIVAN, whose pet dog Stan was caged for half a year, calls on Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham to end the cruelty.

MY DOG got out of quarantine yesterday. Britain - this great nation of animal lovers - sentenced her to six months in prison.

For the crime of being born in the USA, Stan was forced to spend 182 days in solitary confinement.

Locked behind the bolted doors of her 15ft by 10ft cell, she slept, ate and pined for her owner in a cruel and tiny world she did not understand.

Back in Los Angeles - where we took her in after the 1994 earthquake left her homeless - she would pick up her favourite ball and look at us with big pleading eyes.

It was her code for: "Take me to the park - I want a walk!"

When she did the same thing in quarantine it was tragic to have to prise the ball from her mouth and tell her: "No park for several months."

For the four years she shared our home while I reported on Hollywood, Stan became a part of our family.

Anyone with a much-loved animal would tell you that the suddenly slamming it away in a high- fenced, barbed-wire compound is barbaric.

Don't get me wrong. The staff at Chingford Kennels - one of the country's 79 Government-approved quarantine centres - were caring and attentive. It would be grossly unfair to accuse them of cruelty.

But until the Government sees sense and abolishes it, they will remain the administrators of A CRUEL AND UNNECESSARY LAW.

I am not alone in pointing this out. Former Tory party chairman and Hong Kong governor Chris Patten spends much of his time living in France because he refuses to subject his Norfolk terriers Whisky and Soda to what he calls "a painful and expensive farce".

Liz Hurley spent pounds 4,000 flying her beloved Alsation Nico from LA and putting him through quarantine in London.

Actor and Labrador owner Rupert Everett and British artist David Hockney - who has two dachshunds - both want to be able to bring their pets back to Britain.

But they won't until Agriculture Minister Jack Cunningham scraps this antiquated nonsense.

I suppose I should thank God for small mercies. At least my little dog didn't die from the depression, loneliness and illness, which afflicts so many confused creatures condemned to confinement. More than 170,000 families have suffered this uniquely British type of emotional distress over the past 25 years. On average 10 beloved pets die every month while in quarantine. A sickening total of 735 cats and dogs have perished behind locked doors since 1993.

Dr Cunningham's colleague Jeff Rooker gave hope to us all when he talked more than a year ago of replacing quarantine with a pet passport system.

But of course this is New Labour - and they've got to set up an inquiry first.

The "review" of the quarantine situation has taken 13 months so far and is still going on. Why?

The quarantine law was established in 1902. At the time it was a harsh but sensible measure aimed at protecting the UK from rabies.

Rabies is still a deadly disease and we remain one of the very few countries on earth fortunate enough to have kept it at bay. It is quite right that we continue to keep it from our shores.

But there hasn't been a case of rabies detected in quarantine for more than THIRTY YEARS.

In 1902 it would have been frankly absurd to propose that the British government should establish a system by which dogs and cats could be issued with international passports.

But today it would be possible - not to mention eminently sensible - to establish official links with approved veterinary doctors abroad.

My dog has a fuller medical record than I do. In Los Angeles she had regular check-ups, was inoculated against rabies, and we have all the documents to prove it.

The present cruel and unfair situation means quarantine is a charter for smuggling. An increasing number of otherwise law-abiding Britons hide their pets and hope to beat border checks rather than put them behind bars.

The Passport for Pets Organisation advocates that dogs and cats on their way to the UK should be given blood tests, vaccinations and certificates to satisfy any vet that there is no chance whatsoever of them bringing disease and disaster across our borders.

Animals could even be identified by the use of injected microchips.

I'm not sure if revising the quarantine law is a vote winner. Only politicians would be interested in that. But if Dr Cunningham and New Labour have a heart, they will act now.

I'll thank them. Liz Hurley will thank them. Chris Patten will thank them.

And Stan might forgive them.