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Tail docking set to be banned in Scotland
with no exception for working dogs
Editorial
Filed 19 Feb 06
©www.land-care.org.uk
Land-Care has been reliably informed by
Scottish Countryside Alliance that Scottish Ministers are likely
to ban all tail docking of dogs when they vote on the Animal Health
and Welfare (Scotland) Bill on Thursday 23rd February.
At Westminster the Bill will be debated by Members
in the House of Commons on the 8th March, when Government have indicated
there will be a free vote on this serious welfare issue.
Such a ban would potentially have serious negative
welfare impacts on working dogs. Working Spaniels and terriers
etc with long tails risk serious tail damage every single day of
their lives.
During the drafting stages of the Animal Welfare
Bill, the Government Committees responsible for drafting the Bill
accepted the case for prophylactic docking - docking
to prevent injury later in life. Working dogs, such as working terriers
and spaniels working as gundogs, as well as some police, customs
and army dogs, are docked for this reason.
This is not an argument about cosmetic
docking, it is an argument about prophylactic docking,
which is carried out only by vets, in most cases before a puppy
is three days old, and is designed to prevent complications and
pain later in the dog’s working life. Many working gundog
types, such as Springer spaniels, search for game through heavy
vegetation and thick brambles. If left undocked, the repetitive
beating of the tail against brushwood, brambles, game cover crops
or other undergrowth can cause serious injury.
This a classic example of the Government
saying one thing…
Margaret Beckett:
"Anything done by anglers and fishermen
in the normal course of fishing is outside the scope of the Bill.
Similarly-and again in line with our rural manifesto-the Bill
will not affect the traditional sport of shooting"
…while allowing exactly the opposite.
Shooting would of course be affected by a ban
on prophylactic docking. Remember also that they dropped the main
manifesto commitment not to ‘restrict the sport of shooting’
for a conditional line about protecting shooting in a mini manifesto
this election.
For more detailed analysis of the issue readers
are referred to the document prepared by the Countryside Alliance
(1).
Before the 23rd February (Holyrood) or 8th March
(Westminster), it is vital that MPs are made aware of the negative
animal welfare implications of an outright ban on tail-docking.
The reality is that most MPs and MSPs, being
urban based, have little knowledge of the countryside. You can help,
by either visiting or writing to your MP explaining the importance
of this issue.
www.land-care.org.uk
References
1. Countryside Alliance
(2006). General brief on tail docking. Click
Here to View pdf
Further reading recommended by Land-Care
 Linklater,
Magnus (2006). Linklater's Scotland: After years of bad publicity
the shooting industry is being positively promoted.
Previously published in the Spectrum section of Scotland on
Sunday 5th February 2006 and reproduced on Land-Care with permission
of the author and of the newspaper.
See SOCIAL/ECONOMIC/POLITICAL Homepage, filed 08 Feb 06,
www.land-care.org.uk Click
Here to View
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