On the day of the Scottish Government’s Responsible Dog Ownership summit in Edinburgh, OneKind has proposed a new licensing scheme to address issues of dog welfare and control.
The OneKind solution is that all dog owners should be subject to a free licensing scheme designed to promote responsible dog ownership. The licence would follow the model of existing “general licences” which allow people to carry out activities, while placing conditions on the conduct of the activity and providing sanctions for breaches.
The proposed general dog licence would be free, accessible on the internet and would cover all dog owners by default. The only requirement on most owners would be to understand and abide by the conditions.
These would include:
- Any dog for whom the holder of the general dog licence is responsible must be microchipped and the owner’s details kept up to date on the register
- The dog must wear a collar and tag when it is not on the owner’s property
- The dog must be kept under control
- The holder must not have been convicted of offences involving cruelty to animals or failure to control a dog within the previous ten years.
OneKind came up with the idea of a general dog licence when responding to the Scottish Government consultation on microchipping of dogs and other measures. We are strongly in favour of microchipping to help reunite strays with their families as soon as possible. But it is not a panacea for the problems of out of control dogs. Nor does microchipping, on its own, protect dogs from neglect and ill-treatment - although it can help to trace the perpetrators.
Under our proposal, responsible dog owners, who already microchip their dogs, treat them kindly and keep them under control, would feel little difference. There would be sanctions if things went wrong and the authorities would have a simple, cost-efficient mechanism for enforcing responsible dog ownership.
The bottom line is that dogs are good for people and while we absolutely must find a long-term solution to the horrors of dog attacks, we must also be mindful of the things that dogs bring to us: companionship, therapeutic and health benefits, and the learning of care, responsibility and compassion.
OneKind believes that the problems of out of control dogs must be seen in proportion and addressed constructively. There is no blanket solution that will solve all of the problems and neither the wider population of dogs, nor the majority of owners who are caring and responsible, should pay the price for irresponsible breeding and inappropriate behaviour by a minority.
The Scottish Government consultation Promoting Responsible Dog Ownership in Scotland: Microchipping and other measures closes on 31 March.
The OneKind submission to the consultation can be viewed here (PDF - opens in new window).