It’s unlikely that the entire Scottish election will turn on questions of animal welfare, but it will still be up to the next government in Scotland to progress the welfare agenda – or not – over the next four years. If we don’t want the animal welfare agenda simply to stagnate, we have two days left to press our candidates on the issues that matter to us.
Overall, the last session was a disappointment. Despite forward-looking legislation in the shape of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, there was little further consideration of domestic animal welfare in the Scottish Parliament.
New legislation to regulate puppy and kitten dealers, animal sanctuaries, travelling circuses, electric shock collars, pet vending (including internet sales), and livery yards was scheduled for introduction in 2007 and 2008, and revision of existing regulations on riding establishments, cat and dog boarding, dog breeding, the sale of dogs and performing animals was supposed to follow over the next two years.
Out of this list, only the legislation to regulate dealers in puppies and kittens was introduced. Codes of welfare for dogs, cats, equines and reared gamebirds were produced, but other proposed codes for rabbits and primates were not progressed. Our new Act may be a good Act, but unless and until we get the rest of the promised package, it can only be partly effective.
As a charity, OneKind cannot recommend any political party more than any other, but the main parties’ manifesto pledges tell their own story. In our Scottish manifesto round-up, we’ve not only picked out the direct pledges to improve animal welfare – sadly that would be a very short article as not all parties are far-sighted enough to make these – we’ve also highlighted other policies that will have an impact on animals.
For example, four of the parties have policies on supporting local food production, whether through labelling, procurement rules or influencing the supermarkets. All parties want to support the fishing industry in some way, and two of them specifically mention fish discards – although the approach is one of ending “environmental and economic madness” rather than reducing the pointless deaths of sentient animals in the net.
Anyway, only two days to go now. Please visit our Scottish election action pages and press the button to send a message to all the candidates standing in your area. The candidates will be busy. But they should still be listening – and this is the time to get their attention.