The legislation which banned the docking of dogs’ tails was a huge victory for those who campaigned to make this mutilation illegal.
OneKind was at the forefront of a national campaign which succeeded, under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 in making it a criminal offence to subject any puppy to the unnecessary pain of having its tail docked as of April 2007.
Similar legislation was also passed in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but Scotland went a step further than the rest of the UK and ensured there would be no exemptions to the law. Elsewhere, the law allowed working dogs to continue to have their tails docked but Scottish Ministers decided that a blanket ban should apply north of the border.
Almost seven years on ,the issue is now back on the political agenda with campaigners in favour of docking working dogs’ tails presenting a 4,000 strong petition to Scotland’s Rural Affairs Secretary, Richard Lochhead MSP. The Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association is behind the new campaign amid claims that the law has led to an increase in injuries to working dogs’ tails.
The gamekeepers say that, according to new research yet to be published, during the 2010/11 shooting season more than half of all spaniels suffered injuries to their tails while working in deep undergrowth to flush out game birds. It is understood First Minister Alex Salmond told gamekeepers at their AGM in 2007 that should the legislation prove to increase injuries his Government would seek to reverse the ban.
Docking a puppy’s tail is by no way a simple procedure and one which causes pain and distress and is far more than the little snip those in favour of docking would have us believe. OneKind accept that docking an adult dog’s tail which has been injured involves a surgical process which is intrusive and can be the only solution to prolonged suffering.
However, without having seen the research it’s hard to know if it supports the notion that the ban has been detrimental to the welfare of working dogs. One can only hope the Scottish Government will ensure any decision to re-examine the legislation is based on irrefutable evidence rather than propaganda.
OneKind was pivotal in securing the ban and campaigned for this on the simple belief that a ban would prove to be a positive step for animal welfare and that it is morally wrong to subject puppies to painful procedures based on antiquated historic breeding guidelines.
Over the coming weeks we will see if there is in fact evidence, that the ban is causing harm to working adult dogs. Either that or we’ll see that the media spin around calls for the docking ban to be overturned is rooted in old-fashioned views and an objection to Scotland having stricter controls than the rest of the UK.
Either way, OneKind will be paying very close attention to the publication of the research and the implications it will have in the future for working dogs.