The current Scottish Parliament gave an election pledge to review the ban on tail docking when more evidence became available.
By Selena Masson, Shooting Times
Friday, 29 August 2008
With just four weeks left until the deadline, Scottish countryside organisations are appealing to shooters to sign their joint tail docking petition which will be presented to the Scottish Parliament on 1 October.
The Scottish Countryside Alliance (SCA), BASC Scotland, the Scottish Rural Property and Business Association (SRPBA) and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) are jointly planning to lobby the Scottish Parliament at the end of the summer recess.
“Our petition was launched at the BASC Scottish Fair in early May and we are pleased that it has subsequently attracted more than 6,000 signatures,” the SCA’s Ross Montague told Shooting Times. He urged shooters to sign up: “We now need a final push. It would be great if we could have 10,000 signatures by the time the petition closes on 30 September. We plan to explain to MSPs that we do not want any more dogs going to work and damaging their tails — docking of puppies destined to work, at an early age, is the only answer if we are to prevent unnecessary and unwanted suffering.”
BASC Scotland’s James Scott explained why the petition is so timely: “The current Scottish Parliament gave an election pledge to review the ban on tail docking when more evidence became available. It is our hope that a strong display of public support for tail shortening in working dogs, coupled with the research that was published by orthopaedic vet John Houlton in July, will convince the Parliament that the time is right to reconsider this ban.”
The SGA’s Alex Hogg added: “First minister Alex Salmond told us at our conference last year that he would look again at the law if we could provide evidence to back up our arguments and beliefs.”
The rest of this article appears in 28 August issue of Shooting Times.
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