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Tail docking ban comes into force |
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Tuesday, 01 May 2007 |
The tail-docking of dogs is now illegal in Scotland, with the ban coming into force today, but animal welfare campaigners are urging further measures to protect animals.
The practice is banned under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland)
Act 2006, which prohibits procedures that interfere with the bone
structure or sensitive tissue of animals for non-medical reasons.
In announcing the ban, Minister for Environment and Rural Development
Ross Finnie said that the Executive had consulted widely and concluded
that the arguments against docking outweighed those in its favour.
Animal welfare campaigning group Advocates for Animals, while welcoming
the ban, said it was disappointed that the Parliament ws continuing to
allow a "large number of other mutilations".
The animal protection organisation recently released a scientific
report, Painful Reality, revealing the wide range of painful
mutilations that are currently performed on millions of farmed animals
in Scotland each year, often without any anaesthetic, and called for
each one to be reviewed.
Finnie has stated that all mutilations would be kept under constant
review in the light of changes and developments in veterinary practice.
Advocates for Animals' political director, Libby Anderson, said: “At
last we have an end to the unnecessary and painful docking of dogs’
tails. This is great news for animal welfare and we congratulate the
Scottish Executive for not allowing any exemptions to this ban.
"We will be pressing the new Scottish Executive to review all other
mutilations of animals in the light of scientific knowledge about pain
in animals and to re-assess what is really necessary.”
No one has commented on this article.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 May 2007 )
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