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Meeting of the Parliament 12 September 2013

12 Sep 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Dogs (Compulsory Microchipping)

Grahame, Christine SNP Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale Watch on SPTV

I thank Malcolm Chisholm for referring to the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010, although I think that the trouble on cyclepaths is to do with the owners, rather than the dogs. I congratulate Claire Baker on bringing the issue to the Parliament, although I did not sign her motion, and she is going to find out why.

As members know, I piloted the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Act 2010 and I convene the cross-party group in the Scottish Parliament on animal welfare. I have a lot of time for the Dogs Trust and a huge amount of time for universal voluntary microchipping. The system has great advantages for good owners.

I can give a brief personal example of how the system works. I ask members to picture me, a few years ago at 3 o’clock in the morning on 2 January, as I was tucked up in bed. I heard a yowling outside the window and found a little Staffordshire terrier peeking through the hedge. I have two cats, which were in a state of terror as I brought the Staffordshire terrier in. What was I to do with him? I was leaving for Ayr in the morning, so I could not keep him. I eventually phoned the police—not the emergency line. Hours later, they turned up to question me, and they took the dog away to keep it overnight, so that the owner would be able to find it. I think that the most embarrassing question that I was asked was not “How old are you?” but “What do you do for a living?” There I was, sitting in my pyjamas with this dog, and my cats climbing the walls. I said, “I’m a politician.” That made the officers’ day.

Anyway, the dog was microchipped. However, the owners did not come to get it for a week. I wondered why they had not come earlier, and I was told that it is quite common for people to dump a dog over Christmas or new year or when they go on holiday, so that someone else pays for the dog’s board and kennelling. I am concerned that bad owners do that all the time, and in my view, bad owners will not microchip their dogs anyway—they certainly would not want their dogs to be tracked.

The Dogs Trust supports compulsory microchipping, but I was interested to learn that the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals does not. The jury is still out for the SSPCA, and it is still out for me. In a perfect world I would support compulsory microchipping, but we live in an imperfect world, with imperfect dog owners.

For example, Claire Baker talked about dogs that come from breeders. What about a dog that someone just passes to their next-door neighbour? Dogs that change hands without going past a breeder, good or bad, will not necessarily get microchipped. What about dogs that are dumped? A person who dumps a dog that they have had enough of, because it is not a lovely wee fluffy puppy any more, will not necessarily have had the dog microchipped—and they will certainly not want the dog to be tracked to them.

What about a dog that has been microchipped but has passed through several owners? Unless the new owner keeps the database up to date, the microchip will track ownership to a person who has nothing to do with the dog.

There are issues. I am not saying that compulsory microchipping is a bad idea. I am just saying that there are issues.