Hansard

I add my thanks to Claire Baker for bringing this important debate to Parliament. There have been a lot of interesting facts and figures from previous speakers but I come to the debate very much from the heart rather than from the head. I adopted my cat Sophie from the SSPCA in 2002 and we were not allowed to take her home without accepting that she would be microchipped. Two years later, when I bought my Dalmatian, Rona, my first thought was that she must be microchipped.

Claire Baker talked about the fact that in Scotland, more than 2,000 dogs a year are not reunited with their families. That must be heartbreaking, and one of the simplest things to do is to microchip your dog.

I also remember the story of my next-door neighbour’s westie, Hamish. This is more than 10 years ago. Hamish was not chipped and he was stolen—he did not stray; he was stolen. About two weeks later, Hamish’s owner was driving along the road and saw Hamish. He got out of the car and challenged the people and they gave Hamish back to him. Hamish was not microchipped. I think that Hamish was returned because his owner was in a police uniform when he challenged the people who stole Hamish. Would it not have been so much easier if Hamish had had his chip? The owner could have got Hamish back without having to exert his authority in that way.

I also remember when I was young, about eight years old, a lovely mongrel that we called Sally came into our street. Sally was adopted by the Windrams and she became part of our street and part of everybody’s family, but it must have been awful for her first owners, who never got Sally back again. We had the joy but they did not.

Malcolm Chisholm referred to some of the claims about the alleged health risks of using microchips. In the whole time of the debate, I have had only one email from someone raising rather dubious health risk claims about microchipping dogs. Being the librarian that I am, I went away and did a bit of research and Malcolm Chisholm is absolutely correct. There is very good evidence to show that microchipping is useful for social purposes and is not harmful to the individual animal.

Evidence and emotion mean that microchipping makes sense. I am really pleased that the Scottish Government announced earlier in the year that it is going to undertake a consultation. I understand that the cabinet secretary spoke to the British Veterinary Association on the matter in June.

I urge all dog lovers to take part in the consultation when we get it. I say to people such as Christine Grahame, who have doubts about the proposal, to get involved in the consultation so that, at the end, the evidence shows clearly that this is something that we want to do for ourselves and for our animals.

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