Hansard

Scotland has some of the lowest penalties in Europe for animal welfare and wildlife crimes. The bill is an important step towards addressing that. It will give courts the powers to make sure that the penalty fits the crime. It sends a clear message that we take those issues seriously, that we recognise the sentience and value of animals and that we will not tolerate animal cruelty and wildlife crimes.

I pay tribute to the animal welfare organisations for their hard work and campaigning on those issues, including Battersea Dogs & Cats Home for its campaign on Finn’s law and five-year maximum sentences. Blue Cross, Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home, the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals and Cats Protection were also instrumental in championing that campaign.

I pay tribute to Scottish Environment LINK for campaigning for higher penalties for wildlife crime and extending protection to resting places, and for raising the issue of vicarious liability. I pay tribute to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for its calls for higher penalties for wildlife crime. I pay tribute to OneKind for its work on many issues—from rehabilitative sentencing and disqualification orders to information sharing, to name but a few. I pay tribute to OneKind’s revive coalition partners for helping to end the mass cull of mountain hares. Finally, I pay tribute to Scottish Badgers for its support and help with my amendments on badger setts. I thank all those organisations for giving our animals a voice.

Those organisations, together with cross-party co-operation, have ensured that, since its introduction, the bill has been strengthened, including by a number of important amendments that we have agreed to at stage 3. I am delighted that my amendments on strengthening the penalties for disrupting a badger sett, on increasing the maximum penalties available for offences introduced by regulations, on disqualification orders and on information sharing were all agreed to today.

I am also delighted that Alison Johnstone’s amendment on making mountain hares a protected species was agreed to. The on-going culling of mountain hares and the growing risk of local extinction is shameful, and proper protection is a long-overdue step forward.

The bill is welcome and important, but it is just a step forward on the long journey to end the scandal of the waste and immorality of animal cruelty that still plagues and shames Scotland. I would like much more to have been agreed to in the bill. I am impatient for an end to animal cruelty: the cruelty of the use of snares, greyhound racing, hunting with dogs, live animal exports and tail docking. I am also impatient for better protection for cephalopods and decapod crustaceans.

I make a special mention of Mark, who is in primary 7 at Sunnyside primary school. Mark drew a wonderful poster for world Oceans Day, calling on us to see the suffering of our sea creatures. We might not have delivered that extra protection today, but I hope the commitment that the Government gave to consider the research on the issue further will lead us to doing so one day. My message to Mark, and to everyone who wants to see an end to animal cruelty, is that they should keep up the campaign, take pride in the bill—which is a step forward—and come back tomorrow to redouble their efforts for the long journey ahead.