Meeting of the Parliament 09 May 2024
I cannot say why something has not been done in the past, but I can say that the Government takes the commitment seriously and that the code that Christine Grahame is talking about will be different from the one that currently exists.
The Scottish Government supports the work and has made significant improvements. We are committed to setting the highest standards for animal welfare and want to do everything within our power to educate breeders, sellers, owners and prospective owners about how to meet a dog’s needs and how to make the right choices when acquiring a dog.
There is always more that can be done to ensure that the existing legislation on dog breeding and sales is enforced and we continue to engage regularly on that with local authorities and other bodies.
However, because of the continued strong demand in Scotland for pups, there will unfortunately always be an incentive for unscrupulous breeders and sellers to operate illegally. In tackling that, it is important to focus on the demand for pups and to inform and encourage buyers about how to acquire pups responsibly and safely.
There is already a significant volume of online advice to educate buyers. Previous Scottish Government public awareness campaigns such as “Buy a puppy safely” gave advice on how to acquire a pup responsibly and how to recognise the signs of the illegal puppy trade. Those campaigns were accompanied by hard-hitting social media messaging and had significant impact in reaching their target audiences, leading to an increase in puppy investigations and in puppies being seized by the Scottish SPCA. It is important that such awareness campaigns are sustained in the longer term to achieve significant and lasting changes in buying behaviour and to address any growing trends.
The Scottish Government wants to encourage the public to take more responsibility when considering taking on a dog and to acquire that dog responsibly, which is why I support the intentions behind the bill.
I commend my colleague Christine Grahame for her commitment and tenacity in bringing the welfare of dogs to the attention of Parliament. She has repeatedly striven to highlight unresolved and unsatisfactory issues around the selling, transferring and acquiring of dogs in Scotland and I express my admiration and thanks for her constructive approach to the development of the bill. I also thank the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee for its detailed scrutiny of the bill, for its proposals and for the preparation of its stage 1 report, which makes many helpful recommendations.
Part 1 of the bill proposes the introduction of a new code of practice for the acquiring and transfer of pups and dogs, to include questions for prospective owners and a certificate confirming that they have considered those questions. Part 2 proposes the introduction of a register of litters.
Having considered the committee’s recommendations, and following work with Ms Grahame on amendments to the bill, the Scottish Government agrees with the proposal to allow more than six months after royal assent for the code to come into effect and agrees that that code should apply to all dogs, not only to dogs kept as pets. During our evidence sessions, I had some concerns about the inclusion of working dogs, but I am now convinced that including all dogs is the right course to take.