Meeting of the Parliament 02 October 2025 [Draft]
I am pleased to speak in support of the principles contained in the Dog Theft (Scotland) Bill, and I commend Maurice Golden for bringing it to this stage. This is a bill that I view not as a matter of crime and punishment, but as a matter of compassion and decency.
I have come to dog sharing and companionship quite late in life, and it has come about as a result of sadness and loss rather than by design. But, through it, I have learned much of joy and of hope, of humility and responsibility, and I have gained an understanding of our interdependency and have shared the blessing of unconditional loyalty and love, as well as being required to find out what the world looks like on a dog walk at half past 5 every morning.
For me, this bill is about human rights and our physical and mental wellbeing, but it is also about animal rights and animal welfare. It is about encouraging the better side of human nature, which is precisely what this Parliament should always be about.
So today, we are being asked to make a political decision, and in due course we may be asked to pass a law based not on expediency or short-term popularity but on values and principles. We know that this bill will not end dog theft—it will not solve every problem—but the people who elect us need to be heard, and they need to be listened to, and they are telling us that they want us to act. The creation of the statutory offences is backed by the Dogs Trust, the Scottish SPCA, Guide Dogs for the Blind and Blue Cross, which is in Parliament this week. We need to be clear, as well, that we are not pioneers here—that we are in the slipstream of others—and that means that we need to have the grace to learn lessons from those who have gone before us.
So, I remain open minded about whether or not the terms of the legislation should be limited to dogs. Dogs are sentient beings. They are not kept property, as the existing common law covering dog theft would have it.