Meeting of the Parliament 16 December 2025 [Draft]
I congratulate Maurice Golden on introducing the bill; it is not easy to bring a member’s bill to this stage.
I thank committee staff and those working in the legislation team who support MSPs in scrutinising legislation, as they are often the unsung heroes of these processes. I also thank those who gave evidence and helped the committee with its deliberations.
The bill changes dog theft from a common law offence to a specific offence in its own right. On the face of it, that appears to change nothing; it is still an offence to steal a dog. However, the bill raises awareness of dog theft. The common law treats a dog as a possession—a thing, rather than a sentient being. The law as it stands does not recognise the distress caused to the dog that is stolen; it recognises only the distress of the owner in having lost a possession and does not recognise the relationship between people and their pets. Pets are more like family members than possessions, and this bill seeks to highlight that relationship.
The bill also includes an aggravated offence for the theft of a helper dog and allows the Scottish Government to add, by regulation, to that definition. The committee had discussions about police dogs, sheep dogs and the like. They are highly trained dogs that have a value due to that training. Obviously, guide dogs are already included in the bill’s definition of a helper dog.
The bill also means that dog theft data will be reported. That does not happen currently, so it was difficult to ascertain the prevalence of the offence. We suspect that it is significant, but we will not know that until data becomes available. We have all heard of cases where dogs have been stolen, and that is especially the case for sought-after breeds that are valuable and can be sold to order. That appeared to be more the case during the pandemic, when dogs were very much in demand, as people were spending more time at home. We will need to see whether that trend continues, but, without historical data that we can depend on, it will be difficult to follow trends.
Arguably, the greatest benefit of this bill will be dependent on awareness raising being carried out in such a way that it acts as a deterrent to would-be criminals. The awareness raising could also highlight the impact of dog theft on the animal and its owner, while reminding people that it is a serious crime and will lead to a criminal conviction.
Although we support the bill, we note that there have been a number of members’ bills on dogs and their welfare in this session of Parliament. It is also clear that there is a lack of Government action on the issue of dogs and their welfare. We need these pieces of legislation to be brought together under new legislation that protects dogs and their owners. We know that dog smuggling goes on, and members’ legislation has tried to deal with unscrupulous breeders, but here we are again with legislation around dog theft.
We need legislation that is not piecemeal but follows through all the issues of criminality around dogs and their breeding, sale, care and welfare. It looks like that will be a job for a new Government in the next Parliament. I hope that the new Government deals with this issue, because it is incredibly important to our constituents.