Meeting of the Parliament 29 January 2026 [Draft]
::Greyhounds have been selectively bred for thousands of years, since the time of the Egyptians, and losing their place culturally will accelerate the extinction of the breed. Due to their huge feeding and exercise demands, greyhounds are not a natural wee pet. They are not easy household pets. I am sure that their owners love them dearly, and I know that they have very good temperaments, because I have friends who have greyhounds.
As with other issues, the urge for members to jump on the ban button is too great, but, if there are concerns about the animal welfare in greyhound racing, surely the solution is to improve the standards and monitoring. If Mr Ruskell wants to look at animal safety and welfare, perhaps he should look at the venture capital acquisitions of veterinary surgeries, which are having far wider impacts on owners of potentially all domestic pets, as well as on farmers, by putting costs through the roof in relation to the welfare of pets and animals and treatment for any illnesses that they have.
With regard to whether this is a reserved matter, some areas are reserved and some are devolved. Animal welfare standards are devolved. The UK Labour Government is introducing reforms to the private veterinary sector to make sure that prices are competitive, and further inquiry outcomes are planned.
By choosing to tackle a niche sport, which, as members will already be aware, does not currently operate in Scotland, Mr Ruskell’s bill is chasing headlines rather than chasing a shared sense of the need to preserve and improve animal welfare and standards overall. A raft of other issues are higher up the list of Scottish people’s concerns—national health service waiting lists, housing waiting lists and the cost of living crisis, to name but a few. As a Labour MSP, I want to see the life of an animal valued and I recognise that there are people who feel strongly about the issue, but I want the limited bandwidth for such issues to be used for more meaningful and less niche issues.
I believe that the bill points a judging finger at my older constituents, who sometimes go for a walk down to the bookies and put a wee bet on the dug racing. That is them. The bill does nothing for the welfare of the greyhound breed, and it would take greyhounds a step closer to extinction or, at best, accelerate their addition to the rare breeds list. We recognise that the bill will change at subsequent stages, though, and we will look at how it can be improved.