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| Spaniel owner Mo Baillie discusses with the BBC Landward team why, for animal welfare reasons, she would not put a dog with a full tail into work. |
Members and all those who have engaged with the SGA for a change to legislation to allow for working dogs tails to be shortened to protect them from injury will be interested to know that the issue was covered on BBC Landward at the weekend.
The SGA hand-delivered a petition to Richard Lochhead MSP in 2015, signed by over 4100 people across Scotland, asking for an exemption to be made, for welfare reasons, for working dogs on the back of the findings of Scottish Government-commissioned research by Glasgow University Veterinary School.
See research here: http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/content/early/2014/03/27/vr.102041
Since then, Scottish Government has issued a consultation, now closed, which asked people about the introduction of a tightly worded exemption to existing legislation to be made for, specifically, working Spaniels and Hunt Point Retrievers.
The Glasgow Uni research showed that 57 per cent of Spaniels and 39 per cent of HPRs, without shortened tail tips, received one or more tail injury in one surveyed season.
You can see the BBC Landward piece, here, on iplayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/…/episode/…/landward-20162017-episode-3
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| The Abstract to the Glasgow University research: "Docking the tails of HPRs and spaniels by one third would significantly decrease the risk of tail injury sustained while working in these breeds.' |
