NEWS

Dog tail docking raises MLAs' ire
By Steven Moore

The tail could end up wagging the dog in a Bill designed to curb animal cruelty and improve their well-being.
The premise behind the Animal Welfare Bill - which effectively extends to all vertebrates the same protection already enshrined in legislation for farm animals - has the broad support of MLAs.
However, one issue sharply divides DARD officials and members of the Stormont Agriculture Committee - the docking of the tails of working dogs.
The new Bill expressly forbids such surgery as a matter of routine, only allowing vets to perform the operation when a dog has injured its tail.
Some MLAs, however, are so adament that an exception should be made for working dogs that they have vowed to oppose the new legislation every step of the way unless a concession is forthcoming.
Among the Bill's provisions is the barring of children from owning animals, though they can care for them under adult supervision; the banning of giving animals as prizes to under 16s; regulating the care and welfare of circus animals; and increasing the terms courts can hand out for animal cruelty from three months to 51 weeks imprisonment and/or a fine of £25,000.
On Tuesday department officials updated the committee, following a presentation on the Bill last month, on the latest thinking following members earlier comments and having received further submissions from stakeholders touching on some of the provisions above.
In essence, however, it emerged that there was no changes planned to the Bill, including the definition of an animal to be protected remaining the same despite representations for it to be extended to include the likes of octopus, lobster and crabs.
On the issue of the docking of dog tails, officials said it was still the intention to introduce a total ban though this would be reviewed at the end of the year when evidence from a research project being carried out in Great Britain became available.


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