As a member of the SNP for 50 years, and a practising veterinary surgeon for more than 50 years, I am appalled that Scottish Government is considering relaxing the ban on docking dogs tails without anaesthetic ("Charities concerned as ministers consider easing ban on docking dogs' tails", The Herald, December 11).
After the Scottish Government's decision not to ban snaring and in fact to produce regulations to make snaring more effective, it would seem that the SNP in government is more concerned to appease the hunting/shooting lobby with its giant sporting estates and wealth salted away in tax havens in Guernsey, Gibraltar and the Caymans than with animal welfare.
The demand for the reintroduction of docking seems to come from the owners of spaniels and "hunt-point" retrievers. In the case of spaniels the main area of risk is not the tail but the ears as they run through gorse or briars but surprisingly there is not demand to have their ears cropped. As for retrievers whether labrador, golden, flat-coat or pointers, and many similar breeds there is virtually no demand to have their puppies' tails docked. As for farmers collies working in the roughest of country they all have tails and ears untouched by a surgeon's knife at five days of age and yet in my 50 years experience injuries to the tail were extremely rare.
As far as I can see it is all about tradition. Certain working dogs always had their tails docked; therefore they always should. If this is ever to be allowed let us ensure in law that no dog will have its tail amputated for recreational reasons until it is at least three month old and that the operation must always take place under general anaesthetic.
There is no place in modern animal welfare or in modern veterinary medicine for the butchering of a puppy's tail at five days of age without an anaesthetic, and there should never be a consideration that an owner can decide for their own purposes that amputation of the tail should take place.
I trust that when the Scottish Government produce a consultation on this matter that there will be a substantial negative response from the public.
George Leslie,
North Glassock Farm,
Fenwick.
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