Scotland urged to follow Wales’ lead with greyhound racing ban<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n In a letter to Mr Ruskell, the minister said that the Government \u201cacknowledges that there are genuine risks associated with racing greyhounds around tracks of oval design\u201d adding \u201cthis is supported by evidence\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Fairlie said the oval tracks \u201cinevitably cause racing greyhounds to bunch together in the tight turns\u201d, which can lead to collisions, \u201cthereby increasing the risk of serious injuries\u201d to the dogs.\n<\/p>\n
\n The minister confirmed: \u201cHaving considered the Bill\u2019s provisions, the Scottish Government\u2019s position is that we will support its general principles.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n However, he said that the Government would work with Mr Ruskell to seek to make some changes to the Bill \u2013 saying they want ministers to be able to set the date when the legislation comes into force, rather than have it come in 12 months after gaining Royal Assent.\n<\/p>\n
\n Scottish ministers also want to make amendments to the enforcement provisions outlined in the Bill.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Ruskell said he was \u201cdelighted that the Government is backing my bill\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Green MSP, who has a former racing greyhound as a pet, stated: \u201cThis is a big step towards ensuring that we protect our greyhounds and halt this cruel gambling-led sport for good.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n He added that with countries such as Wales and also New Zealand taking action on greyhound racing \u201cwe can\u2019t let Scotland fall behind the pack\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Ruskell said: \u201cIf we are a nation of dog lovers then we need to back that up with words and deeds, and deliver real protections.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy own dog Bert is an ex-racing greyhound. When I rescued him, he was around two years old and had been discarded with a broken leg that had never been properly treated.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe\u2019s now 13 years old and a completely different dog who has brought such love into our family, but he should never have been put through trauma caused by racing to begin with.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere are dogs like Bert all over Scotland and my Bill will ensure that they are no longer being damaged and then discarded.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Eve Massie Bishop of animal campaign group OneKind \u2013 which leads the Unbound the Greyhound coalition against racing \u2013 said: \u201cThe public\u2019s appetite for greyhound racing has dramatically dwindled, as awareness of the inherent suffering faced by dogs trapped in this dire industry has continued to grow.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s time to bring this outdated industry to an end and we\u2019re grateful to the Scottish Government for backing a ban.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The legislation seeks to make it an offence to operate a racing track for greyhounds, and for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-405634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-scotland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115163907074855549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}