Emma Harper MSP received the support of Scottish Government Minister Ash Denham last week in calling on the public to take part in her consultation to tackle incidents of dogs attacking livestock through a Members’ Bill.
During Portfolio questions, the Minister for Community Safety said that the SNP administration recognised “the impact of dog attacks on livestock and we are committed to working with all our partners on tackling the issue” before joining Ms. Harper in encouraging stakeholders to “contribute their views on how livestock can be better protected”.
This year Police Scotland revealed that in 2018 alone 338 incidents of livestock attacks were reported to them, with agricultural insurance broker NFU Mutual publishing figures last year showing such incidents bore an estimated financial cost to Scottish farmers of around £330,000 in 2017.
Commenting Emma Harper said:
“Growing up on a farm in Wigtownshire, I’m completely in-tune with how this issue affects our farmers not only in the South West but across Scotland.
“Livestock attacks can hit a farmer and their family hard financially, but emotionally as well. There is a life-long, emotional investment farmers make into their livestock, by nurturing and helping their stock grow on their farms over many generations. Just one dog loose in a field can end years of hard work and investment.
“I listen to and engage with our farmers and organisations representing them such as NFU Scotland on a weekly basis and they have been calling for the law to be strengthened in this area for a long time, and I am delighted to be the MSP who ‘takes a lead’ on this issue.
“The scottish Government takes this issue of livestock attacks very seriously – with a huge number of my parliamentary colleagues from rural areas supporting my proposed Members’ Bill – and I would call on everyone to have their say in this consultation by May 15th so together we can make the best law possible to prevent such attacks from happening in the future.”
The 12-week public consultation on her proposals, which has received more than 600 responses so far, comes to an end on May 15th. Take part on this link: https://www.parliament.scot/gettinginvolved/111027.aspx
