Glad Dave is home safe and well, there is also a tail survey being done as mentioned before by Airlie Bryce Jones, also the landward programme this week covers the issue:-
I copy Airlie's latest email below, might also be good if you could make him aware of Dave's story I only hope we can upturn this stupid law before more spaniels suffer
Basc lost James which was a great shame it was him who did a lot of the early campaigning and got me on landward th first time, he's gone to the deer commission now I think
Nicola
latest email :-
Please note the Landword time and date of Friday 3rd April at 7.00pm
Relugas House
Dunphail
Forres
Moray IV36 2QL
Tel 01309 611 319 Email
dogtails@abjcon.co.uk Dogtail Survey 08/09 Spaniels & HPRs
Dear Nicola,
I am sure you are as concerned as we are about the continuation of the tail docking ban for our working dogs in Scotland . The Dogtail Survey 08/09 is designed to gather the evidence required to show what its effect is on working Spaniels & HPRs dogs. The Survey has been running since January and the returns to date are up to nearly half the number of dogs we require to get statistical validity. Thank you to those who have already answered.
As we had expected there are a frighteningly high number of young dogs with long or full tails that have received serious tail tip injuries. Some were injured just in training but mostly in the first weeks of real work in the 2008 season. A lot of these young injured have been unable to work the whole season and many of them have already had amputations during December and January. So much for Animal Welfare!
On Friday April 3rd at 7.00 pm viewers of the new Landward program will see a terrible example of the direct effect of the tail docking ban. Poppy, an 18 month old full tailed Springer Spaniel was repeatedly injured in her tail tip in her first working days in October and November last year. Due to infection complications she has had to have 3 amputations and now has no tail at all. The dog and her owner were filmed for the new series of programs last week.
It is vital that we get the other half of the Spaniel and HPR owners to complete the survey so please fill in forms for your dogs if you have not done so already and chase up any other working dog owners you know to do so too. Every completed form filled in for Spaniels and HPRs strengthens our case because they help to build an accurate record of the confirmation and activities of our working dogs. From your entries we can get the evidence required to prove how vulnerable the full tailed working dogs are and how effective is the protection of a shortened tail.
We already have a clear picture emerging from the returns so far of what happens to young full tailed dogs but I must emphasise that we need the details for all the working Spaniels or HPRs that each respondent has. Obviously most of them are going to be uninjured - but we still need to know about them because they complete the population record.
Only by getting the short tailed and uninjured in really high numbers can we show the MSPs, the media and those who support the ban the evidence that short tailed dogs do not get injured and the full tails just do. It may be obvious to us but it certainly is not to the policy makers in the Veterinary Associations, the SSPCA or the MSPs who listen to them. In the interests of the Welfare of our Dogs we need numbers and numbers we must get.
Enclosed are the Survey forms but if you want more printed copies please let me know how many and who to send them to.
I look forward to hearing from you and your dog working friends in the next few days.
Yours sincerely
Airlie Bruce Jones