Executive accused of watering down new animal cruelty laws

Plans to introduce tough new penalties of up to 20,000 or a year in jail for "aggravated" cruelty have been dropped.

And people convicted of abandoning animals will no longer be subject to a ban on keeping them.

The Scottish Parliament's health committee was today taking evidence from Environment Minister Ross Finnie on the Executive's Animal Health and Welfare Bill.

But in written evidence to the committee, animal welfare consultant Libby Anderson highlighted the changes and said it would be "regrettable" if the ability to impose higher penalties in more serious cruelty cases was lost.

She pointed out people who tortured animals or were responsible for the suffering of a large number of animals would now be subject to the same maximum penalty of 5000 or six months imprisonment as people who were guilty of more minor animal welfare offences.

And the Scottish SPCA said the scrapping of the tougher punishment was a missed opportunity to send a clear message that animal cruelty would not be tolerated.

Campaigners welcome the broad thrust of the Bill, which introduces a new "duty of care" - an obligation on owners to provide animals with a suitable environment, the right kind of diet, appropriate shelter and protection from pain and suffering.

But Ms Anderson pointed out the draft Bill published last May provided for two distinct tiers of penalties, with the higher penalties available for offences involving animal fighting and "offences involving deliberate cruelty". The latest form of the Bill only allows the 20,000 fine and 12 months' jail for animal fighting.

And she calls for an amendment to restore the original proposal.

In her written evidence, Ms Anderson also voiced concern that disqualification orders, banning individuals from keeping animals, would no longer be available in cases of abandonment.

And she said the offence of abandonment, as defined under the new legislation, would be more complicated to prove than under the existing law. The current offence covers abandoning an animal in circumstances "likely to cause suffering" but the new wording will require proof that suffering did result.

Ms Anderson's concerns were backed by the Scottish SPCA, which said it dealt with some horrific cases of cruelty such as a greyhound which had been found beheaded and skinned on a West Lothian bowling green and a collie which had died after being stabbed 20 times.

Scottish SPCA parliamentary officer Leonora Merry said: "We are looking to modernise animal welfare legislation and bring it into the 21st century. There is an important message to put out that the government is serious about animal cruelty. One of the reasons we were supportive of the two tiers of offences was that it shows animal cruelty is on a spectrum - at one end, there are people who commit an offence through ignorance and at the other there are really malicious and deliberate acts of cruelty. This is a missed opportunity to get the penalties raised."

The Executive said the concept of an "aggravated offence" was removed from the Bill because it was alien to Scots law and the maximum proposed penalty was lowered because it was felt inappropriate to have a harsher fine available for animal cruelty than for assault on a person.

But a spokeswoman said one incident of cruelty may involve more than one offence and could therefore lead to multiple fines.

She denied the abandonment offence had been made more complicated and said there had been no change on the issue of disqualification orders since the draft Bill was published in May.