Responsible dog ownership summit: report

Introduction

Scottish Government Ministers agree that more can be done to improve public safety by ensuring that dogs are responsibly acquired, owned and looked after.

This summit, in St Andrew’s House Edinburgh, was held at the request of both the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, Siobhian Brown MSP, and the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity Jim Fairlie MSP.

The summit provided an excellent opportunity to bring together attendees from a wide range of organisations, including Police Scotland, local authorities, veterinary bodies, public health and third sector organisations to consider how dog control and public safety can be improved upon.

While the summit related to general dog control and dog welfare matters, attendees were free to raise any issues of concern, and this included in relation to the new XL Bully dog safeguards, and breed specific legislation more generally.

The Scottish Government is grateful to everyone who attended and contributed to the summit.

This report contains key outputs and recommendations from the summit.

The Scottish Government continues to reflect carefully on the issues raised and consider further how best to assess in more detail the various issues raised to help deliver improved policy relating to dogs.

Scottish Government