Animal Welfare Bill

I still think that exploring that route would be beneficial, instead of having a ban. When we were listening to the lengthy contribution from the hon. Member for Cleethorpes (Shona McIsaac), she referred on several occasions to the scientific evidence. It appeared that her definition of scientific evidence was the opinions that she agreed with, and anything else was purely anecdotal. One of the difficulties with the issue, which I have considered because of the interest expressed by my constituents, is that there is no clear evidence either way. It is certainly true, as the hon. Member for Clwyd, South (Mr. Jones) said, that many vets have opinions about the issue, but there is a lack of clear scientific evidence. There is anecdotal evidence from those who use working dogs and from what has happened in countries such as Sweden, which have a complete ban. That evidence appears to show that damage to dogs’ tails has increased, and that has to be taken into consideration. This is a complex issue and the scientific arguments are not clear. It would be much more sensible to stick with clause 5 and consider ways to drive down demand for cosmetic docking, instead of adopting new clause 8.