Spain’s Parliament bans tail docking

PARLIAMENT has passed approval of an amendment to a proposed loophole in Spain’s adherence to the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals which would have allowed tail docking to continue.

Approved in Strasbourg in 1987, the convention guarantees a basic animal welfare legislation for its member states and, while most countries joined it in the 1990s, the Spanish government was not only doing so 30 years late but also wanted to dodge the docking ban, Equo MP Juan Lopez de Uralde reported.

This is not to be, however, as all political parties except the Partido Popular have agreed that the PP’s intention to pass on Article 10 of the convention is unacceptable.

Speaking to parliament, the Equo MP argued that docking “is not an innocuous practice” for animals as it “causes them pain, chronic health problems, locomotion difficulties and even limits their capacity for communication.”

“Amputating dogs’ tails for aesthetic reasons is a practice which should be eliminated as it has serious consequences for the animal, therefore we have presented the amendment approved today to stop Spain from eluding this article of the Convention,” he added.