Friday, August 17, 2007



Dog docking

The Government Administration Committee has reported back [PDF] on the Animal Welfare (Restriction on Docking of Dogs' Tails) Bill and recommended that it not be passed. Unusually, though, the report doesn't give reasons for the decision, or even a summary of submissions. There's simply a summary of the bill, and then nothing.

This simply isn't good enough. This isn't the most important piece of legislation in the world, but a select committee should still give reasons for its decisions so that the public can tell whether they're doing their job properly. Otherwise people might think their "review" was just a matter of flipping a coin and seeing which way it lands.