Dogs: Electric Collars

Baroness Andrews Excerpts

Monday 7th April 2014 Grand Committee

[Lord Scott of Foscote]

I am going to continue with my speech unless I am instructed by the Chair to sit down.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Andrews) (Lab)]

I am afraid I have to instruct you, my Lord. It is a rule of the House that speeches in the gap are limited to four minutes.

[Lord Scott of Foscote]

Have I had four minutes yet?

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees]

You will have done in about a minute.

[Lord Scott of Foscote]

Well, the upshot is that this dog is controllable by an electric collar. We have an electric wire going around the house and he wears an electric collar that means he gets a bit of a shock if he goes out into the garden, so he does not. That works.

When we take him out for a walk we take that off and put another collar on him. We have a little zapping instrument, and if he shows signs of aggression towards other dogs, which he has done—he has damaged dogs severely, and I have paid vets’ bills for the owners of these dogs that now run into four figures—we start using this collar, which works. He is learning, and is becoming a manageable and controllable dog because of the collar. He is intelligent enough to know that when he gets zapped, he gets zapped. He is beginning to leave other dogs alone now. He is only two years old and a lovely dog, and the notion that I would have to have him put down because of some idiot proposition that any use of collars is bad I find repulsive. I quite agree that any excessive use or misuse is serious, and that would be a criminal offence, but when they are properly used they can render a dog controllable and avoid it being put down.