The Scottish Parliament has voted for the Watson Bill to proceed to its second stage by 84 votes to 34 votes with 1 abstention. The bill must now be passedback for amendments to the very committee which had previously deemed it unworkable.

“We, like many observers, are rightly very concerned by the Scottish vote today.

Whilst the vote is a setback, it is not a complete surprise. The bullet points below set out our general response.

However, I would like to add this: Today's vote reveals publicly that many elected Scottish politicians are more obsessed with dictating how people should live their lives rather than improving animal welfare. They chose to ignore, to their own loss, the expert opinion of their own executive committee, which has been scrutinising the topic in detail over the last seventeen months.

The Countryside Alliance will devote every resource to ensuring that this Bill does not become law in Scotland, or set a precedent south of the border, and to expose its flaws. Equally we will ensure that the Scottish Parliament returns to its task of addressing the real problems of Scotland and preserving a liberal, tolerant and diverse society.

This is a very difficult time. Please do not hesitate in contacting me through This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if I can be of any further assistance.&rdqho;

Our general response is:

• We are unsurprised by the result
• We are disappointed that today's debate showed clearly that the bill's supporters were driven by prejudice rather than a concern for animal welfare.
• We will continue to fight this flawed and unjust bill implacably
• We are confident of being able to persuade politicians to see reason.
• But, if necessary we will seek recourse to the European Convention on Human Rights.
• We think that this is a serious moment for the Scottish Parliament as it has ignored its own committee's advice to reject the bill.
• This raises clear constitutional issues