Compensation for euthanasia of XL bully dogs: EIR release

Information requested

• Please provide me with the number of claims from dog owners who applied for compensationfollowing the decision to have their XL Bullies euthanised.
• Please also break down the figures according to owners who asked for £100 (euthanasia) and owners who asked for £200 (euthanasia and loss).
• Please tell me how much money the Scottish Government has paid out so far?
• Please tell me how many male and how many female dogs this scheme involves so far?

Response

As the information you have requested is ‘environmental information’ for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstancesof this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Please provide me with the number of claims from dog owners who applied for compensationfollowing the decision to have their XL Bullies euthanised.

• As at 17 April 2024, two claims for compensation had been received by the Scottish Government.

Please also break down the figures according to owners who asked for £100 (euthanasia) and owners who asked for £200 (euthanasia and loss).

• Both claims cover euthanasia and loss.

Please tell me how much money the Scottish Government has paid out so far?

• The Scottish Government has not paid out any money as at 17 April 2024.

Please tell me how many male and how many female dogs this scheme involves so far?

• Both dogs euthanised were male.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.