AN ANIMAL welfare campaigner who received a death threat vowed yesterday that he would not be silenced.
Ken McKie, a retired policeman, from Strathaven, Lanarkshire, was stunned when a gangster phoned him on Thursday afternoon and warned him to stop protesting against the importing of puppies to Scotland.
The caller told Mr McKie, 49, the secretary
of the Waterside Action Group (WAG) charity, that there was a £7,000 bounty on his head and that he was preparing to collect.
He then warned Mr McKie to put an end to WAG’s high- profile campaign and protests which have been staged at ferry terminals across Scotland.
Mr McKie was angered by the call, and said: "The man went into a tirade. He said he already had a downpayment and if I didn’t stop our campaign he would collect the rest of the money.
"It is incredible that an animal welfare campaign can result in a threat like this, but if this is a genuine threat then they have chosen the wrong person."
Mr McKie served 15 years in the police force and said he had been threatened by many people in that time. He added: "It will take a lot more than this to stop me. I am only one person in the organisation, but we have several hundred dog-loving supporters."
WAG has campaigned for the past two years against the cruel trade in puppies, where dogs are crammed in small cages and carried from Ireland to Scotland.
The charity has been particularly outspoken about the dealings of several dealers, who rake in a fortune from transporting and selling animals, and have recently stepped up their campaign with protests at ferry terminals in Troon and Cairnryan in an attempt to stop companies allowing puppies to be brought to Scotland.
Mr McKie believes that the death threat is proof that the WAG campaign has started to damage the trade. He said: "Everything in our campaign is coming to a boil and now we must have hit a raw nerve.
"We are hoping that sales are down and the public are becoming more aware of the trade in puppies."
He added: "There is big money involved and if the threats made to me are genuine then we have to wonder at the source of money that has come into the hands of some of the puppy farmers."
Ross Minett, the campaigns director at Advocates for Animals, said the puppies come mainly from the Republic of Ireland. They are bred on huge, industrial scale, puppy farms where countless female dogs are kept in a state of pregnancy.
Mr Minett said the industry was perpetuated by the latest fashions in dog breeds. He said: "This is all done for the pedigree dog market."
"The puppies are shipped to Scotland and sold, often through newspaper adverts, to members of the public who are very often unaware of the cruel treatment that the puppies have undergone."
He said that six months ago MSP Christine Graham had put forward a bill which would mean that those importing puppies would have to satisfy additional requirements and he hoped that the Scottish Executive would incorporate this legislation into the new Animal Welfare Bill.
Strathclyde Police said enquiries were continuing into the threats made to Mr McKie.
The full article contains 572 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
