Redefining the family: Scotland leads the way

                                          Hi honeys, I'm home...

I have very little idea what to make of this story except perhaps to whine plaintively and to start scratching at the door...

A SHERIFF has allowed a former celebrity hairdresser to continue living with his 46 German shepherd dogs, because she says they constitute his family under human rights legislation...

Sheriff Susan Raeburn, in her judgment issued yesterday, 
rejected the council’s call for 
action against Mr Debidin and his dogs. She stated: “The respondent [Mr Debidin] is effectively the leader of the pack. At night Mr Debidin sleeps in one of the caravans within Woodhead compound with his entire pack of dogs other than two which ‘guard’ the compound.

“Mr Debidin has eschewed a ‘normal’ lifestyle for a lifestyle devoted to his dogs.”

Citing Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that everyone has “the right to respect for his private and family life”, Sheriff Raeburn continued: “I have absolutely no doubt that the respondent’s day-to-day routine at Woodhead compound is, as a matter of fact, his family life. It is an unusual family life...

Once again, Scotland is demonstrating its broad minded commitment to a generous interpretation of the nature of the family. As Alyn Smith MEP has said about same sex 'marriage':

It’s all part of building a new and distinctive Scotland – one which is tolerant, open and progressive and above all values the rights and liberties of the individual.

Catholics think that the function of the family is the procreation and raising of children. Once you abandon that central insight, anything really does go.