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complaints procedure has been initiated due to us posting a Deed not
Breed message. Here is an article I have written for tomorrow's Sunday
Express that is a fuller explanation while knee jerk legislation will
not help save anyone, quite the opposite. We all grieve for Jade and a
young life lost, but mass slaughter of dogs is not going to bring her
back.
In 1991 we had a succession of horrific dog attacks
followed by the Government’s knee-jerk reaction - the much-flawed
Dangerous Dogs Act.
When they vilified a specific type of dog
instead of the irresponsible owners we completed missed the opportunity
to make children and vulnerable people any safer.
This act planned
to eradicate a breed - every Pit Bull was supposed to be neutered. But
there’s very many more Pit Bulls alive today than ever before and an
infinite variety of big powerful crosses.
Yet, contrary to public
perception, more people are bitten by Jack Russells than bull breeds –
but did you know that many more people are killed by balloons than dogs?
And that even more people are killed by their own parents or
grandparents… but there’s no chance of a Dangerous Grandparents Act.
Consequently the only time politicians and the police take dog issues seriously is when there is a media storm. Like now.
We are in danger of even more breeds being added to the ineffective DDA.
In other countries things happen differently.
In France, when a baby was recently killed by a German Shepherd the
adult (who was drunk) was prosecuted for not adequately supervising and
the dog was taken away for assessment and possible rehoming.
No one called for German Shepherds to be banned.
In the UK however, when Ellie Lawrenson was killed by the family Pit
Bull the grandparent who was supposed to be supervising dog and baby
walked free from court even though she admitted in court to having drunk
two bottles of wine and smoking 10 joints of cannabis and possessing
heroin.
BSL is as crazy as calling for the routine ban of a make of car after a fatal car crash without even looking at driver error.
We need more joined up thinking on dog legislation, something that
slows down the breeding and importation of puppies – we’ve never had so
many dogs in Britain.
If we have any new legislation let’s have something that makes a tangible difference – that stands a chance of being enforced.
Let’s bring in the Puppy Contract so that breeding badly stops having
no consequence. Stops churning out pups being a no-risk way of making
untaxed income. Something that dissuades people from turning their
domestic homes into shoddy puppy farms when money is short.
And we
need to enforce our border controls so we no longer have all these van
loads of underage cheap European imports flooding the Internet and pet
shops with even more badly bred dogs for people to impulse purchase.
We should look to countries that don’t have the dog problems we have
and emulate them. Make humans responsible for their dog’s actions
instead of just blaming the dogs – it’s not as if these dogs can home
educate themselves!
Look to Sweden and Switzerland where dogs are
seen as significant and important enough to have well thought out
legislation that is enforced year in and year out – instead of lurching
from one crisis to enough with ill-considered legislation that always
looks to blame the wrong end of the lead.
In 1991 we had a succession of horrific dog attacks followed by the Government’s knee-jerk reaction - the much-flawed Dangerous Dogs Act.
When they vilified a specific type of dog instead of the irresponsible owners we completed missed the opportunity to make children and vulnerable people any safer.
This act planned to eradicate a breed - every Pit Bull was supposed to be neutered. But there’s very many more Pit Bulls alive today than ever before and an infinite variety of big powerful crosses.
Yet, contrary to public perception, more people are bitten by Jack Russells than bull breeds – but did you know that many more people are killed by balloons than dogs? And that even more people are killed by their own parents or grandparents… but there’s no chance of a Dangerous Grandparents Act.
Consequently the only time politicians and the police take dog issues seriously is when there is a media storm. Like now.
We are in danger of even more breeds being added to the ineffective DDA.
In other countries things happen differently.
In France, when a baby was recently killed by a German Shepherd the adult (who was drunk) was prosecuted for not adequately supervising and the dog was taken away for assessment and possible rehoming.
No one called for German Shepherds to be banned.
In the UK however, when Ellie Lawrenson was killed by the family Pit Bull the grandparent who was supposed to be supervising dog and baby walked free from court even though she admitted in court to having drunk two bottles of wine and smoking 10 joints of cannabis and possessing heroin.
BSL is as crazy as calling for the routine ban of a make of car after a fatal car crash without even looking at driver error.
We need more joined up thinking on dog legislation, something that slows down the breeding and importation of puppies – we’ve never had so many dogs in Britain.
If we have any new legislation let’s have something that makes a tangible difference – that stands a chance of being enforced.
Let’s bring in the Puppy Contract so that breeding badly stops having no consequence. Stops churning out pups being a no-risk way of making untaxed income. Something that dissuades people from turning their domestic homes into shoddy puppy farms when money is short.
And we need to enforce our border controls so we no longer have all these van loads of underage cheap European imports flooding the Internet and pet shops with even more badly bred dogs for people to impulse purchase.
We should look to countries that don’t have the dog problems we have and emulate them. Make humans responsible for their dog’s actions instead of just blaming the dogs – it’s not as if these dogs can home educate themselves!
Look to Sweden and Switzerland where dogs are seen as significant and important enough to have well thought out legislation that is enforced year in and year out – instead of lurching from one crisis to enough with ill-considered legislation that always looks to blame the wrong end of the lead.
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