Stupid, stupid law

[bunn]

This dog , who is a boxer x staffy, fits the measurements for 'pit bull type', and has only escaped being put to sleep because the owner went to court over it and pleaded guilty.

He had to plead guilty because his dog is a 'pit bull type' according to the legal requirements, which do not consider breed or temperament, only shape. It's like owning a firearm without a licence: you're automatically guilty of a crime if you own one, even if you don't know how to fire it and didn't actually know what it was.

Look at him! He's a perfectly nice boxer cross! This law is totally nuts!

The conditions the poor beast was held in don't bear thinking of either. Unheated concrete cell, no bedding, dog lost a third of his body weight (god alone knows what they fed him). Apparently the 'kennels' where the poor beast was held were cleaned by being hosed down *with the dogs still in them*. Thank goodness it's summer.

Incidentally, I'm fairly confident that was a nice friendly family dog before he was seized. Now, I really think he could be classed as an abuse case, and as such, likely to need more careful handling. I still can't quite believe the police and authorities are seizing people's pets, starving them and keeping them in appalling conditions for several months, and this is supposed to make things SAFER?

I haven't written to my MP up to now, because it's not happening in my area, but I think I shall now. Seems like the only thing I can do.

Comments

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

That just sucks. The RSPCA should take them to court. If the poor thing is now traumatised and dangerous who could blame it? My brother-in-dog recently took in a German shepherd who had been beaten by the owner's boyfriend and developed fear aggression.

The other thing that tears me up is the footage of the dog they put down for mauling the little girl. They've been showing the dog's puppy pictures for heaven's sake, a normal young dog playing with a squashy ball like millions of other young dogs, as if it's some evidence of dangerous savagery.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I hope someone will take them to court, but it makes me insanely angry that animals cannot expect basic decent care without a charity having to chase the bloody authorities about them.

I saw that video too. :-(

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

And now Pete Doherty has been giving crack to a cat. Let's hope the RSPCA manage to get him jailed, as nobody else seems to be able to.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I expect evil from evil idiots like him. He's the kind of guy the RSPCA should be dealing with, and more power to their elbow. Not tax-payer-funded public services and police forces!

[chainmailmaiden]

It surprises me that they can get away with keeping the dog in such poor conditions when they're now supposedly able to prosecute you for not providing suitable living conditions for a pet.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Quite. Magistrates put a court order put on that dog while it was in kennels to say that it was evidence, and should be kept safe and looked after, because there were, apparently, concerns it might die before the trial came up.

We need a court order telling police to give basic care to a healthy, friendly one year old dog???

Well, yes, apparently they do:
http://www.k9magazine.com/viewarticle.php?sid=15&aid=2186
http://www.k9magazine.com/viewarticle.php?sid=15&&vid=0&npage=&aid=1779

The RSPCA should not have to waste their limited resources chasing the bloody authorities for using kennels that (I am told by a local kennels owner) would not pass inspection as commercial boarding kennel premises. It's insane. It makes me angry. You may have noticed!

[chainmailmaiden]

It really is criminal that by their actions this dog might never be able to live a normal life with a family again, if it has been so traumatised by it's experience. Now if it does bite anyone there'll be cries of "See we told you it was a dangerous dog!", when it probably wouldn't have done that prior to being hauled off by the cops.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that according to the recent Panorama program, the Act has done nothing to reduce the levels of dog attack. Oh and that dog? Face just like my neighbour's boxer.

[tena524.livejournal.com]

Apparently, hysteria rules the day. Sure, any dog can be dangerous, IF badly trained and/or unsupervised. Unfortunately, it seems that the 'seize first, investigate later' rules hold true on both sides of the Pond. A more common sense approach might be to require that the dog be confined to the home or muzzled until it can be evaluated. A pity common sense is so uncommonly applied, especially in politics and the courts.

It doesn't help that the media is highly unlikely to publish a follow-up story if the pup lives a happy, healthy and peaceful life after this.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

The other thing I notice about today's BBC website coverage is how it goes on about the "evil" dog and demonises dogs by breed or type, but says NOTHING about the fact that the owners were clearly unable to train the dog properly, and that the attack appears to have been triggered by the noise of fireworks. But somehow it's the breed and not the environmental factors to blame.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Not only that, but the fact that the grandmother was off her trolly, the child wasn't in bed and there was a rule about not allowing them to be together.

Yes a pit bull can do more damage than a chihuahua, but any dog is dangerous if the owners make it agressive by abuse or neglect- both of which seem to have been the case here.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree - so annoying. Poor dog, outside in the dark in January with fireworks going off. Poor kid, out of bed in the middle of the night with her granny drunk and high.

It's like a bad joke about 'how to make absolutely sure your dog will bite your child'.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6989209.stm

Grrrr. What is so pernicious about this is that it muddles up the words:
- dangerous
- illegal
- pit bull

as if they were synonyms! This particular dog was a dangerous, illegal, pit bull type, but there are plenty of dangerous dogs that are not illegal 'types', and plenty of illegal or pit bull type dogs that are not in the least dangerous. Grrr.