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]

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.