Dog bites

[chunkygull]

I watched a documentary on ITV the other day called Dangerous Dogs. To be fair the programme mainly highlighted the fact of how stupid, thick, irresponsible, moronic, uncaring, thuggish and pathetic some people who have dogs are. When you see their upbringing, the treatment of them, the conditions they live in and the idiots that own them it makes you realise why we have these problems.

There are many people who own dogs and even breed them who should not be allowed within 50 yards of one. The programme proved the point that in many cases it is the owners not the dog, when the dogs were removed and given the proper treatment and care they displayed a totally different personality. Many of the dogs featured in the programme were rehoused after a period of time and they had passed a suitability test. However, there were stats about tens of thousands of dogs in shelters and thousands each year are put to sleep. Surely this partly comes down to irresponsible breeding. There was an owner in the programme who lived in a flat not fit for purpose, he kept breeding 2 terriers, there were 10 pups running around, the dog warden gave him advice on how to look after them, he totally ignored it as his intentions were just to keep breeding the dogs for money, the pups were only a few weeks old and the guy was told advised not to sell them yet. This advice went unheeded and most of the pups were almost immediately sold down the pub. The warden explained how many of these dogs are likely to become dangerous, mistreated or they end up at the shelter.

Of course all dogs can be aggresive and snap at some point, owners should always be guarded and aware and not become complacent. The problem is some of these so called people want their dogs to be feisty, snappy and aggressive when out in public, it makes them feel big and hard.

Is it time to reintroduce dog licences? Maybe this would partly help, there must be some sort of regulation about keeping a dog and being fit and proper to look after it.

[AustrianAndyGull]

As a battle hardened warrior in animal welfare for the past 15 years, my solution to this problem is this....




Exactly.

There isn't one. These people are insane. I've had many dealings with cases such as the ones portrayed in the documentary and it really is madness. You just have to let them get on with it because you just can't stop it. If you think you can then have a go and good luck. They have gyms for their dogs and a 'doggy treadmill' to build up the muscles of the canine weighs more than me. Get a van full of this stuff and the wheels will buckle. It really is heavy duty shit.

Dog licences are pointless because the very people you are wanting to monitor just won't bother. They'll get a dog and not a licence. If they get caught they'll get another dog and not a licence and if they get caught they'll get another dog or maybe two and not a licence and so on. Believe me. Nothing can be done about this apart from severe custodial sentences. As that is not a likely scenario then I'm afraid many more dogs will be allowed to rip each other to pieces, rip other animals to pieces and rip children to pieces.

All you can do is be wary of dogs and have back up plans (like I did on Morecambe beach when I went to see the Gulls a few years back - read the match previews).

The most important aspect of this is to always ALWAYS remember that it is NOT the dog's fault.

If you have a child and constantly criticise, chastise and teach it violence and disrespect then how do you think that child will turn out as an adult? It's not completely true of everyone but the likelihood is that it will be an aggressive and unpredictable person. Why is a staffie raised in the same way any different?