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Guess The Breed, Win a Chance to End a Dog’s Life
April 4th, 2008
Many people don’t know much about the UK’s Dangerous Dogs Act.
Many, many people.
We tend to go about our daily business with our well behaved dogs, being responsible owners.
Why do we need to know about some laws that relate to Pit bull terriers and other ‘dangerous’ breeds?
Very often people are surprised to learn that the Dangerous Dogs Act actually applied to all dogs, regardless of breed. In fact, if you’re a dog owner living in the UK the Dangerous Dogs Act is actually well worth a few moments of your time to get familiar with.
In 1991 the act was brought into force by the then home secretary Kenneth Baker. He wanted to protect the public from dangerous dogs and so added a piece of legislation which outlawed certain types of dogs.
This law has failed.
It has failed miserably.
The public have not been protected and many dogs have died as a result of this slipshod law. Many dogs who were not, ever, dangerous. Dogs who simply happened to look a certain way.
This has happened under section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act, the section which legislates against breed types. It has a name of its own, it is called breed specific legislation or BSL.
The Pet Owners Parliament is extremely keen to stimulate discussion about repealing section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act and to propose legislation which completely does away with any semblance of the failed breed specific legislation elements of the DDA.
There are literally hundreds of articles on the folly of BSL and in fact even Government’s have acknowledged the failure of trying to outlaw types of dog breeds with such archaic laws.
This is a very simple, two pronged appeal.
If you love dogs and you don’t yet know much about BSL, please - take a 20 minute coffee break and have a look some of these links:
Wikipedia Article on Breed Specific Legislation
Deed Not Breed UK Campaign against breed specific legislation
If you love dogs and know all you need to know about BSL, please enter your email address below and take the first step to becoming a member of the Pet Owners Parliament. It’s 2008, it’s time we stopped killing dogs because of what they look like. You may or may not know, but some of the large organisations who ushered in the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act are still influential in shaping Government policy on dogs. They have not put anywhere near enough effort into demanding a repeal of section 1 of this ill thought out, cruel, anti-dog piece of law. So it’s time for dog owners themselves to step up to the challenge. Join the Pet Owners Parliament and have your say on the laws affecting our dogs and other domestic animals.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:06 am
[…] The claim that the RSPCA has a ‘conviction for perverting the course of justice’ is factually incorrect. Presumably the SHG press release is referring to a contempt of court finding dating back almost 30 years to the 1980s. This was not a criminal conviction. Repeal Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act Now! […]
April 11th, 2008 at 3:42 am
I believe that dogs which are discriminated against currently should be trained in security ‘posts’ at commercial premises.Meanwhile I’m afraid that this trend will continue until a change takes place within the law & could expect more breeds to be targetted.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
[…] Relations and Volunteer Coordinator at the Coconino Humane Association in Flagstaff, Arizona. End BSL now. There are NO excuses. There is NO justification. There is NO benefit to the public. Author Details K9 Magazine welcomes submissions from freelance contributors. If you would like […]
May 19th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
[…] learned much over the years since we first domesticated the dog. It’s wrong. It has to stop. End BSL now. There are NO excuses. There is NO justification. There is NO benefit to the public. Are you a dog lover in the UK? Can you offer help to some of the many dogs who have been caught up […]
July 1st, 2008 at 8:14 am
at the end of the day any dog can bite.Its not thye dogs fault up the people who bring them up.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I live in the United States, but know about the certain breeds laws that you speak about. There is one state here in the US that is talking about banning Pit Bulls completely. I can see taking a dangerous dog and putting it down. but not all pit bulls are dangerous.
When My son was a baby My brother had a pit bull. She slept with the baby, played with the baby and was the sweetest most loving animal we had growing up. just as safe as our beagle dog was.
So there is something wrong with a society that wants to kill ALL of a certain breed. I support you 100% in your efforts to stop this type of legislation from happening again.
July 14th, 2008 at 2:19 am
The problem is simply the Police, RSPCA , Vets do not know breeds of dogs as such this creates anomalies and inconsistencies when these people are faced with dog of similar looks.BSL is unfair , biased and discriminatory .
This happens with people also, hence miscarriages of justice. What we need to do is to determine the dog not the breed that is guilty through DNA profiling until that can be done then the DDA should be abandoned in its entirety.