Dangerous dogs laws 'inadequate'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11058613

if you had gov powers what would you do to bring down dog attacks?

Bring back dog liscenses i think and make sure none of the yobs can get there hands on them

I agree with u shane it is the owners alot of the so called dangerous dogs are really affectionate and soft and loyal to there owners

When they go on about dangerous dogs why do they pick on butch looking dogs when 9 times out of 10 they are the most gentle things going and the only dogs iv ever had problems with are the highly strung westies, king charles,and the bane of my staffys life the dreded shitsu at the bottem of the street(LOL) ITS NOT THE DOGS FAULT it all comes down the the owner if they allow agresive behavear or if they are over protective with there little lap dogs and not allowing them to socialise propely with other dogs. so i totaly agree with shane the owners should be vetted not just for so called dangerous dogs but for all dogs and check suitability of the dog for the owner as my other pet hate is seing a old person eg 70 old walking a boistriuos older puppy labby as i have seen when out walking menphis

id ban all dogs from outside uk

the only way i can see fixing the problem is getting really tougher on the owners

I got my dog 3 weeks ago. First dog i've had in 17 years. So I wanted to make him as happy and well behaved as possible. I have read books, watched programs etc to get an idea of what I should be doing as an owner. As a new dog owner I think owners should have to pass a course before they can own one.
Teaching them how to correct your dogs bad behaviour etc and why it can be dangerous if you leave a dog to behave how they please.

mine is very well behaved and does as he is told

Making it a legal obligation to obtain a licence as a breeder would go along way to fixing the problems of those who breed and sell indiscriminately purely to earn extra cash. These dogs are being bred with no thought and often sold to people who are completely inappropriate as owners. This applies to all breeds and not just staffies.

Make the license expensive and include official checks that can be followed up. Those found breeding without a licence would risk criminal prosecution and heavy fines. Every owner should also be able to demonstrate that the dog was obtained from a licensed breeder.

It will take a generation to see the results but simply bringing back a licence for owners means very little. There are millions of drivers who hold a valid driving license and look how many drive dangerously every day. There has to be a change in culture where it becomes socially unacceptable to simply run out and buy a dog without being well suited to take care of it.

Before we adopted our staffie, the rescue centre wanted to know why we wanted this breed of dog. They did a home check where they verified we had an enclosed garden with fences at least 6 feet high all round. They checked that we had experience with similar dogs and that the dog would not be left alone for extended periods or lack exercise. They also checked that every member of the family was happy to go ahead with the adoption and checked with our vets to see how we treated our cat. After the adoption they followed up with a second visit 3 months later to see how everything was.

[quote="ashleyk"]Making it a legal obligation to obtain a licence as a breeder would go along way to fixing the problems of those who breed and sell indiscriminately purely to earn extra cash. These dogs are being bred with no thought and often sold to people who are completely inappropriate as owners. This applies to all breeds and not just staffies.

Make the license expensive and include official checks that can be followed up. Those found breeding without a licence would risk criminal prosecution and heavy fines. Every owner should also be able to demonstrate that the dog was obtained from a licensed breeder.

It will take a generation to see the results but simply bringing back a licence for owners means very little. There are millions of drivers who hold a valid driving license and look how many drive dangerously every day. There has to be a change in culture where it becomes socially unacceptable to simply run out and buy a dog without being well suited to take care of it.

=D> You took the words right out of my mouth!

theres no such thing as a dangerous dog its the owners are to blame

in a prefect world dog & breeders licence's would be a good idea, there no way of enforcing it without costing the tax payers billions.

Only way i can think of lowing the dogs attacks is giving the owners big jail sentences, i dont think that will 100% help the problems.

Here in Brisbane Australia, [b]Staffies are listed as the #1 for dog attacks in my local council[/b] and they want to declare them a dangerous breed, both the staffies i have had have been wusses and wouldn't hurt anyone(they'd lick them to death), most of these so called "staffies" are cactually cross breeds or pitbulls that people are labeling as staffies because pitbulls are banned here an staffies aren't yet because of people like these they could be. I have secure fencing around my property(6 foot high steel fence)with gates that are always locked so there is no way my dogs can get out and people can get in,when i wrote to the paper defending staffies some loser said that staffies will attack without being provoked, i'm sorry but i think i know MY dog better than he does.

I will defend staffies to the death, one little kid once thought my Nitro was a pb until his grandmother said no he's a staffy just like u want.
.

Hi Hazel

I wholeheartedly agree with what you are saying in the first part of your statement.

You completely lost me with the last line. We try so hard to protect the reputation of our staffies, that they are loyal, loving and courageous nanny dogs. Pit Bulls (a group of breeds made up of American Pit Bull Terriers and American Staffordshire terriers and in the USA also includes SBTs all share these wonderful traits).

So what winds me up more than anything is not ignorant people that don't realise how loving and great SBTs are, it is owners of SBTs that fight BSL and feel the discrimination from the public yet openly discriminate against pit bulls.

I am not telling you what to do, just when you tell people that "staffies think first before attacking and pit bulls just attack" it puts down all the hard work that loving pit bull owners around the world the fight against BSL (and there are more of them than SBT owners due to the grouping of the breeds).

Secondly when a dog attacks it is not thought through beforehand, if it wants to attack it will (obviously regardless or breed). Unlike humans, dogs do not premeditate they react all the time to a situation.

Sorry if this comes across in an aggressive way but I am very passionate about these bad stupid laws that are affecting millions around the world due to the ignorance of people and the poor doggies are losing out.

This is just my opinion, I agree as a staffie owner they are the best but the breeds that make up the pit bull group are just as loving, fun, loyal, beautiful and all are great with children.



Suzie

In a perfect world a lot of what's been said above would work.

But..........

Licensing breeders will do nothing to stem the indiscriminate breeding of staffords (or any other dog) They just won't license & they'll keep their bitches in poor conditions cause they don't want them to be seen. There will still be a market for the pups. You would be amazed (or maybe some of you won't) of the amount of Stafford/Bull Terrier crosses that are around. None of them are from 'good' breeders, and none of their breeders would both to get licensed. It would take away some of the profit from the sale of their pups, which round here can go for as much as £500!

Licensing dog owners will, likewise not work. It didn't work before, why should it work now? Who will check to see if a person has a license? In this country, nobody. The police will say they have too much to do already & if they set up a dog warden type system, they'll just look for the easy option.

The only way, as far as I can see, of dealing with owners who allow/train their dogs to be aggressive is huge fines and prison sentences - long ones.

Very well said Suzie

Hi Suzie, sorry for offending u, i didn't mean it, i have edited my post. I am jst sick of everyone thinking that they are the same breeds so they are the same temperament.

I know that both staffies and PB can be the most wonerful pets and pbs ae probably sooks just like staffies lol.

I will not comment anymore on this forum.

hazelj i agree with what you are saying iv had the sim probs with my boy memphis people saying he pbcross becouse of his couler when i have the papers to show he is 100%sbt yes they both can be great pets but they at the end of the day arnt the same dog breed
and as for you not comenting on the fourum again please reconsider as your a valued member on the site ><

bigwazza wrote:and as for you not comenting on the fourum again please reconsider as your a valued member on the site ><

Absolutely - nobody should stop posting just cause others may disagree with them! There'd be none of us left if that was the case!

And no, they are not the same breed. However, I DO get so annoyed when people ASSUME that a dog is a pit bull if it doesn't fit their idea of a stafford! I've even been stopped in the street by the police & asked whethet Dempsey is a pit bull! I patiently & calmly explained that he is nothing like one, but they said, "well, he isn't a stafford, so he must be a pit bull!"

Although staffs & pit bulls both have fighting in their history, the pit bull's fighting instincts are a little closer than a staff's and they MAY be more inclined to fight first, ask questions later.

That being said, I know of several pb's in the south of england which are superb dogs with fantastic temperaments, and their breeders have taken time & considerable effort in breeding them that way & making sure they go to the right homes.
So, here we are again, back to bad owners, not bad dogs!

Hi Hazel,

Please continue to comment on this forum, I didn't mean to offend you. I too have many people ask me if rio is definitely as staffie as she looks like a pit bull.

I just feel very strongly about breed discrimination like we all do, so many people don't understand that there is no such breed as a pit bull only a type. In the UK the law is so screwed up that any of the following cross breeds can fall under this criteria to top it off most of the police forces are not even trained to identify them as is the recent case of Tootsie the staffie cross from Hertfordshire.

Crosses of SBT
Mastiff
Bull Mastiff
Boxer
Labrador (yes them too esp when crossed with a SBT, Boxer or Mastiff)
Rhodesian Ridgeback
Presa Canary Dog
American Pit Bull Terrier
American Staffordshire Bull Terrier
Dogue de Bordeux (we doggie people know a cat has more chance of being referred to as a pit bull than this breed of dog) this proves otherwise and goes to show some people really don't know what they are doing.

The fact is the law needs changing, it only makes these breeds more appealing with the wrong people, who then utilise the two key traits that all these breeds share to turn them into so called 'devil dogs' - Loyalty and Reliability...

People are breeding these breeds together and selling them openly on facebook, some are stupid enough to sell them as pure APBTs for £600-700, many of which end up in shelter or seized by the police.

In answer to the original post
- repeal section 1 of the dangerous dogs act removing breed specific legislation which is killing hundreds of innocent dogs and costing the government £10m a year in kennelling fees
- enforce proper breeding, only registered breeds can breed for profit and must follow strict protocols of vetting new owners, DNA testing etc
- increase the penalties and fines for owning a dog that is dangerously out of control putting full responsibility on the dog's owner
- stricter sentencing for dog fighting as an organiser or spectator
- compulsory microchipping, (not sure how enforceable it is) I think they do this in Ireland.

Here is Tootsie's story
Once again sorry Hazel if I upset you.

Suzie

When a certain breed is banned, all that the thugs do is target another breed that will make them look tough. It will potentially go on and on until the only legal dogs will be Yorkshire terriers and the like.

What I think should happen is that all thugs should be banned from owning or living in the same house as any dog.

Thugs can easily be identified as those who have criminal records or warnings concerning violence, theft or drugs. If these people can't own, or live with any dog then I think the problem will go away.

whmon wrote:When a certain breed is banned, all that the thugs do is target another breed that will make them look tough. It will potentially go on and on until the only legal dogs will be Yorkshire terriers and the like.

What I think should happen is that all thugs should be banned from owning or living in the same house as any dog.

Thugs can easily be identified as those who have criminal records or warnings concerning violence, theft or drugs. If these people can't own, or live with any dog then I think the problem will go away.

You're spot on. HOWEVER, you know it, and we know it - but try telling the authorities that!

How about a system similar to the tax disk on cars? Like a coloured tag on the dogs collar that changes per year and it shows the dog and owner has been tested to show that they either - can be offlead, offlead only with muzzle, only on short lead, onlead and muzzle, etc etc. Not for certain breeds, for all dogs. A member of the police, community officer or security guard in towns or even the public etc should be able to see a coloured disk on the collar and if its out of date or if it is missing completely. I didn't exactly think it through completely lol but just a thought that something like that could be done?

Well, that's better than a lot of ideas I've heard! Trouble is, it'd be expensive to put in place.

I definatly think we should have more dog wardens with more power like a traffic warden. all dogs shud have a passport (like they have done with horses) they shud be chipped or tatooed and insured if anyone is found with a dog and no passport they face heavy fine. Anyone who abuses a animal should be made to have a tatoo with scum on there forehead and banned for life for owning or keeping a animal. That is my ideal world x

gem wrote:Anyone who abuses a animal should be made to have a tatoo with scum on there forehead and banned for life for owning or keeping a animal. That is my ideal world x

Now, THAT I agree with!

shane wrote:

Caryll wrote:

gem wrote:Anyone who abuses a animal should be made to have a tatoo with scum on there forehead and banned for life for owning or keeping a animal. That is my ideal world x

Now, THAT I agree with!

and i second that =D>

8-> And cut there hands and bits off so they cant pass there genes on to anymore little animal abusers (im a really nice person just hate cruelty would you vote me in parliment)

gem wrote:would you vote me in parliment)

YES!!!!!

shane wrote:yes microchipping is compulsory here in ireland, but its only compulsory for dogs that are registered with the ikc

It would somehow have to be compulsory for everyone (dog wardens given scanners?). I'd introduce financial help to the elderly/disabled etc so that they can still have their dogs.

The main problems with microchipping are that microchips can migrate & if someone who doesn't know that just scans the neck area, it'll be missed, and some people don't want to introduce a foreign body into their dogs. Maybe you should get a choice between microchip or tattoo.

Also, breeders could be required by law to chip/tattoo before pups are sold, although I think they say that if your pup has loads of loose skin you should wait till it's a little older.

re- the tattoo i dont think there are many places that tattoo now as the place they do it is inside the ear and unscupulis people just cut the ears or scrub with acid i heard you can also get your dog branded on the inside of the leg (but i would amagine this being rather painfull)

bigwazza wrote:re- the tattoo i dont think there are many places that tattoo now as the place they do it is inside the ear and unscupulis people just cut the ears or scrub with acid i heard you can also get your dog branded on the inside of the leg (but i would amagine this being rather painfull)

Yes, didn't think about the ears being cut off - b******s. Apparently if it's done early & a local anaesthetic is applied to the leg they don't feel a thing.

I've always thought some kind of dog lessons should be introduced in schools - dogs are a big enough part of our lives that it should apply to everyone, people who want a pet as well as people who may not like dogs but come across a loose dog in the street. You know, the whole prevention is better than cure type of thing.

if any dog bites anybody then the owner if they can be found as to be looking at 5/10 years and nothing less nice big fat fine & banned for life for owning pets (but some will get other dogs i dont think banning a person from having a pet is enfoaceable without it cost millions at the moment there cut back ).

i think if you make your dog into a weapon if you ment to do it or not then it as to come inline with guns and knives, it willn't stop all dog attacks but it will help.