a minister with sense

staffies make great pets, good to hear hes trying to help them.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8914362/Staffordshire-bull-terriers-are-perfectly-harmless-says-minister.html

Actually a pretty balanced view in the press for a change though it does suggest that Battersea put down an awful lot of dogs which I'm not convinced about.

I can't (don't want to) believe Battersea puts down over a third of their dogs! Danaher hardly put any down for behavioural reasons, and then it's only in cases where their behaviour is such that the staff can't work with them.

Fingers crossed that something comes of this, although sadly I think the press and public are already too biased.

Finally!

From what i've read, Battersea does PTS a lot, but through no fault of their own. I haven't worked in London but have worked in the inner city kennels in Bristol,  the influx of dogs is just unworkable. Especially bull breeds with problems. At our kennels, we would at times have 10 strays in a day - at times between 40-60 in a week. We only had 110 kennels, with some dogs staying 6 months-1 year (again, bull breeds with problems). There was literally nothing we could do. We would network with other kennels, but generally they would only take the easy to rehome dogs, leaving us with a kennel full of bull breeds that nobody wanted. At one count we had 80+ (can't remember exact figure) bull breeds to home! We also had fighting rings near by, so ended up with a fair amount of ex pit dogs, often with half of their body parts missing that were not safe to home. And the usual type dogs that also had to be PTS. It was a vicious cycle. If it was that bad in Bristol, I can't imagine how it is in London.

Very sad half the shelters are full to bursting with staffs