Angrywith the RSPCA/Council dog wardens

Mrs_pbradley936

I have a fear that if dog owners do not police themselves adequately, they risk legislation being imposed upon them without their input. Presumably prior to the 1991 Act there were attacks carried out by the breeds mentioned.

HouseHunter_2

I don't wish to comment specifically on the two recent attackes, which were of course tragic. I do wish to reply to comments earlier about the rights of children re the rights of dogs:

My German Shepherd is really patient with children but I am fed up of parents just allowing their children to run over to her, without any supervision, and try to hug her, pat her on the head etc. This is all without checking if the dog is safe. One little darling recently held an open bag of sweets right in front of her face while petting the dog, parents of course nowhere to be seen. You are asking a lot of a dog to not go for the sweets in that situation and sadly if that had happened and my dog had accidently bit the child of course it would have been my fault. I keep my dog under control when she is out but parents need to also take responsibility for their children. Dogs are NOT toys and should be approached with respect.

pboae

IIRC it was prompted by a child being attacked by a pitbull. The others were included as fighting 'types'. So they banned pitbulls, if they ban rottweilers it will be some other breed next, labradors or cross breed terriers perhaps? It's pointless. Irresponsible owners continue to be irresponsible, and the rest of us get tied in more red tape. If some fool wants an aggressive dog to make themselves look hard/macho/whatever, they won't care what breed it is, and as each breed is banned they will just move on to the next fashion.

The DDA already applies to all dogs, regardless of their breed, adding new specific breeds to the banned list will make no difference. Especially as the supposedly banned types are still available here anyway, and sought out for all the wrong reasons.

Mrs_pbradley936

pboae - do you know if other breeds can be added to the Act easily? I mean could a few MPs decide to include more breeds as when the want to without it being voted upon?

pboae

It would have to be voted on, but they would have no trouble getting it through if the newspapers were supporting it. Most MPs wouldn't dare object to legislation that was supposedly there to protect children, no matter how badly worded or impossible to enforce it was.

Mrs_pbradley936

I have just posted on another thread what I would do about tax if I had a magic wand. So what would any of us do about dog legislation if we had a magic wand?

flybynight

i grew up with a doberman till the age of 7 and then a rotty. both were rescue dogs ( although the doberman was in residence long before i was)
they were both spectacularly well behaved and adored me as the youngest ( apparantly i learned to walk by folowing / leaning on the doberman) however talking to my dad i was never left alone with them till i was at least 8 or 9 (apparantly at this height i was above face height). ironically enough i still have a small scar on my arm from being bitten by my grans yorkshire terrior aged 8, jessy (the rottweiler) had a similar scar on her eyebrow from the same yorkie. i think if you have any kind of animal with a small child it needs to be watched.

misfire

WOW MM - Well done helping the dog. I would never want to own a dog but cant bear ANY pet being mistreated.

I had to rehome my cat due to moving it kept going awol back to our old house - a year we had this issue. We tried everything from the vet - plug ins etc.. RSPCA said they couldnt rehome the cat as they were too full. The shelter we got our cats from only took snowy back when i BEGGED them as they saw she had a loving home no problem - well wouldnt be if she had stayed. I spent hundreds on vet bills after we got her back each time she went awol (luckily she was fully insured) the sleepless nights i had worrying where she was if she was ok - was she freezing in the snow.... Luckily she was rehomed (she had been happy with us for 4 years and we still have her brother how is very happy) the sad fact is that the RSPCA are stretched beyond there limits as cruelty is on the rise. My SIL tried to get a job with RSPCA but found out they only have i think it was 800 people working in england (COULD be totally wrong but i was shocked how few it was).

2nd Owners - oh they arent responsible for the dog as they sold it to somone (in a pub????) very convenient when there is a big bill to pay.

I hope that bouncer gets a good home with MM or another loving family (wether it is the allusive owner number 3 dog could have been loved and got lost) I think bouncer was very lucky that MM was there to help.

Rev

I can sympathise. I seem to have a knack for finding injured animals and not one have the RSPCA offered any help besides 'We're busy, deal with it yourself'.

I've taken numerous cats and dogs to the vets and paid the bills myself. I was unfortunate enough to see a Doberman ran over, driver didn't want to know. 'It's only a stupid dog' was his attitude. The RSPCA told me to take it to the vets myself if I was that worried, despite not having a car and it being 8pm, thankfully the local police took me to an emergency vet, had a lovely bill for that one lol. But I couldn't have just left it there.

I'm very glad you found the dog and it's being looked after, I hope that if you don't keep it, it ends up with somebody as nice as yourself.

MortgageMamma

Just a quick update for those who have followed this, the dog was moved to kennels yesterday and its owner was traced this morning, as she had been phoning every day. Apparently it escaped two weeks ago when the window cleaner left gate open. The owner has asked the dog warden for my telephone number to thank me personally, and, after a chat with the owner on the phone at lunchtime today, I have been sent the most enormous bunch of flowers - the lady who owns him has paid the vets bill which is an enormous relief, and its happily ever after for MortgageDoggy. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside now, but I must admit I am a little disappointed that I didn't get to keep him!

MortgageMamma

Ps - this thread is massive!