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Have been lurking for a while (and felt sad enough at the thought you might return the coat when it seemed needed and the only kind of luxury you had.) I almost don’t want to open the thread for the thought that this poor dog might have to die because of these people. That’s not meant as a criticism of you if you ultimately have to make that decision but I am furious as a dog person and can’t even begin to imagine what it must feel like to be in your shoes. XL Bullies are not my type of dog but the government are absolutely lacking in common sense to think that they can tar them all with the same brush. In fact the way they decided to offer money to people who have them euthanised will likely remove the ones that would present a problem - because it would take someone who didn’t really care about their dogs to make the decision on that basis.
You’ve already lost one dog in the last few months and for your daughter’s father, knowing that, to behave in that way makes him sound like an absolute *insert multiple swear words here.* He didn’t bother with your daughter over the summer, picking her up like a toy and he thinks he effectively has the right to harass you? Grrr. Surely there’ll become a point where he won’t be taken seriously/will get himself in trouble for making spurious allegations. I would get the registration started as soon as possible (and neutering if he isn’t already.) That way if there are delays in processing at the government end, it’s not something he’ll be able to exploit.
Is your daughter able to understand what’s going on? I grew up with dogs and we didn’t have holidays because my parents thought it wasn’t fair to have dogs and then leave them in kennels. If I’d been told that we could have holidays if the dogs went, I’d have wanted to keep the dogs. Plenty of time for holidays in the future when you’ll also have the debt cleared and have been able to save for a guilt free holiday.
As well as the guilt, I worry that letting the him go would only lead to resentment toward the other parents (the children would pick up on that) and even the government every time they take tax from you. Taxpayers have to pay to keep murderers and others proven to be dangerous alive, yet the government would happily see animals who have done nothing wrong condemned to death. There is rightly an outrage if a group of people are singled out simply because some with those attributes are a problem.
I hope there will be some kind of challenge to this - limiting the times/areas that they can be let off lead seems much fairer (even if still muzzled) and I would support it in a second.
I hope some of this is helpful and apologise if reading it makes you feel worse. It is not my intention at all; you seem a lovely person and don’t deserve this.
