EFRA Enquiries: Dangerous dogs and BSL

First session, 13th June 2018 – Witnesses: Dr Rachel Casey, Director of Canine Behaviour and Research, Dogs Trust; Robin Hargreaves, former President, BRitish Veterinary Association;  Bill Lambert, Health and Breeder Services Manager, Kennel Club;  David Ryan, former Chair, Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors; Trevor Cooper, Doglaw, Consultant for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home;  Dr Samantha Gaines, Head of Companion Animals Department, RSPCA; Steve Goody, Deputy Chief Executive Blue Cross

Second session, 27th June 2018 – Witnesses: Deputy Chief Constable, Gareth Pritchard, Lead for dangerous dogs, National Police Chiefs Council;  Inspector Patrick O’Hara, Dog Training School & Status Dog Unit, Metropolitan Police;  Mark Berry, Chairman, National Companion Animal Forum

Third session, 4th July 2018 – Witnesses:  Lord Gardiner of Kimble, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Rural Affairs and Biosecurity;  Mark Casale, Deputy Director Animal Welfare and Exotic Disease Control Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Link to our submission to EFRA

Sky

Well done to everyone involved in Sky’s case and in getting some much needed clarification on the wording of the Act

Dog bites: What’s breed got to do with it

A survey commissioned by Battersea Dogs and Cats Home

http://www.bdch.org.uk/files/Dog-bites-whats-breed-got-to-do-with-it.pdf

Dogs thought to be type and the internet

If you suspect that your dog may be type no amount of posting pictures and inviting opinion on the internet will make things any clearer in fact in all likelihood you will end up more confused than ever (especially when faced with kindly intended but incorrect suggestions that your dog is a Weimaraner cross when you know for a fact your dog has never even seen a weimaraner from across the road let alone been born of one).

A dog cannot be typed definitively from a photograph by anyone, experts included, its not true that the law is simply about the way a dog looks though obviously if the dog does not give the first impression that it resembles a dog of type it isn’t one. The ADBA standard focuses on the ability of a dog to do the job of a fighting dog and any faults it has related to its ability, agility, or stamina will have greater impact on a dogs type that those which are cosmetic only. Photographs can also be deceiving with a dog looking different on practically every one.

It will most likely be suggested if you post online that your dog has been seized, that you set up a support group and start a petition. Petitions are only of use if they are government ones related to the law itself, petitioning for the return of a specific dog to either the police, councils, or to the court are of no use in getting your dog back. The police or council will not release a dog they believe is a banned breed because a petition asks them to.

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