Help needed in New Zealand - Another Domino?
At the request of several members of New Zealand's Staffordshire Bull Terrier
Clubs via the KC Breed Liaison Officer, Caroline Kisko, Secretary of the (UK)
Kennel Club has been in contact with Mr George Mills at the New Zealand Kennel
Club to offer any support or advice in the current BSL debate. The offer has
been positively received and Mr Mills has confirmed
that the NZKC is strongly committed to fight proposals for BSL in their country.You may already have read of a situation developing very quickly in New Zealand that is virtually identical to that in the UK in 1990 and Hamburg in 1999. Once again there have been several serious attacks by dogs, the media has rushed to call for breed bans and politicians are falling over one another to appear ever more willing to ban dogs and criminalise their owners with little or no regard for the mass of scientific evidence from all around the World that clearly demonstrates that "breed" is just not the significant factor in dog attacks.
The anger of the families of those injured in these attacks is quite understandable and the vast majority of dog owners will feel deeply for the injured children but it is surely the job of the politicians to provide a genuine response based on the evidence and not merely to pander to the excesses of the media.
The usual breeds are under threat immediately in New Zealand including Pitbulls, American Staffordshire Terriers, Tosas, Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Rottweilers, Dobes, Akitas and many others which appear indiscriminately in various news articles. Owners have already begun to respond and a 50 page submission has been prepared by Stafford owners and presented to the Auckland Council representatives. The document included letters from the UK from the British Veterinary Association, Kennel Club and National Canine Defence League as well as local veterinary and animal welfare organisations.
The following is a direct quote from a Staffordshire Bull Terrier owner in New Zealand and I'm afraid it bears tremendous echoes of events in Germany just 3 years ago! There is a saying that those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them! Referring to another incident that has appeared in today's (16th Feb) newspapers,
"I can confirm that the Animal Control Services of Manukau City Council describe the dog that attacked Angel Daniels is a cross breed, and DEFINITELY NOT a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, or SBT as reported. This is another huge injustice against our breed. And it couldn't have come at a worse time.
Needless to say, we must keep going and educate those around us. I am trying to keep cool here, but after having stones thrown at my wife and I and our dog on Saturday night on Long Bay beach, and torrents of extremely aggressive verbal abuse yelled at us (and two other Stafford owners), its very very difficult. Hysterical, ignorant members of the public are difficult to reason with."
Now we urgently need to demonstrate the views of people around the World to this kind of mindless response to dog attacks that leave the general public at risk because of the false basis on which the laws are targeted and leave perfectly law-abiding citizens marginalised by their own government and their own neighbours.
We do not want to attack the New Zealand authorities; we need to educate them with information about our dogs and the real value that they bring to our lives. We need to explain that it is bad owners and bad breeders who cause dog attacks and we need to support our colleagues in New Zealand at this very difficult time. Please write to the New Zealand campaign co-orinators at nzstafford@ihug.co.nz and support a campaign to protect our dogs. The New Zealand campaigners will use the information we provide to demonstrate the level of support Worldwide. Please act NOW!
David Levy
KC Liaison Officer for SBT