Christmas 2005
Christmas is fast approaching but the move from summer to winter hasn’t seen any lack of problems for Staffords.
There is some good news and congratulations must go to Jo-Ann with Suggs and Bacon, 2 Staffords who have made it to the final of the Kennel Club’s X-Factor competition being run in conjunction with Discover Dogs. They have also both recently been featured by Japanese television skateboarding and performing other tricks that demonstrate how adaptable our breed can be and how obedient – when it suits them. Suggs with his skateboard has also been a front page in the TNT travellers’ magazine.
Congratulations too to Idgie and owner Karen Lau who were selected for the Canadian obedience team that took 4th place at the World Championships in Spain recently. Yes, ironic that a Stafford could be representing CANADA in SPAIN – 2 countries with BSL that names the Stafford! My thanks to Wendy Clewley whose own Tammy has been such a wonderful ambassador for Staffords, for keeping me up to date with good news.
Unfortunately there have also been further rumours of problems around the World. Hopefully you will have already read and acted on news earlier this year from Denver, Colorado in the USA and of course everyone must be aware of the ridiculous new laws in parts of Canada. Now comes news that Belgium may be about to confirm laws restricting several breeds including the Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
Of course it is always a comforting thought to see these as distant problems – we may be sorry for those affected but at least our dogs are safe. The problem however, was encapsulated in the title of the organisation set up with the Kennel Club and several other interested parties to warn of the threat of Breed Specific Legislation; “DOMINO”.
Whilst it may be Denver, Toronto and Belgium today, the politicians and journalists who promote these laws can site examples of where they have been implemented before and inevitably claim a level of success that is just not supported by the evidence. Yet who will challenge them apart from a few horrid dog owners whom the local newspapers have already labelled thugs for ever owning such vicious killers. For the politician it must appear like a classic “win/win situation”. If the proposed ban is passed then they are heroes for saving the public and if not, they can no longer be blamed if anything happens. So much easier than actually researching the social and criminal human causes of dog bites and dealing with them.
Somehow they continue to ignore all the evidence from such places that BSL is simply not an effective remedy as could be seen very clearly in the extensive hearings in Canada. Speaker after speaker, and some of them high profile UK experts including the KC, RSPCA and Metropolitan Police gave evidence explaining why BSL was not the right solution yet the majority political party forced their legislation through – clearly against the weight of evidence.
Therein lays the problem. Once a politician has made a public statement on almost any subject they are pretty well certain to carry it through rather than face the taunt of a “U-turn” - right and wrong seem secondary. The only answer therefore is to get to the politicians BEFORE they make stupid statements and that is where we frequently fail. If we continue to allow BSL to spread through towns and cities in various countries without identifying a valid alternative and making sure that the politicians are aware of the real pros and cons of alternative legislations then we will always be too late. There are two tasks here.
1) We need an official alternative proposal. This was actually well on the way through a series of meetings organised by the Kennel Club involving every “side” of the debate. The authorities seemed to be coming to understand and even support the alternative to BSL based around owner responsibility and penalties and some of the prominent family members of young victims had indicated support. Unfortunately the process just seemed to run out of steam – mainly because dog attacks had fallen out of the news in the UK. The problem is that they WILL be back and we will once again, not be ready to provide an alternative solution when some new MP jumps up and shouts for a ban on a long list of killer dog breeds. OK that’s a task for the major canine organisations to resolve and hopefully priorities will be assessed and maybe we can once again move forward on the scheme to develop, document and promote a genuine alternative to BSL.
2) Meanwhile there remains a vital task for every owner in the UK or any other democracy who cares about the future for their dogs. You must ensure that YOUR member of parliament and/or member of the European parliament and/or any other elected official knows why BSL doesn’t work BEFORE there is an incident in your area and he or she makes the classic “ban them” statement. He or she is YOUR representative and in a democracy you have the right to write or visit them on any subject. A single visit from you and your dog will do more good than 100 letters or 1000 petitions. Make him or her KNOW how well behaved your Stafford is and why banning the breed will do nothing to stop sick thugs abusing dogs and neighbours. Ensure that your representative thinks before speaking on the subject.
OK, back to some good news. It was good to see that 16 clubs attended the recent Breed Council meeting. Although the meetings can seem petty at times the benefits of being able to coordinate such a large group of owners can be seen in the success of the DNA tests being implemented. Please try and go along to one of the 2 seminars being arranged on HC and L2. It is vital that the information spreads quickly and we can be effective in virtually eradicating these hereditary problems from our breed in just a few generations. Meanwhile, hopefully Northern Ireland and the SBT club will soon re-join so that we can once again speak with the authority of ALL UK clubs.
Happy Christmas
David Levy
CORRECTION
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It’s been brought to my attention that the SBT club has NOT left
the Breed Council and I am more than pleased to confirm this.It is vital that all true Stafford fanciers can co-ordinate their efforts
for the benefit of the breed and we can only hope that the members
of the Northern Ireland club will soon return to the Breed Council fold.Of course it isn’t always possible to have a unanimous view on
every subject and with no disrespect to anyone, our meetings can
sometimes be slow and tedious but the overall benefit to the Stafford
of co-operation is unmistakeable and surely that is everyone’s main purpose.