Deed not Breed                                         (David Levy)

 

In case you haven’t heard, the BBC has picked up on “Staffordshire Bull Terriers” as the new “dangerous dog”. The trigger for the coverage seems to have been a Radio 4 program “Law and Order” due at 4pm today which deals with the idea of using ASBO’s to control bad dog owners (i.e. nothing to do with Staffords in particular).

I can personally assure you that the people involved, which include the Metropolitan Police, Wandsworth Borough Council, The KC, Dogs Trust (formerly NCDL) and many others are all pursuing the “Deed not Breed” approach and have met several times over the past few years. I have been invited and been present at most of these meetings.

Unfortunately, it has coincided with news reports of young thugs using dogs – and Staffords or Stafford crosses in particular – to threaten and carry out crimes in the London area. There are also reports of dog fighting taking place in the lifts of high-rise blocks. It is all coming together as we enter the low-period for news. The World Cup will take up the next few weeks but after that, we may be faced with a new outcry and this time, Staffords are in the front line.

This resulted in a small piece on Radio 5 Live this morning on which Phil Buckley from the KC and Mark Callis from Wandsworth spoke and both were excellent at expounding the virtues of Staffords and blaming what Phil referred to as “idiots” who abuse and misuse their dogs.

This led to a further phone-in on Radio London which as well as talking about the recent terrorist arrests in East London, had Vanessa Feltz reading out e-mails and speaking to people by phone on the subject of “these horrible dogs”. As you will expect, the callers were a mixture of anti-dog people who want all Staffords banned and Stafford owners who rang in to say their pets are wonderful with Children, etc.

I did call in and was put on air. As usual, I can hardly remember what I said but Sharon tells me it came across OK. Ms Feltz read me an e-mail from someone who said we should kill all these dogs and their owners! I pointed out that if we did that too soon we might have more problems in the World Cup since one of the England forwards had a Stafford. I didn’t say who but later on they announced that it was Michael Owen who had a Stafford called Bomber.

I did mention the Breed Council and that the 18 Breed clubs all has “codes of conduct” and tried to inform owners of best behaviour, etc.

I suspect that this story will spread and you may be contacted. Phil Buckley at the KC will often get called by journalists and looks for local speakers. Do you have someone suitable? Local radio and newspapers are mainly interested in people who live in their area and if you are not available, someone will be interviewed and probably say the wrong thing.

The important things to remember is not to get angry, don’t rise to their provocations. They have the cut-off button and will ALWAYS win if you argue.

I suggest you write down a few things you want to say – hopefully not blaming other breeds instead of Staffords please – and refer to your note to see what you want to say. Tell the truth. It’s an obvious thing to say but if you say something that you cannot support you might get caught out so it’s just easier to say what you KNOW rather than what you THINK.

I’ve been saying for many years that we need contacts in all area of the UK with local councillors, MPS, newspaper editors, etc. I again urge you to think about inviting such people to your shows and meetings to discuss issues in your area. This may begin as a “London issue” but it only takes one stupid owner to allow one stupid incident to occur and YOU may get the phone call.

Dave L

Staffords.co.uk / K.C.Liaison /Media