News from Norway
 

At 01.00. this morning the norwegian parlament finished their voting over the new dog - law. The discussions and speeches were hot and took much more time than expected. Concerning the proposed breed banning; There will not be any banning of any breed in the actual law. No breeds will be specified here. But the department of justice will be given the possibility to ban breeds they think is dangerous. They can do this by regulations/directions acclaimed by the King, which means the parlament will not be involved in breed bans. The law was proposed by the goverment - which is in minority in the parlament. So it was the oppositions suggestion that were acknowledged. If the Department of Justice wish to ban a breed - the propose must go out on a hearing. They must have a well documented case to do so. And this possibility must be used carefully. Other possibilities than banning must be considered first. This is the directions the parlament has put on the department of justice. Allthough the department of justice now is free to propose breed bans - they must see to the parlament and the inofficial/official directions they have been given concerning breeds. There were two breeds proposed banned in the goverment/departments suggestion for a new dog - law; the Staffordshire bull terrier and the American Staffordshire Terrier. The Bull terrier was not on the list - and still is not. The situation here and now is a bit unpredictable. The parlaments opposition is agreed that the Staffordshire Bull Terrier should not be banned. But one of the opposition partys - Sosialistisk Venstreparti - has now proposed that the parlament should give the department the directions that the American Staffordshire terrier should be banned. If the goverment representatives and the representatives of Sosialistisk Venstreparti go for this - they together have the majority - and the Amstaff will be banned. According to this I would think the only thing that may save the Amstaff is the possibility that some of the representatives vote against their partys official opinion. If this ban goes through - there will not be legal to breed or import Amstaffs, the today-owners can keep their dogs until they die of natural causes. Well - this is the news so far, we bull terrier people are very happy for our friends in the staffies, and also sorry for the amstaff owners. We hope this will be the end to breed bans, but will stay on our toes to avoid bad press and unhappy incidents.

yours espen thygesen

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