Where Are
The 1000 Legally Owned Pit Bull Terriers?
By Neil Burton, National Dog Warden Association
Mathematics has never been my strongpoint but even I know that the
Index of Exempted Dogs was closed on 30th November 1991. The index
was for those Pit Bull Terrier dogs (or those that their owners
thought were PBT) that met the criteria for inclusion and were
registered by their owners.
The criteria being the dogs were spayed or neutered, tattooed on the
inside of the thigh with identification letters 10mm tall, micro
chipped, kept secure when in a public place (muzzled and on a lead),
kept in secure conditions at home and valid third party insurance
was taken out.
A lot of dogs must have been aged between 1 and 5 years of age (if
not older), add this to the length of time since the register closed
approximately 15 years and there cannot be many ‘legally’ owned Pit
Bull Terrier types still around?
The Home Office circular at the time estimated that there were
10,000 Pit Bull Terriers but less than 6, Japanese Tosa, Dogo
Argentino and Fila Brasiliero in the United Kingdom.
The problem with the identification of dogs as Pit Bull Terriers was
easily solved by Government Legislators making the owner of a dog
have to prove that their dog was not a Pit Bull Terrier! This is the
reverse of the burden of proof where instead of the prosecuting
authority having to prove the dog was a PBT its owner had to prove
it was not!
Even within the Home Office circular it states that the
identification of a dog as a Pit Bull Terrier will not be easy and
that it may be easily confused with a Staffordshire Bull Terrier?
In regards to the identification of a dog as a Pit Bull Terrier it
was interesting to read in the news that the Metropolitan Police
have an ‘expert’ who can ascertain if a dog is a Pit Bull Terrier?
It is known to be extremely difficult to identify a dog as a PBT or
PBT-type, some expert witnesses from the prosecutions of dogs seized
by Police in the 1990s ended up moving from the prosecution bench to
the defence bench, one of whom was a supporter of the Act. If such
canine experts divorced themselves from such work, how is it that
all of a sudden there is a Metropolitan Police expert who can
identify Pit Bull types?
The media announcement that a Post Mortem established that the dog
involved in the tragic Ellie Lawrenson incident was a Pit Bull type
dog seemed to be something out of the ‘CSI’ television series.
Politicians have been voicing their concern that the amendment in
1997 to the Dangerous Dogs Act ‘gave Pit Bulls a second chance’ If
they bothered to read the amending legislation, they would see that
it actually watered down the draconian element of the Act that meant
that any dog acting dangerously could have a control order imposed
on it rather than it being automatically destroyed. As this applied
to any dog from a Chihuahua to an Irish Wolfhound, it was surely a
fairer way to deal with incidents that may have not been the fault
of the dog or its owner but still resulted in a court appearance.
The driving force behind the original Dangerous Dogs Act Lord Baker
recently announced ‘that had Dog Wardens implemented the law
properly the tragedy would not have happened’.
Contrary to what the Lord may think, Dog Wardens work to promote
responsible dog ownership in a number of ways one of which is
enforcement of legislation but only of that legislation that the
Local Authority they work for wants implementing or has a statutory
duty to enforce.
Some Dog Wardens work in partnership with the police to operate
within the framework of Lord Baker’s “knee-jerk legislation” dealing
with other breeds of dogs that can get dangerously out of control
and need restraining or capturing in public.
When the seemingly endless seizure of Pit Bull Terriers in the
Merseyside area is looked at rationally it shows that along with the
paraphernalia of the dog fighting fraternity found at these
locations that these unfortunate animals were being bred for dog
fights.
This is an abhorrent practice and the people who carry out such
activities should face the full force of the law when they are
prosecuted, but where did these animals come from?
If it is easy for people smuggling to take place, how easy must it
be for dog smuggling to occur? As it appears that the entry ports of
our country are barely guarded or even manned how hard would it be
to bring in a dog or a number of dogs in the boot or back seats of a
car or the back of a van?
There are several new names for breeds of dogs, Irish Staffordshire
Bull Terrier, Red Nose Terrier etc, what are these dogs, perhaps we
need to contact the Metropolitan Police expert to carry out a test
to let us know?
Source: http://www.k9magazine.com/viewarticle.php?sid=15&aid=1734&vid=0&npage=
