As anti-dog laws tend to multiply in Europe, the English Kennel Club reacts and publishes a brochure to awake people’s awareness towards the possible threat to their dogs.
The English Kennel Club has issued a brochure on the dogs at risk in Europe, following the measures taken in Germany to ban a great number of dogs. The history of this law called the Dangerous Dog Act would be too long to tell, but to quickly sum things up, let us just say that after attacks carried by American Staffordshire Terriers and dogs of the Pit Bull type, Germany decided that all the Bull breeds and many others were to be banned or put under severe restrictions. Then Germany wanted this law to be adopted throughout the whole of Europe, including of course the UK, where there already exists a similar law, voted in 1991, but which is not as restrictive as the German one. Among some of the breeds that are targeted in Germany and that are recognized in the UK are the Anatolian Shepherd Dog, the Bull Terrier, the Bullmastiff, the Dogue de Bordeaux, the Shar Pei, and one of Great Britain’s favorites, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Other breeds at risks are also represented on this brochure, such as the Dobermann, the Pyrenean Shepherd Dog, the Briard, The Komondor, the Tibetan Mastiff, the Akita, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and the Rottweiler naturally. Including so many dogs in the list of possibly “threatened” breeds, and we listing them again, shows well the scale things could reach. Food for thought…
Many of these dogs, such as the Neapolitan Mastiff or the Dogue de Bordeaux, for instance, are still suffering from their past, when they were used as fighting or army dogs. Though it’s been now quite a long time since they were used for offensive purposes, and that they are now totally peaceful. While other dogs are just victims of their size and weight, as some of the German Länders have put a restriction on the size, which means that almost any dog could be concerned by this law: do you really believe that aggressiveness is the major trait of a Golden Retriever? Well, if your dog is over 15.7 inches tall and weighs over 44 pounds, it could indeed fall under the German law. It just goes to show that every dog lover should feel deeply concerned about what is going on in Germany, which is what could rapidly happen in many other countries if no one reacts. And if it does, then even the gentlest of our companions could well be banned…something to take quite seriously!
To know more, you can consult the Kennel Club website at: - http://www.the-kennel-club.org.ukOr three other interesting sites dealing with the topic at:- http://www.ourdogs.co.uk- http://www.dogworld.co.uk- http://www.angelfire.com/biz6/dogholocaust/
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