This is Ace
Just before Christmas last year, Ace got lost and was impounded by Banyule City Council. Shortly after he was collected, his owner contacted council looking for him. Council advised her that they believed him to be of ‘pit bull type’ and that since his registration had lapsed, they intended to declare him a restricted breed and have him destroyed.
Ace’s owner contacted the council where Ace had previously been registered (the City of Whittlesea) and re-registered him there.
The Banyule City Council contract their pound services to the RSPCA Burwood. Under the direction of RSPCA vet Dr Christopher Thurgood, the RSPCA and Council decided that Ace should be classified as a ‘pit bull’ dog. He was declared and put on death row.
Ace’s owner challenged the decision at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT). She sought assistance from Ms Linda Watson from the Monash University Accident Research Centre. Although Ms Watson didn’t appear at the hearing, she expressed in a paper that it was her view that Ace should not be defined as a restricted breed dog.
It’s worth noting again that Ace hadn’t actually done anything ‘dangerous’. He’d gotten lost. His owner had failed to keep his registration up to date. But he’d not been menacing or causing an issue in the community. The animal control officer collected him without incident. There was no evidence submitted during the hearing that indicated he had ever acted aggressively.
According to his owner, no one had ever described Ace as a ‘pit bull’ before. When he was ill and taken to the Lort Smith Animal Hospital, he was admitted as a staffy cross without issue. But the determination made by VCAT was done according to the visual standard, with the results follows;
“… the only expert evidence before me with respect to deciding whether Ace is a Pit Bull Terrier, without reference to the Standard, is Dr Thurgood’s (RSPCA) evidence as a very well qualified veterinary surgeon that Ace is a Pit Bull Terrier.
I accept his evidence and find Ace is a Pit Bull Terrier.”
~ Ian Proctor, Senior Member
Ace – the dog who’d never hurt anyone, and who had an owner who cared for him and wanted him to come home – was killed on Wednesday May 9 2012, five months after he got lost.
This is so upsetting. And as an American who encounters American Pitties every day, I can say that this dog does not fit the ‘type’ of a purebred APBT, from what I can see in the photos.
Ace is clearly not a pit bull, I deal with animals all the time the vet was an idiot the councils are idiots and vcat well there a whole other level of idiots. I have little fair in Australian vets, councils and courts, honestly I’m just ashamed to be australian!
This is so wrong.
I am so sad for Ace, his family & the hundreds of other innocent dogs & puppies that have & will lose their lives over this.
This is madness.
Honestly, the most disgusting rule that they have is that of the Breed Specific Legislation!!! No one can be the judge. You need proper evidence of a dog being a pitbull!! For example Bear and Kooda had proof of their lineage and that wasnt taken into account instead it was the breed that was what all were concerned about. It isnt the breed that attacks it is the DEED that should be judged. A kelpie attacked a kid the other day but you dont see everyone running for the hills in fear of them. It’s digusting.
This is an outrage!!! WHY DON’T THEY REALIZE THAT THIS DOESN’T WORK AND NEVER HAS. I WOULD MOVE OUT OF THAT COUNTRY IF I LIVED THERE. RUN BY A BUNCH OF IDIOTS.
yep,i noticed a dog attack on small girl,the family pet,a malamute was responsible, a week or so ago,yet it didn’t make headlines and was very quietly buried in a small article ,not headline news for the media to sensationlize it as they do if it was a “pitt bull type” when are people going to stop this insanity of allowing our councils and pounds to sieze and murder innocent loved family pets,ffs people get off your arse and start being a voice against this insane law,and stop the government allowing this insane law being act
ed upon