In can be nearly impossible to get animal welfare and dog trainers to agree on anything. However, after the death of Ayen Chol, animal experts came forward to advise the Victorian government on problems with their proposed, knee-jerk legislation targeting ‘pit bulls’. Astoundingly they all said the same thing… breed bans don’t work;
“Any dog regardless of its size or breed or mixture of breeds may bite and may be dangerous.”
Allie Jalbert, RSPCA Victoria animal shelters manager
”Any dog is capable of any act, at any point in time. The information that I’m reading is that it was a cross pit bull with a mastiff. Why aren’t people talking about mastiffs? Straight away they’re talking about pit bulls, and again I think it’s the easy breed [to target].”
Michael Linke, RSPCA ACT
”Because I am six foot two and a half, and have freckles, it’s like banning every six foot two-plus, freckled person because 10 of them did something wrong over a period of five years. It is the equivalent of racism.
If these people are likely to have these dogs seized or be discriminated against, it’s hardly going to bring them into the dog training community fold, and encourage them to train their dogs and raise them properly.”
…. ”All dogs should be heavily socialised and habituated and that is the key point. The majority of dogs that have these issues to attack like this have had a poor critical socialisation period, up to about 16 or 20 weeks of age.”
Brad Griggs, the National Dog Trainers Federation
“A breed doesn’t do these things, an individual dog does. Hysteria of banning breeds isn’t the answer.
It’s hard to generalise about a breed of dog — the type of owner, the behaviour of the victim are also pertinent to the incident. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the owner to keep the dog safe from scary situations and keep people safe from a dog that might be reactive.”
Dr Katrina Ward, Tasmanian veterinary behaviourist
“It’s understandable that people are now calling for the banning of some breeds, however all the good evidence available shows that this doesn’t work.
Unfortunately, we believe the banning and over-regulation of dogs in our communities could be part of the problem as this leads to poor socialisation and increased risk of attacks.”
“We’re never going to be able to prevent every incident, but a really good way to help prevent bites and attack is through socialisation of puppies with people and other dogs at a young age, and teaching our children how to be safe around animals.”
Kersti Seksel, Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) spokeswoman
“The term pit bull had come to mean any small- to middle-sized, short-haired, muscular dog. I don’t believe any breed is dangerous, it is how the dog is treated and the circumstances in which it finds itself in when it may happen to bite.
….Knee-jerk reactions by governments do not tend to create good public policy. We do not need any more laws or restrictions that are doomed to failure from the onset. We need a strategy based on the best research evidence that we have to hand.
Breed bans simply do not address other recurrent patterns associated with dog attacks such as irresponsible or uneducated dog ownership.
Measures taken need to address human ownership practices, as dogs of many breeds and crosses feature in dog attacks. No single, or even group of breeds, have been shown to account for the majority of dog attacks in Australia.”
Linda Watson, Research Fellow, Accident Research Centre Monash University (doing a PhD degree on ”dog-bite injury and the effect of regulation)
In fact the only organisation outside of government who publicly supported breed bans was the Lost Dogs Home, with the Managing Director of the Home stating;
“My view is that if it looks like a pitbull, it’s a pitbull.”
Dr Graeme Smith, Managing Director The Lost Dogs Home
Despite all this good advice from professionals in their field, the Victorian government chose the go down the path of BSL.
The fact that animal experts agreed that breed specific laws would do little to protect the community from dog attacks, and would instead see innocent pets killed – should have really been a tip off – that the breed specific laws, once passed in Victoria, would do little to protect the community from dog attacks and would instead see innocent pets killed…
And voila!
I think The Project did a great job on drilling down to the facts around the the seizure of Chevy and other ‘pit bull type’ dogs like him.
It is wonderful to see a show with such an enormous reach, cut through the hysteria and deal with the scientific evidence of the contributing factors around dog bites. It was also great to have a furry ‘face’ put to these terrible laws which are killing our pets.
I think it’s about time the law makers were answerable to the general public. It is not the breed, it is not always the owner, it can be anyone teasing. tormenting, and abusing the animal when the owner is not around. Dogs are part of our family, they are our children.They are who we turn to to get comfort when times are tough. If we voted these politicians would lose their positions.Remember all breeds can save lives.
Follow the profit to find the problems.
Lack of positive socialisation (generally from puppy farmed dogs, but it happens with ‘reputable’ breeder pedigree puppies too) is the root cause of a lot of dog attacks in Australia, but people profit from it so nothing is done.
People profit from BSL, and its an ‘easy’ option for the politicians, so it carries on despite the mountain of evidence showing the damage it actually causes.
If the Victorian government had spent that $200,000 on educating the public on the importance of socialisation, they would have done so much to reduce the number of dog attacks. But they get their advice from the people who profit from the way things are. Disgusting.
Knee jerk reactions such as BSL laws, are the very worst in addressing an issue… we have already seen this type of thing with other breeds and this was a disaster then … as it is now for so many beautiful family dogs and their lovely families who are losing so very much … it’s a disgrace.