eRaz
Do Ecollars emit an electric shock or charge? If so that's why people think they are cruel
Clob
I am answering this first as I don’t have enough time yet for the lengthier posts.
The only collars capable of giving an electric shock were the obsolete ones I already mentioned and it was one extremely high level shock at that.
I don’t see why people think they were cruel partly because of the purpose of use but how on earth do these people remember them, they were very, very rare and simply a life or death attempt to save a dogs life.
Not only do I not understand why they thought they were cruel I don’t see any relevance to anything, or why there is any reference to them, its like saying its cruel to take a dog to vets for an operation, let it die, that’s irrational, hysterical thinking, "My dog is dying, the vet will cut him open to try and save him, let him die", no, few people would accept that as rational thinking.
For historical accuracy, the civilian electric shock collars were invented by a German vet in the 1950’s as a possible dafety device for that point in time.
Below is Ch1 from one of my text papers, in fact a 2004 DEFRA accepted text paper:
Historical clarification and categorisation of types of e-collars.
Denis Carthy
____________________
Chapter 1.
Specific use, electric shock collars
UK 1950’s - late 1980’s.
There has been e-collars of one sort or another in the UK in civilian hands since around the 1950’s, these were usually brought over from Germany by service personnel and either sold on or loaned by them. A firm called Karenswood, I think from Solihull, used to get them to order or hire, they were very rare.
The only collars I knew of in the UK between 1976 and around the late 80’s were electric shock collars, long since obsolete. I was told in 1976, when I first used one, that electric shock collars first came into use in WW2 and were of German origin, I have no reason to doubt this and some German contacts confirm some sort of electric shock collar was known to be in military use in Germany at that time.
The difference between an electric shock collar and modern remote trainers was the fact that the e-shock collar had two contact points which contacted either side of the neck, 2 or 3 inches below the ears. Once fired the shock went into the neck and met the electric shock from the other contact point on the other side of the neck. The e-shock collar I used in 1976 and once in the late eighties with someone else’s dog was German in origin, it was not remote and was an electric shock collar.
They had one very high level and could not be adjusted to the individual dog. They were only used in extreme circumstances or the “out” in protection work. They were never designed or intended for ordinary pet use and were not a training collar. They were designed solely for high drive working line dogs and were sometimes used in conjunction with a method and other aids with some pet dogs which had aggression or sheep chasing problems and were in a life, death or rescue situation.
Electric shock collars were rare in the UK, everyone I know who were training in either protection sports or training the protection dogs of that point in time as well as many show dog people had heard of ‘electric shock collars’ but few people had ever seen them and fewer still had ever used them. If I had not rescued a dog from Battersea dogs home I would probably never have seen them, even so a lot of myths about them and their use abounded in those days.
There was a more recent electric shock collar which was also made in Germany, possibly by the same manufacturer. It had the same electrodes at the side of the neck and the electric shock also went into the neck from either side, the electric shocks from each contact point met inside the body as before. They had low, medium and high levels and were remote.
These were in use in Europe until the late nineties but no one I have ever spoken to heard of any of them being used here in UK, I saw one in Germany and they seemed to be used pretty much like the old shock collars, as a positive punisher only. It has been illegal to sell these collars for many years, they did not pass the European CE safety standard and were dangerous to humans.
The term electric shock is a recognised scientific term, static electro muscle stimulation collars are incapable of delivering an electric shock, anyone using electric shock as their terminology when referring to electro pulse collars would be misleading others. My doctor and presumably the NHS recognises the Blacks medical dictionary as one authority.
Ch 1 -Remote Electronic Training Collars. Fifty years of UK history, from electric shock to a sensation Second Edition, E-Collars, Historical Clarification, from electric shock to a sensation, 1950s – 2006.
Reproduction prohibited
DenisCarthy©2004