I personally think the forum should reflect the practises that the "powers that be" believe in. It's obvious to me that you do not believe in these harsh methods Azz, and I do not see anything wrong with enforcing that on your forum. I do not believe that you can have true "free speech" on a forum - as you see, some members will take advantage and ruin it for others, or upset the majority.
Another large dog forum I'm on does not allow the promotion of these kinds of methods, nor does it allow commercial-type posts and I have to say I find it very refreshing. I know you were against censorship but the way I see it, if I joined a vegetarian forum and a member kept posting about how they'd been rabbit hunting, I certainly wouldn't object to the admin banning them from the forum! I wouldn't see it as censorship but as sticking to the purpose of the forum and respecting the majority of members.

How come some polls list whom voted under the options, and some, like this one, dont?

I voted for the ban on chokers and prongs, but im not too sure its right to list what people voted for in a secret ballot, unless the member wants to reveal this themself?

Prong collars are not widely used in this country as far as I am aware? never seen a dog wearing one, nor have I ever seen them for sale in any shop.

Don't like the chain chokers and wouldn't use one, but do have rope leads which you could say technically could be used as 'chokers'. If 'chokers' and all their variants were banned, that wouldn't go down well in the gundog community for sure.

I'm more for freedom of choice than outright banning of everything someone doesn't like the look of. More to the point, rightly or wrongly, banning anything rarely works. Look at the banning of so called dangerous dogs...or the banning of guns...carrying knifes...you get the picture. People that are that way inclined (to use e-collars, prongs, etc.) will only find something else to use and abuse.

i get what your saying.. but wanted to mention i saw two dogs wearing them just yesterday.. a lab and a beagle (two different owners)

Really? I saw them in America quite alot. All their pet shops (including big chains like PetSmart, their equivalent of Pets at Home) sell them, but I have never ever seen them for sale over here. People must purchase them off the internet. I can't imagine any pet shop selling them over here due to the backlash & complaints they would get.

I still think banning is a waste of time and energy though. If it was enforable that would be different, but as with pretty much everything, it isn't!

Just a suggestion, but... rather than banning, why don't those of us who oppose these devices have a stock response, which we can copy and paste any time anyone tries to promote them...?

If we keep repeating the same, polite, rational responses and objections, rather than entering into actual conversations with the promoters of these devices, said promoters might get bored and leave the site...?


Just a thought.

dont be silly tabitha, you are being too wise and sensible

if you dont like it here.....LEAVE

Firstly, just out of interest, how do we know the dogs are 'happy'?

Re prong collars: I was reading something the other day by a respected dog trainer, and she stated that in fact, prong collars are in some ways kinder than full choke collars. I found that interesting.

I would not use a prong collar myself, but I don't support an outright ban on discussing them.

I object to the admins use of emoticons to influence the result, likewise I'd like the last sentence to be substantiated or removed as a biased and unfounded opinion purely to distort the results. Lets keep this factual and fair, shall we?