Excellent post xxxx

So very sad....the family must be in so much grief.... i have had 2 staffies...1 died in january aged 14 she loved being round kids and at times if they hurt her she would gently gowl.... but i would never leave her alone with the kids...now we have her daughter maddy who is 13 and has never really liked being round kids and more importantly i feel...would never growl...which makes me feel she would just bite if a noise freaked her out and small children can make these noises....2 dogs been brought up the same way but with different temprements... which i knew about and always kept in mind around children... i really think you should not be so niave to leave a dog alone with kids no matter how placid they are..it only takes 1 thing to set them off and its just not worth it...i have heart it was an illegal pit bull breed!!!....even so a little boy as died t really makes me sad god bless him
michele

Fantastic post, totally agree.

In this story in the Daily Record today, they said the dog is confirmed as an American Pit Bull Terrier....then once you read on it says "the Mastiff...." and on the picture enclosed is the most docile looking Bull Mastiff, with ''Aggressive: Pit Bull" underneath the picture. How bloody stupid and totally ignorant. Typical tabloid crap.

I would part agree with this but at the end of the day you can only educate those who wish to be educated. The prats that use these dogs have noe regard for laws so how do you deal with them.

You may say through hard enforcment, well i know a fella who was banned for 5 years for keeping fighting dog, well guest who i seen the other day walking a mastiff, him. When you contact the police they say, we would have to pay for the keep of the dog until he is taken to court.

I strongly beleive that licence system could be used and that anyone who caused a problem can have conditions attached to that licence, if they break these conditions, then the dog is taken off them, rehomed and he is taken to court for breech of the licence. In NI they have licences and it does seem to help, there is a reduction of stray dogs destroyed and a reduction of attacks so somehting must be working. Only problem is it only cost £5 per year, should be £40-£50 per year per dog

Only the courts can put you on the excemption registra and the case must be taken by the police, you can just go to the courts.

As with any legal process you cannot bring previous history into the case until after the judge has convicted the person. What the police do is if they say they are happy for this dog to be put on the excemption registra, the judge knows the police have carried out a check on the dogs owner.

If they say this dog is not suitable to be entred on the registra, the judge knows the police have found previous. Then the judge refuses to entre on the registra.

Before you get the dog back it has its bits cut off so you cant breed from it.

To sum up my feelings about pit bulls, Hitler killed the jews because of how they looked, this government is doing the same to these dogs. They did not asked to be born a pit bull.

I do agree this dog was right to be shot and no one has the right including mugford to say the dog should have been kept alive to see why it attacked. Who cares, the fact is a child is dead and so should the dog plus maybe its owner

The fact remains this poor child was killed because an illegal breed of dog killed him. If the owner had obeyed the law and not owned the dog, this wouldn't have happened. So the fact that it was an illegal breed is a major factor.

You are right to an extent, but i also think that just because the breed is illegal (which in my opinion is a coincidence and nothing more (JIMO!)) that people are too fast to write this incident off as having happened BECAUSE it was the breed.

I think that this means that the bigger issue of irresponsible people being allowed to breed and own dogs is going to (again) be overlooked.

I think in order to not have to address the issue of irresponsible people being allowed to breed and own dogs
(which lets face it is a hard issue to tackle) the authorities will happily highlight the issue of the dog in question being illegal so that they do not have to deal with the real problem.

Dog Ownership Test


Bans are notoriously difficult to enforce. If the person has any nous at all then he will be able to easily side-step it.

There was a reduction in stray numbers last year but since the licence is not a new mesure it cannot be attributed to that. Have you a source for your claim of lower attacks since licencing?

I'm impressed to see you now prepared to forego the gratification of plunging in the blade yourself. To sacrifice the joy of hacking and renting like an avenging angel in an orgy of bloody retribution - it must be a wrench.

If you don't know the 'why' then you won't be able to deal with the 'why'. How many times must this happen before you do care why?

Not such a factor. The tragedies of Caydee-Lee, Archie-Lee and Jaden-Mack illustrate all too clearly that the dangers of poor ownership transcends breed and legality.

But, as Tabs has said, it's easier to find a scapegoat or offer the public a placebo than to tackle the real, gritty issue.