American Staff question

Can someone please tell me if the American Staffordshire is banned in the UK?? need to know before i take on another dog that has been offered to me

I have read the dangerous dogs act, no mention so i would just like this to be clarified please, thanks.

Not to my knowledge it isn't banned, but check with the kennel club.

sorry Nicci no idea but some of the staff owners might be able to help you.

Hi Nicci
its not specifically listed in the Dangerous Dogs Act as such.
There is much confusion regarding pitbulls and American Staffs but please bear in mind that section 1 of the DDA 1991 says:

1.—(1) This section applies to—
(a) any dog of the type known as the pit bull terrier;
(b) any dog of the type known as the Japanese tosa; and
(c) any dog of any type designated for the purposes of this section by an order of the Secretary of State, being a type appearing to him to be bred for fighting or to have the characteristics of a type bred for that purpose.

Hence my earlier remark about the confusion regarding pitbulls and amstaffs.
Amstaffs cannot be registered in the UK so it may be difficult to prove to authorities that the American Staffy is not actually a pitbull

It is tricky as strictly speaking they are not a banned breed, however, the law states as lel has illustrated that any "type" considered an APBT is forbidden from being brought into or bred in the UK. This is a bit of a flaw as technically many different breeds can be considered of the "type" AmStaff is one as in the US they can be dual registered as APBTs and are basically the show version of the APBT.

I was told by somebody that only two papered AmStaffs were successfuly brought into the UK in the early nineties and these were subsequently registered and castrated etc. However somebody did actually bring in one not so long ago, you would really need to do more research before taking the dog on - into the breed itself and the various lines etc so you know exactly what you have on your hands. I doubt very much it will be an AmStaff.

What I think you will find is that most dogs advertised as AmStaffs are actually APBTs. I doubt very much if most people over here could tell you a name of any of the famous lines of AmStaff or whether they would really be interested but I can guarantee most could tell you the name of some famous APBT breeders. I have enquired several times about these so called AmStaffs only to find that the lines they mention are indeed APBT like Patrick, Reid, Mayfield etc none of these people bred AmStaffs they bred APBTs I think that people just seem to think the name sounds better or something, in vogue at the moment - it was Irish Staff a while back maybe they will just resort to using teh actual breed name at some point lol.

Hope that helps.

Laura

i didnt think they were banned? a guy at my work has one

an amstaff or a pit ? I would be quite surprised if he had a true amstaff... as Laura says many people call certain dogs names such as amstaff or a pit when theyre not

Yeah right ask him what lines its from, then look up the well known AmStaff lines and APBT lines, 9/10 times the name is used for APBTs over here I doubt if most people would know a line of AmStaffs a lot of the time the name is also used for dogs that dont fit the standard like really big Staffs.

Laura

Kinda riddiculous to even ban a showbred dog like the amstaff....

I agree with Laura....99% if not 100% of people who say they have amstaffs are actually covering for having a pit....or have a cross and want to look hard or have been conned!
Nikki