Category: Dog Welfare

I have decided to institute an Idiot of the Month Award, although I reserve the right to award it in between for really spectacular stupidity. Of course the “winner” will be as unaware of the victory as they are of responsible dog ownership, but let their various behaviours be a lesson to us all.

This first award is a joint effort.

I was disrupted whilst at home on the telephone by a woman outside, shouting into a mobile telephone. She was completely absorbed in her conversation and suddenly veered across the road. It was then, with horror, that I realised that she was accompanied by a Labrador, off-lead. He had stopped to sniff a bin bag and panicked when he looked up and she was no longer ahead. He then heard her shouting and shot across the road, narrowly missing being hit by a van going rather too fast.

She carried on, oblivious.

Idiot number two was sitting on a bench on the corner of the A316 and a side road. He was accompanied by his off-lead terrier for whom he was kicking a tennis ball towards the traffic. He then screamed at his dog as it careered towards passing cars.

Obviously didn’t see that that might be a problem.

So “congratulations” to our first winners – jolly glad that I didn’t have to hose your dog off the side of a vehicle or hone my first aid skills on mangled drivers.

It takes minutes to find thousands of fluffy puppy pictures on websites. One click and you could have a little bundle of joy. Why not spend that time doing a little research into where those puppies come from?

One of the campaigns that we support is C.A.R.I.A.D which, being based in Wales, is on the frontline of the attempt to end the trade in farmed puppies and deal with the results. I was uploading their details onto this site when I came across a video. It wasn’t the result of an investigation into a remote puppy farm. It was taken by a member of the public who had gone to view a property for sale after the owner had died.

One Visit shows what was discovered. Be warned – it is distressing.

People who work with animals are often accused of caring more for non-human species than their own kind. They are often seen as being sentimental. This short film highlights the human tragedy behind puppy farming. The fact is that our society allows humans and animals to suffer equally – and ignores them both.

Look at William Hogarth’s paintings and engravings from the 18thC and you will see that he highlighted the fact that man’s inhumanity to man goes hand in hand with man’s inhumanity to animals. The tiny percentage of people who are prosecuted for cruelty to animals often have a history of violence and abuse towards people.

This video shows what happens when amateur breeding spirals out of control. This video whows what happens because people buy “cute” puppies from websites.

Just reading Felicity Lawrence’s updated version of Not On The Label (probably one of the best diet books you’ll ever read because it just might put you off eating anything!) I thought that, as an avid listener to Farming Today, I was pretty savvy with regard to food production.

The following did shock me though and provides a salutary lesson to anyone who feeds their dog food intended for human consumption.

You might think that minced beef would be harmless but maybe not. I had assumed that cheaper cuts of beef used for mince would have a higher percentage of fat (and possibly a little connective tissue or similar) than prime mince. But it could be that really cheap cuts have considerably more than you bargained for. Some are of such low quality that yeast and malt extracts are added to “restore” flavour and colour. There maybe added sugar and salt too. So far, not great but not lethal for canines. Except that onion powder is also a frequently used additive.

Members of the allium family, including onions, are toxic to dogs and can cause severe anaemia and death if ingested in sufficient quantity.

Problems have been observed in dogs that have consumed as little as 0.5% of their body weight in onions and can occur if small amounts are ingested over time as well as if a large amount is ingested in one go.

So, stick to the dog food – and you might want to have a re-think about your own diet too.

On this day in 1824, the RSPCA, then the SPCA was founded in a London coffee shop. One would hope that no one would disagree with prevention of cruelty to animals, but of course there is no consensus as to what constitutes cruelty.

Some things are obvious: anyone who attends a rescue class at a dog show will hear tale after tale of terrible cruelty. Less direct abuse such as allowing a pet to become obese, treating a dog like a fashion accessory and carrying it everywhere, refusing to accede to or pay for veterinary treatment etc etc are not so easy to address, not least because they are quite widespread.

Increasingly, it seems that this once highly respected charity is being regarded in lower and lower esteem. Mention the RSPCA to most dog or horse owners and at best snorts of derision will issue forth. Mostly there is anecdote after anecdote about the disinterest and rudeness exhibited when cruelty has been reported or over-zealous attention from the RSPCA when animals are under veterinary care and are mistakenly reported.

Most think that it is a scandal that the organisation has spent vast sums of donated money in pursuing legal cases against hunt staff yet seems to be unable or unwilling to respond when early signs of abuse are reported by the public.

No doubt individual officers are doing a difficult and necessary job in the face of increasing welfare problems, but the organisation as a whole is not held in high regard and needs to consider its founding principals and real priorities if it is to make real strides in improving dog welfare.