Category: Dogs In The Media

Cows Can Kill

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A farmer based near Bradford on Avon has been prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive after two elderly brothers were attacked and injured while walking their dogs on lead on a public foot path. The man who survived suffered multiple rib fractures, a punctured lung and contusions. The incident was the fourth in five years involving injuries to members of the public caused by this farmer’s cattle; he was given a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for 2 years, and ordered to pay costs of £30,000.

18 members of the public were killed by cattle between April 2000 and March 2015. Most of the incidents involved cows with calves and people with dogs. Cattle can attack the walkers because they perceive a risk to their calves from the dogs. Farmers and landowners have a legal duty to assess the risks from livestock to people using any rights of way on their land and they must take all reasonable precautions to prevent injury.

Wherever possible, farmers are advised to avoid keeping cows with calves in fields with public footpaths or to erect temporary fencing to keep cattle, walkers and dogs apart.

Dog owners also have a responsibility to act safely around livestock. Even if there is a right of way, it is much safer to avoid walking past cattle and calves. Backtracking and suggesting to the farmer that the situation is unsafe is a much better option than adding to the statistics of fatalities, human or dog. Dogs should always be on lead near livestock, however reliable they may seem. If you are charged by cattle DROP THE LEAD and seek safety. Your dog will look after himself and you are unlikely to be able to protect him or avoid injury to yourself when faced by an angry cow. It does not matter if you are in area that is designated as being on-lead only by a PSPO; your safety and even your life may be at stake.

Please also remember to worm your dog with a comprehensive, prescription-only (VPOM) wormer. Speak to your vet about the best option. Unwormed dogs can risk spreading diseases such as neosporosis which can cause cattle to abort calves and sarcocystosis which has a similar effect in sheep. Dogs can pick up both infections by eating raw meat (including from carcasses) and placental or foetal material from infected stock. Not all infected animals show signs of illness so it is another reason not to feed a raw diet as it is not possible to be certain that uncooked meat fed to dogs will not be contaminated.

All dog waste should be removed from grazing land and disposed of responsibly so that cross-infection cannot occur between dogs, sheep and cattle.

Walking through farm land is a privilege, and both landowners, farmers and dog walkers have a responsibility to ensure that it is a safe activity for all concerned.

RSPCA – How Is Your Generosity Treated?

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rspca You don’t have to look far in the dog world and beyond to come across horrendous cases of cruelty, never mind the daily grind of neglect and abuse inflicted upon dogs and other animals. The RSPCA state that they receive calls to their cruelty line in England and Wales on average every 30 seconds, totalling 1,118,495 calls in 2015. They investigate more than 140,000 complaints of cruelty and neglect annually. So when you drop money into the collecting tin for the RSPCA, purchase something in one of their shops or attend a fundraising event on their behalf, where do you expect your money to go?

The RSPCA state that 82p in every £1 donated is spent on animal welfare, 1p on governance and 17p on fundraising and that £10 could provide a day’s boarding for a horse, £25 PPE for an inspector and £50 van equipment. Not surprisingly, they do not produce a breakdown for external barristers fees which have been recorded as being £800 – £1,200 per day in their prosecution against the Heythrop Hunt. In spite of having their own legal department, the RSPCA chose to engage Mr Carter-Manning QC who submitted costs of £73,310.80. His assistants added another £90,000 to the bill. This represents approximately 244 hours of the QC’s time which he spent watching amateur video footage. The four charges that were eventually brought against hunt staff are regarded as being so minor that they are classified as “non-recordable”. The remaining charges were dropped. In previous situations when the RSPCA has lost a case, defendants’ costs have been borne by the taxpayer. In addition, the RSPCA admiited to euthanasing 3,400 animals for non-clinical reasons in 2011 in spite of having an official no kill policy.

The RSPCA must already have marked 2016 down as being an annus horribilis following a submission to a Parliamentary committee by the National Police Chiefs Council which recommended that animal welfare prosecutions should be carried out by “a single agency, preferably a statutory body funded by Government”. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has also questioned whether it is appropriate for the RSPCA to bring forward private prosecutions when it is also involved in campaigning and fundraising. Owen Paterson, Secretary of State, warned the RSPCA to be “wary” of muddling charity and politics. The charity regulator further ordered the RSPCA to conduct an inquiry into their organisation and structure using independent auditors. RSPCA inspectors were banned from rehoming animals unless an indepdent vet attests to have personally seen evidence of suffering following over-zealous actions against pet owners. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, animal welfare groups have the power to investigate cases, but the decision to prosecute lies with the state.

Much of the impetus behind the recommendations follows aggressive persecution of hunts, including the Heythrop. Their case cost the RSPCA £325,000 as opposed to the average cost of £2,500 per case. Other cases such as that against Cattistock Hunt in March have collapsed and, in the Cattistock case, the RSPCA withdrew all its “evidence”. The cost to charity to take the case and similar cases that far has not been revealed. Persecuting hunt staff is therefore regarded as being 100 times more important than any of the cruelty cases that they use to tug at your heart – and purse- strings.

When new CEO Jeremy Cooper took over in spring this year, it seemed that the RSPCA might extricate themselves from the mire into which they have been wallowing since following an aggressive anti-field sport agenda in the mid 1970s. He apologised for the charity becoming “too political” and referenced both hunting and the government badger cull that aims to eradicate TB in cattle. He was forced to eat his words almost immediately by the RSPCA’s governing body.

Just when it seemed that it could not get any worse, shocking revelations have been made by the Information Commissioner, responsible for dealing with the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 amongst other legislation.

The RSPCA has been fined £25,000 on the RSPCA (and the British Heart Foundation £18,000) for “wealth screening” donors. The RSPCA has paid “wealth management” companies since 2010 to trace and target new or lapsed donors illegally and pursue them for more donations by piecing together personal information obtained from other sources and trading personal details with other charities. Donors were not informed of the charity’s practices and so had not opportunity to consent or object to their use of personal data. The Information Commissioner stated “The millions of people who give their time and money to benefit good causes will be saddened to learn that their generosity wasn’t enough”. Indeed. They might also consider it a massive betrayal of trust. The RSPCA confirmed that the practice has now ended but disagreed with the Information Commissioner’s conclusions and may appeal against the decision – no doubt spending even more money on legal fees.

Whilst the RSPCA are not alone amongst charities of pursuing aggressive and even it seems illegal practices, they are one of the few that exist to help dogs and other animals. Surely the thousands of abused animals that they are supposed to protect deserve to benefit from their not-inconsiderable funds more than lawyers?

A Thousand Little Insults

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tight-lead I was walking alongside a local common this weekend, as it happens, without my dog. I noticed, coming towards me from the opposite direction, a woman walking a Cavalier King Charles spaniel on an extendable lead. The dog was several feet ahead of the woman and, as she got nearer, she let it veer across to the other side of the path to carry on sniffing. This meant that about 10 feet of lead was stretched across the path about a foot from the ground.

When she got to within a foot or two of me, the woman suddenly jerked the dog by the neck and, without reeling in the lead, hauled it across the path, simpering at me to show how considerate she had been.

The dog was extremely startled and, needless to say, the woman oblivious to its feelings.

I wondered how many times that this woman inflicts this treatment on her dog. Then I wondered how many owners are meting out exactly the same treatment to their dogs, day after day.

This week most right-thinking people would have been outraged by the thug who throttled his Staffy, booted his head and then swung him against the side of a train carriage. There is a petition to ask the prime minister to intervene and increase his sentence from a meagre 21 weeks. Punishment alone is unlikely to change his behaviour but this does seem a pretty feeble reaction from the judiciary who no doubt would have imposed a much tougher sentence had it been a child. The poor dog died three days later.

It is easy to feel outraged by blatent cruelty such as this, but most people are oblivious to the daily cruelty that they inflict on their dogs, choking them, shouting at them or just being mostly cross. Not training a dog to walk properly on the lead (or to cope with the environment in which they are forced to live) and lazily using gadgets such as flexi-leads, halters and headcollars in lieu of their own lack of input inflicts constant, continuous insults on dogs and damages their trust in the very people that no doubt, declaim their “love” for their pet.

Which is worse: a sudden, voilent assault or constant daily battery? Not much of a choice is it.

An Eye Doesn’t Lie And A Tooth Tells The Truth

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neolithic-dog-tooth Announcements have been made across the media today that a canine tooth has been found at an archaeological dig in Wiltshire. It is approximately 7,000 years old; 2,000 years older than nearby Stonehenge. What’s more, analysis has revealed that the dog had drunk water in the Vale of York, meaning that it had travelled 250 miles.

The tooth is a major piece in the jigsaw that enables us to conjure a picture of the life of Mesolithic man but also a reminder of just how long dogs have been companion animals.

The size of the tooth is a clue to the fact that this dog would have been quite large and probably similar to a northern breed. We can only speculate on the relationship between man and dog, how they perhaps hunted together, kept each other safe, kept each other warm.

One thing is certain: we should pause to consider the life of this dog and compare it with an obese, pop-eyed, brachycephalic “handbag” dog born by Caesarean and consider long and hard what we have done in the intervening centuries.

Can You Rise To The Bulldog Challenge?

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bulldog-illness UC Davies has recently published a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Canine Genetics and Epidemiology examining the genetic diversity among 102 registered English Bulldogs, all used for breeding. The authors’ objective was to assess whether the breed retains enough genetic diversity to correct the abnormalities associated with poor health which have a genetic basis and which can be seen in the outward appearance of many dogs.

Predictably, some in the bulldog fraternity have attempted to discredit the paper while other continue to stick their fingers in their ears and their heads in the sand. The health problems of this breed, as the authors note, are well documented and include:

Severe conformational changes necessitating a high rate of artificial insemination and Caesarean sections
Small litter sizes (inbreeding depression)
Extremely high levels of congenital disease and associated puppy mortality including flat chests with splayed legs, anasarca and cleft palate
Poor lifespan ranging from 3.2 to 11.3 years with a median of 8.4 years as dogs requiring extensive veterinary care at a young age rarely live beyond 5–6 years of age.

The bulldog suffers its own particular problems due to brachycephaly combined with a tongue that is excessively large at the base, a large palate that is easily obstructed by the base of the tongue, a lower jaw that is pushed forward, frequently stenotic nares and a hypoplastic trachea. Consequently, they suffer from loud panting during exercise, stridor and slobbering during rest, sleep apnoea, hypercapnia and hypochloremia/hypomagnesemia, exercise intolerance, cyanosis and collapse and choking fits manifested by gagging, retching, vomiting, aerophagia, flatulence and aspiration pneumonia. The breathing difficulties of English bulldogs also make them very sensitive to overheating and heat stroke.

Chondrodysplasia, a heritable skeletal disorder, predisposes English bulldogs to hip and elbow dysplasia, luxating patella and shoulders, intervertebral disk disease, cruciate ligament rupture, hemivertebra, torsional pelvic deformity and, as mentioned, difficulty in achieving normal copulation and parturition. Prognathism predisposes to dental disease, while excessive folding of the skin, especially on the face, is associated with skin fold dermatitis, muzzle acne, folliculitis, furunculosis and eye conditions such as entropion, ectropion and eversion of the third eyelid. The cork-screw tail can result in tail fold dermatitis. Inbreeding has also produced cataracts, heart valve defects including pulmonic stenosis, hydrocephalus, cysteine urolithiasis and hiatal hernias, immunologic disorders including a propensity for severe demodectic mange due to immunodeficiency, allergies associated with atopic dermatitis and ear infections and autoimmune diseases such as hypothyroidism. The common range of cancers include glioblastoma, mast cell sarcoma and lymphoma.

Doesn’t sound like a very healthy breed does it?

Many owners who accept these defects as “normal” pay huge amounts for treatments as their dogs stagger through their shortened lives but many dogs also end up in rescue or are euthanised due to the prohibitive cost of treatment.

All may not be lost as there are a few bulldogs out there that can breathe and move freely, reproduce naturally and that are free from skin and eye problems, allergies and other immunologic disorders.

The papers authors are therefore calling the bluff of bulldog owners outraged by their paper. They have issued a global challenge to bulldog breeders and owners to provide proof that their dog is a purebred (registered), healthy English bulldog. Owners are requested to e-mail the authors with supporting evidence. If the dog is deemed to meet the criteria as defined by the authors, the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory at UC Davies will provide a free DNA collection kit from which a genetic profile of the dog can be compared with the information provided in the genetic assessment paper and added to the genetic profile database for the English bulldog. The aim is to identify a genetic profile that is conducive to greater health and it may yet save the breed from imploding.

Pedersen NC et al (2016) A genetic assessment of the English bulldog, Canine Genetics and Epidemiology, V3(6) DOI: 10.1186/s40575-016-0036-y [accessed online at https://www.vgl.ucdavis.edu/services/dog/GeneticDiversityInEnglishBulldogs.php]

Thanks to Pedigree Dogs Exposed for this information.

Model Dogs But What About the Owners?

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dog for sale The Guardian today has a section of pictures, all beautifully shot, showing dogs dressed up supposedly to attract new owners.

Dogs are wreathed in flowers, draped in silks and velvets and all dolled up for a hoe down. Somewhere underneath all of this, some of the dogs beam happily out, some look anxious and uncomfortable. Many dogs feel uncomfortable at the direct “gaze” of a camera lens because they interpet it as a threat. Others cheerfully mug for the camera – I had a dog that nearly knocked someone overboard when we were travelling on a ferry because he was sure that the man wanted to take his photograph and was “helpfully” positioning himself in front of the camera. This was a dog that had been abused for 11 years before coming to me and really did not like strange people, unless that is, they were taking photographs!

The harm done to a dog that is uncomfortable at having it’s photograph taken is minimal. What I question, is whether dogs should be placed on sale in this way. Make no mistake about it, rescue or no, these dogs are for sale. They are as much commodities as a pair of second hand shoes being sold in a charity shop. The raison d’être of any rescue is to process as many animals as possible so that they can make room for more.

We all know that owners think it acceptable to buy a dog then treat it like a doll; how much more likely are they to do that if the dog is packaged up that way in the first place. “Aww, look at it’s cute ‘ickle face, all framed in pwetty flowers”.

Why not go out on a limb – show the dog racing after a ball, retrieving a Kong, rolling over for a tickle – BEING A DOG ON ITS OWN TERMS. Sorry to shout, but really. It’s time that we allowed dogs dignity and made owners realise that they are taking on another species with its own particular needs and that we owe dogs a duy of care in their own right.

Italian Earthquake Recovery

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sniffer dog Italy As the death toll rises and people begin to count the human and financial consequences of the devastating earthquake in Amatrice, Italy this week, sniffer dogs like the one pictured here go about their work with their handlers. Teams from all over Italy have gathered, as in all similar disasters to sift through the rubble and ruins systematically for signs of life.

Far fewer dogs are bred for working with livestock, pulling sleds, assisting fishermen or any of the other myriad of tasks that man has set them over the centuries. Their new jobs however mean that their unique ability to live closely with man, combined with mightly scenting ablities is being channelled to save lives, sometimes at the risk of their own.

Four Days Two Deaths

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dog licence Just four days apart and two more fatalities caused by dogs – or rather caused by owners – hit the headlines.

The details of the particular circumstances hardly matter as they will have the same root causes:

  • It is too easy to breed, buy and sell dogs
  • There is no compulsion to attend any form of educational or training course before owning a dog
  • Reams of legislation are continually being passed but none is routinely enforced
  • There are far too few resources to instil and police responsible ownership.

The end result – people get injured and die. Dogs get injured and die.

Labour MP Barry Sheerman in whose constituency of Huddersfield a fatal dog attack occurred on Monday has called for the dog licence to be revived. Why on earth does he think that a piece of paper will begin to address the serious problems we have with dog ownership and society? A dog licence would record little more than the, now compulsory, microchip database. It needs no surveys to be certain that neither 100% of dog owners comply with this law nor that it is not being monitored or policed effectively.

If insufficient resources exist for the police to even be educated about the problems of dog ownership, let alone do anything about it; if insufficient resources exist for owners to be compelled to learn about their dogs before and during ownership, why will they be provided to administer a dog licence? Local authorities are far more concerned about bringing in additional revenue by fining owners for leaving a trace of faces behind when picking up than they are addressing serious concerns such as poor welfare, ignorance of owners and systematic abuse of dogs.

We’re Having A Heatwave

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dead dog in car One swallow may not make a summer but more than one snowflake in Britain makes a blizzard and two days of sunshine make a heatwave.

One of the problems with living in a maritime climate is that the weather is inherently unpredictable and can change very quickly. Extremes are rare and so we do not plan for them. Even so, hot days are not that uncommon and it beggars belief that dogs are still dying in hot cars, including dogs owned by professionals such as the police and security guards.

Even on a warm day, the temperature inside a car can be much higher than outside where there are mitigating factors such as wind and precipitation. Even parking in shade can be a problem: 22 degrees outside can equal 47 degrees inside. Dogs have a higher body temperature than humans and a less efficient cooling system. We have also bred dogs with severely inhibited mechanisms for natural cooling, especially brachycephalic dogs. So many owners cannot be bothered to look after their dog’s coat so shave most of it off, thereby removing heat deflecting ability and exposing skin to potential damage. These dogs are more at risk from heatstroke (and skin cancers) even outside.

If you do find a dog in a hot car and cannot find the owner immediately, establish the dog’s condition. The dog may be suffering from heatstroke if:

  • It is panting heavily
  • Drooling excessively
  • Appears lethargic
  • Appears drowsy
  • Appears unco-ordinated
  • Is vomiting.

If there are any signs that this is the case, find a telephone and call 999 immediately, asking for the police. Write down the registration number and any other things of note and take pictures if you have a camera available. If possible, establish how long the dog has been in the car, for instance by checking for a pay and display parking ticket. If you are at an event or near a shop or similar, ask the staff to make an announcement over the public address system. You may need to send someone else for help or get them to monitor the dog while you go.

If the situation appears critical for the dog and the police have not arrived or will not attend, you may have to decide whether to break into the car. This could be classed as criminal damage and may land you in court. If you decide to go ahead, try to do so in presence of witnesses and tell the police what you intend to do and why. Obtain contact details for the witnesses.

The Criminal Damage Act 1971 Section 5(2)(a) states that you have a lawful excuse to commit damage if you believe that the owner of the property that you damage would consent to the damage if they knew the circumstances.

If the owner returns but you still feel that the situation was dangerous for the dog, you may still report the incident to the police.

Once the dog has been released, emergency first aid may be necessary before the dog is moved. The highest proprity with heatstroke is to lower body the temperature gradually. Take the dog into the shade or to a cool area. If possible soak towels and lie the dog on one with a fan directly on the dog whilst using the other to douse the dog. Use cool rather than cold water to prevent shock. Continue until the dog’s breathing normalises but stop before the dog begins to shiver.

The dog may drink small amounts of cool water.

Once the dog is cool, veterinary help should be sought urgently.

Doggy Daycare or Doggy Nightmare?

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dog walking Following yet another incident with dogs stolen from a careless dog walker, the time has surely come for much stricter controls to be brought against so-called professional dog care and walking organisations.

STOP PRESS: After writing this yesterday, another dog has disappeared whilst being walked off lead by a ‘professional’ dog waker, this time in west London.

The list of incidents is long:

Four dogs have gone missing after their walkers van was stolen…

Teddy was stolen when he was taken out by his dog walker…

“Because we are walking groups of dogs and there’s been loads of thefts going on, we are always worried about being a victim…”

White fiat transit van full of dogs has just been stolen…

Dog walker killed six dogs after locking them in hot truck for 45 minutes… then lied and said they had been stolen…

A heartless thief stole six dogs out of a parked vehicle Tuesday while the dog walker went to use the washroom….

…cockapoo went missing while out with a dog walker … what is believed to be the remains of the two-year-old cocker spaniel-poodle cross had been found severely decomposed off a public footpath…

… dog walking company has running tab at local vet…

…a specialist was injured while out walking his own dog when two dog walkers appeared with eight dogs … he suddenly found himself thrown into the air and onto the floor. When he asked the professional dog walker if he was covered by insurance he said he was not, but gave him the owners’ number. The owners said “You tripped/placed yourself down on the ground, over your own dog.”

Thieves stole a van and 11 dogs when a professional walker stopped to pick up a dog and left the keys in the ignition…

… dog killed on road after dog sitter left front door open to chase another dog that was allowed to escape…

Every morning when walking my dog I see a fleet of vans from one company and another van from a second company doing the rounds and picking up dogs.

How long do they spend in the van? How hyped up/stressed do they get? How many incidents of bites and other injuries are there?

This is a lucrative industry with no regulation whatsoever. Even if the dog walker is negligent, the owners may be found responsible in the event of an incident. How many owners check the insurance policy of the walker, their experience, qualifications, knowledge of specific breeds?

dog walkerEveryone needs a little help sometimes but dumping your dog on a walker all week because you are at work is not acceptable. The chances are, most of these dogs are untrained, allowed to run riot when with the walker and, frankly, there is no guarantee that they will be safe.