Welfare
Breeding, buying dogs, rescue dogs...
Four Days Two Deaths
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.
Tribute to Heath Robinson
The late cartoonist William Heath Robinson (d 1944) is probably not a name that trips off the tongue as often as it once did. Although initially taking his name in vain related to his drawings of ridiculously complex, implausible machines for achieving otherwise simple tasks, it eventually referenced temporary fixes made using ingenuity and whatever was to hand such as string and tape.
I found myself taking a leaf from the great man’s book when, in an attempt to travel light, I threw too much out of my metaphorical travel balloon basket and left the dog’s show lead at home. Hardware and bead shop to the rescue – I found a piece of thin sash (red fleck 8mm in case you’re wondering) and a few beads just wide enough to make it look a bit less make do and mend. I stitched a loop at each end and threaded the beads on but then found myself stuck for how to secure it round the dog’s neck, having failed to find a suitable finding in the bead shop. Friend’s toolbox rifled, I popped washer on!
I probably wouldn’t recommend taking a fizzy, medium sized dog very far on a bit of twine and a small washer, but it got us a handful of rosettes!
Run Into The Ground
It beggars belief that, as temperatures and humidity have soared over the last few days over much of England and Wales, people are still forcing dogs to go running.
Owners may think that the dog enjoys it and is getting wonderful exercise, although many of them wouldn’t even notice if their dog turned belly up as they are too far ahead and too busy being preoccupied with the muzak pumping into their ears and the digits ticking by on their exercise monitors. The attitude seems to be to combine two chores into one. They have no interaction with their dogs and – more importantly for other people – no control over them either.
Dogs that are forced to run often appear aggressive to other dogs as they have no choice but to rush past in order not to be left behind. They have no options to stop and sniff or even eliminate – the most important part of any walk. Of course, if they are desperate and do stop, the owner won’t pick up because they are blissfully ignorant and uncaring. Fearful dogs hang back caught between the Scylla of the dog that frightens them and the Charybdis of their owner’s oblivious back disappearing into the distance until they eventually make a panicked dash for it. Owners may pamper their own sore muscles afterwards but don’t even consider that their dog is suffering too.
Even sled dogs that are bred to run would not be worked in the spring, summer or early autumn when temperatures are simply too high for them to be able to cool down efficiently. They are also not running on hard, hot urban surfaces which jar joints and stress muscles, not to mention inhaling deeply of the toxic cocktail of pollutants.
If you get masochistic pleasure out of running in hot weather, don’t inflict it on your poor dog and don’t shave him to within an inch of his life so that he has no protection against the elements just because you can’t be bothered to look after his coat.
We’re Having A Heatwave
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?
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?
Everyone 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.
Vets Call For Ban On Homeopathy
A group of veterinary surgeaons has written an open letter to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons to ask them to blacklist homeopathy from the treatments veterinary surgeons are allowed to offer animals and their owners. They believe that the current position of allowing veterinary surgeons to prescribe homeopathic treatments, which have been proven not to work, is both an animal welfare issue and fails to meet the standard required for scientific veterinary practice. This is a disservice to the animals and their owners. They state:
“We believe the RCVS should not allow members to prescribe homeopathy because:
- It is an animal welfare issue
- It undermines public confidence in mainstream medicine
- It would further differentiate veterinary surgeons from unlicensed healers
- It devalues conventional treatments
- It devalues conventional qualifications
- It would allow the veterinary profession to take the lead, forging the way for our human medical counterparts to do the same.
There is also an online petition that you can sign.
CReDO and DogsNet fully endorse this stance. Disagree? Post a comment!
New Fines Proposed For Dog Fouling
A bill is currently going through the House of Lords proposing to amend the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.
The new proposals would add the following clause:
“In Chapter 1 of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 (controls on dogs), insert—
“55 Dog fouling: offence
(1) A person is guilty of an offence if he or she allows a dog for which he or she is responsible to foul in any place to which this section applies and does not dispose of the dog waste.
(2) This section applies to any place in the area of a principal litter authority which is open to the air and accessible to the public.
(3) No offence is committed under subsection (1) where the dog fouling is—
(a)authorised by law; or
(b)done by or with the consent of the owner, occupier or other person having control of the place where the fouling occurs.
The maximum fine allowable will also be raised from £80 to £100.
It is also proposed that dog faeces be added to the cigarettes and chewing gum as item regarded as litter under Section 98(5A)(b) of the Environmental Protection Act.
If the Bill is passed, as looks likely, a duty will also be imposed on local authorities to provide a minimum number of waste bins, but alas only for cigarettes and chewing gum. Cuts to local authority budgets have already seen a decline in all types of waste bin as well as fewer collections. Beats me why councils haven’t used dog poo compost bins; they could then sell the results to gardeners.
Picking up and disposing of dog waste responsibly is vital to prevent the spread of disease from dog to dog as well to other animals, including humans. An increasing number of dogs are fed a raw diet or may be given raw bones, raising the chances that they will shed bacteria such as salmonella, giardia and campylobacter into the environment. Additionally, some diseases only spread when faeces are a few days old. Dog feces may contain parvovirus, whipworms, hookworms, roundworms, threadworms, campylobacteriosis, giardia and coccidia. If left unattended, parasites can contaminate water and soil and result in infection in dogs and humans. Neosporosis and sarcocystosis can spread from dog faces on grazing land and cause, respectively, abortions in cattle and neurological disease and death in sheep.
So
BAG IT, BIN IT AND DISPOSE OF IT RESPONSIBLY.
Idiot of the Month
I was enjoying a peaceful walk in the park early this morning when the pleasant start to the day was shattered by a man with two Staffie types. My dog was on the lead and I had stopped to pass the time of day with the senior park warden.
Two men approached with two dogs, off lead. One, a small, fawn Staffie type approached my dog in a relaxed and happy manner but wasn’t confident enough to make contact with my dog or me when I stretched out the back of my hand to be sniffed. The dog glanced anxiously back at the owner. Meanwhile the other, larger dog was rigid with tension, the pilo erection extending throughout his hackles along his back. He looked very worried and had a tense face with a closed, tight mouth.
I was about to walk onwards to avoid potential problems when one man swung his leg out and kicked his dog squarely on the hip. Both dogs cowered and moved away.
I think that I was remarkably restrained under the circumstances, limiting myself to calling the man “a fool” for potentially setting off a fight, not to mention the injustice of kicking a dog. Boy did I unleash a mighty ego.
The man didn’t give a toss about what he was doing to his poor dog or what could have happened had he provoked re-directed aggression. He was incandescent at the thought that I had called him a “fool”.
Needless to say, the park warden was pretty astonished at his reaction too.
How sad that these poor dogs have to put up with this behaviour when what they need is some guidance and reassurance. No wonder the small dog is too nervous to approach and the larger one too frightened when seeing another dog is associated with a hefty kick.
Would You Visit A Freak Show?
Human “freak shows” were popular pastimes in England from the mid-16th century until the 19th century, by which time they had spread to the United States. Popularised by figures such as PT Barnum, they were extremely successful commercially and often the best way of people with disabilities making a good living and preserving some dignity. I doubt, however that many modern audiences would find them acceptable, so why is it that we deem it permissible to exhibit such dogs?
Skeleton of a dog with short-spine syndrom
Deliberate in-breeding by humans.
The vet makes many protestations, perhaps anticipating that her support for this “competition” might draw criticism. “This isn’t about making fun of her, it’s about celebrating our differences. We don’t think she’s ugly, but we love her enough that we can have a little joke”.
Her “little joke” is at the expense of a dog with fused vertebrae that result in her being unable to move her head. “She still has to turn her whole body to look at anything.” Are we meant to celebrate this level of in-breeding? Does this vet seriously think that because she “loves her enough” it makes it all right?
This is a list of the descriptions of some of the previous winners:
- Blind
- Bug eyes
- Long, wagging tongue
- Hunched
- Peculiar walk
- Bi-pedalism
- Malformed nose
- Short tufts of hair
- Protruding tongue
- Long, seemingly hairless legs
- Short snout
- Beady eyes
- Huge-headed
- Duck-footed
- Deformed lips
- Deformed eyelids.
A vet supporting this “competition” is also supporting an abysmal standard of animal welfare. I’m sure that this little dog, and perhaps others that are similarly afflicted and in caring homes, have a good quality of life but in the end, such competitions are no different to Victorian freak shows. They don’t demonstrate “love” for dogs but the fact that we have chosen to perpetuate genetic mutations such as hairlessness or colourings such as merle, piebald and white, which in some breeds goes hand in hand with congenital deformities, for no other reason than a love of novelty or the vanity of having something that draws attention to ourselves. I’m glad that there are people who are prepared to take these dogs in and give them good homes. Perhaps they think that by highlighting their own dogs that they will automatically prevent more from being bred, but that is certainly not the way that most of the media (and probably the general public view it).
When “ugly” means deformed dentition, skeletal abnormalities, ocular and aural problems and similar issues there is nothing to celebrate, even if the individual dog has a comparatively good life. Making the existence of such dogs acceptable goes hand in hand with the widespread acceptance of conditions such as severe brachycephaly and achondroplasia that cause misery for millions of affected dogs and lead to much reduced lifespans.
The prevalence of brachycephalic and achondroplastic dogs such as pugs, French bulldogs and dachshunds in recent advertising campaigns and in online posts, where their respiratory distress, limited physical ability and chronic associated illnesses are seen by many as being “cute”, is the other side of the coin. When judges and vets accept ataxic, wheezing, gasping dogs as champions, there is something surely very, very wrong.
Before anyone attempts to make a comparison with the lives of people with physical disabilities, we should remember that we have deliberately bred dogs to look like this and that for every dog that may be just plain “ugly” there are many more that suffer the consequences of our (preventable) actions. Many of those dogs, we are told, are the epitome of “beauty”. We should recognise deformities for what they are and we should regard deformed dogs as ugly – not in themselves so much as the fact that they represent some of the worst things that humans have done to dogs.
I hope that the vet is donating her $1,000 winnings and any other money that she may make as a result of her appearances to a campaign to improve dog welfare so that this competition can simply die out through a lack of entries.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
What should the British bulldog do and what will happen to the resources? Do we get to keep our own bones or do we have to hand them over to Europe?
Regardless of your opinion on the European Union referendum next week, the fact remains that leaving the European Union may have major effect on the ease of travel using the Pet Passport and on dog welfare, with potential changes to import and export restrictions. According to government figures for 2015, just under 92,000 Britains left and returned to Britain with one or more dogs, the vast majority having been on holiday. Of course there are also unrecorded numbers of dogs entering illegally, mostly traded as puppies. A Dogs Trust report (The Puppy Scandal) states that between 2011 and 2013 the number of dogs entering the UK legally from Lithuania increased by 780% and from Hungary 663%.
Already vets in Eastern Europe (and possible elsewhere) have colluded with dog dealers and issued pet passports with falsified data, including puppies not seen, under age puppies, dogs banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act and dogs with false
vaccination stamps indicating that rabies vaccinations had been administered. As the Dogs Trust wonders, will a vet who is prepared to falsify rabies vaccinations bother with tapeworm treatment or measures to prevent other diseases? Echinococcus multilocularis is a cyclophyllid tapeworm that is endemic in some countries that are parts of the PETS travel scheme. It is zoonotic, often asymptomatic for several years and can be fatal if untreated. It is already increasing in urban areas, largely due to the spread of urban foxes. Dogs Trust and journalists including Sam Poling have provided evidence revealing ineffective controls at UK border ports enabling puppies to enter the UK illegally virtually unhindered. There are no Animal and Plant Health Agency staff or Trading Standards personnel on duty at the main ports of entry at the weekend and puppy transporters are rarely stopped even during the week. Not all ports have a continual presence of officers, including the major port of Dover which just has APHA staff on call to respond to reported welfare concerns. There is no penalty if they are caught travelling with incorrect paperwork and the likelihood of paperwork being questioned or their vehicle searched is low. They can declare up to five puppies and smuggle in any number of puppies hidden in their vehicle which will remain unchecked. There is little or no sharing of intelligence amongst key agencies.
The Dogs Trust filmed 15 dealers who sold underage puppies ranging from 7 -12 weeks and who stated how easy it is to bring banned pit bulls into the UK and four vets from Lithuania and two vets from Hungary who admitted falsifying pet passports. They purchased pet passports from a vet that recorded false birth dates and vaccinations, including rabies, for fictitious puppies. They purchased a puppy from an online advert that had been brought into the UK from Lithuania at just ten weeks old without a rabies vaccination and two puppies in Hungary from a breeder who provided passports with false dates
of birth and fake rabies vaccination details which they subsequently rehomed in Hungary.
The Dogs Trust has called for the European Union to manage the spread of canine diseases across member states including requiring inspections of all puppies and dogs at member states’ borders. They are also calling for EU-wide improvements in breeding standards and mandatory identification and registration across all EU Member States. There is a the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals, but Britain is not a signatory. Leaving the European Union may make it harder for dogs to be imported from unscrupulous people in member states but it will also be much harder to achieve the spread of effective welfare legislation. In the meantime, diseases have no respect for national boundaries, even on islands.
One would hope that no one would make such a vital decision based on the effects on dogs alone, but there is plenty of food for thought there nonetheless.