Dogs on the blog: Here Boy… Here Boy….
I have been rescuing animals for over 10 years and I was appalled to hear the Governments latest plan to make all Dog owners buy insurance.
I can see all the insurance companies rubbing there hand with glee at the news but it is the most ridiculous idea I have heard in years. Responsible animal owners already have insurance and those who are not responsible will ignore it anyway so how is this going to work exactly?
There is a very simple solution to the problem but as it won’t involve the same amount of money, Mr Brown has chosen another route… It makes me think that perhaps the Government think by bringing in this law would mean more business income not better controls on the situation but they disguised it as a strong step towards better animal control.
I am the owner of 8 dogs and I do not have Pet Insurance.
What! I hear you cry but here’s the deal. I have 5 Rottweiler’s, 1 Doberman, a Jack Russell and a Patterdale Terrier, we also have 3 cats and apart from things such as worming and flea treatment which are not covered on some insurance, we prefer to have a separate bank account into which we pay money every month. As visits to the Vets are rare (thankfully) we find we have enough in the account to cover all our Vet bills and we also noticed we save more as some years we spend less than others.
The dangerous dogs act requires that all the dogs on the list are chipped, tattooed and then muzzled when in public, and my question is this:
How do know what types of dogs are dangerous and which are not?
They list certain breeds as “naturally aggressive” and I disagree with this. There is no such thing as a dangerous dog, but there are plenty of dangerous owners. It makes me laugh when I read the stats online as they state most dangerous dog currently in Britain is none of the breeds on the dangerous list, in fact none of them even make the top ten!
I bet you want to know the breed of dog that has caused the most injuries? Well, and your going to love this, it is a Border Collie closely followed by Staffordshire Terriers, both these dogs are one of the most popular breeds in the UK and the Collie has held to top spot for attacks for quite some times which again begs the question, who is responsible if your dog attacks?
If the onus was put on the owners rather than just putting the animal down, more responsibility would have to be taken by bad pet owners. All my animals are chipped and jabbed when they arrive at our home and receive a lot of training after all, imagine they are your child. One day your kid hits another breaking his nose, are you going to put him down, of course not. You will probably choose a suitable punishment so they learn not to do it again. Why can’t the same principle be used with animals? If your dog causes harm you have to take responsibility and pay all costs incurred by the “victim” this should also cover compensation.
We walk our dog’s everyday in a local park and I get muttered comments from passers by such as “That should have a muzzle” or “That’s a dangerous dog”, I wish people would realise the only danger to them, is me! I am way more dangerous than any of my pets and the only one that has bitten me was the Jack Russell! If cannot control your animal, train it, read books about their psychology and learn everything you can about them, then and only then can you offer a proper home.
Should a dog be put down after attacking another dog or worse a child? You can probably guess my answer to this and no it should not however it should be removed from the owner as they obviously cannot look after pets properly.
All of my Rottweiler’s were passed onto us as “Dangerous Dogs” and in all our years we have had no problem with any of them. We never leave them alone with anyone but that is just good common sense and my Grandsons learned to walk holding onto Mr Vincent (one of my Rottweiler’s) ears! We are currently training the Doberman as it will be going to our Grandsons to live and I would recommend the breed highly if you have kids, but, like any animal, if you cannot walk them / care for them or train them, you should not get one. We are specialists in our rescues and only take so called “Dangerous Dogs” as we know they will not get a home elsewhere. We can only take Rottweiler’s and Dobermans and we never re-home as we have never met anyone who knows these breeds like we do.
All in all good pet ownership is down to old fashioned common sense and if the Government had some, there would be no stupid laws that don’t work, just solutions that do.
What’s your opinion?
Take great care people.
