To want a ban on dangerous dogs as pets?

[humanity15]

I feel this is a matter of public safety and people need to be informed.

Whilst working for a well known dog rescue charity I was attacked by a breed banned in many countries, but not here.
Because it was not banned it was taken in just like any other dog.

My story can be found on youtube.

With many years of experience in the dog sector what I see happening on our streets right now is frightening.

Those advising the government on dangerous dogs are giving bad advice and as a result putting people's lives at risk.

People do not understand dogs, especially genetics. Because of this attacks will keep happening and people are going to get killed.

All dogs have inherited characteristics. Certain ones are stronger in certain breeds depending on what they were originally bred for.

Although all dogs can bite, there is a huge difference in why they bite and this unless understood could prove fatal.

To communicate a dog will often give signals. So if it feels uncomfortable with someone coming too close it may put its ears back, cower, tuck its tail in etc.
If these signs are ignored the dog may resort to biting as a last resort.
Once it has effectively communicated, with the person moving away it will stop.

This is totally different to a dog biting because it has been bred to fight and has a strong drive to do so.

This drive has been bred into certain breeds of dogs on purpose. How strong that drive will be different for every individual dog depending on what has been passed down.
No amount of good will is going to change this.
This is your starting point before any external influences.

Instead of breeding that instinct out what we are now seeing is the result of the opposite having been done.
Individual dogs that have shown high aggression have been bred from resulting in literally ticking timebombs now out on our streets.

No amount of cute photos or affection will change this.
No dog trainer or behaviourist no matter how good can do anything because this is in the dogs genes.
All that can be done is for this instinct to be surpressed, it cannot be removed.
At some point under certain circumstances it will come out.

If you have a dog with a high drive to fight you could be in serious trouble and so can anyone who encounters that dog.

When it takes sometimes five people and tazers to get a dog off someone that is serious.

• This is what people are not being told but what they need to know.

Dogs are not good or bad, they just are.

Just because a dog brings you something because it was bred to retrieve does not make it bad.
This is the same for a dog bred to fight. It is doing what we have basically programmed it to do.
The fact we see one instinct as acceptable and one not is not the dogs fault, it is ours.
We are the ones who have brought both these dogs into our homes and labelled them as pets.
Certain dogs should never have been expected to fulfil this role.

Dogs are not morally driven, they will not sit and contemplate what they are about to do they just react.

They have the mental age of a toddler, a young child at best.

It is so important we understand and remember this to keep everyone safe.

Which breed specifically do you want banned?

Banning breeds doesn’t work. A dog isn’t nasty and unpredictable due to a breed.

Yanbu I know this lady and her lovely dog.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/dogs-mauled-husky-naevia-redcar-26583236.amp

That's awful, the Dogs Trust should be investigated, they have a duty of care to their staff.

Yes, they certainly can be. I'm so tired of this simplistic view. Bully breeds are specifically bred to fight (bulls and bears and later other dogs) and to inflict maximum damage. It's quite literally the purpose of these breeds and what they were developed to do. This is literally how breeding animals works. You select for traits and keep breeding animals with those traits to strengthen them in the offspring. Repeat this for a few hundred years and the aggression and strength are hardwired in those dogs.

I adore dogs. I've met hundreds (I'm a community health professional) and have my own dog who is 15, but I can understand your point.
I've seen some horrendous injuries inflicted by dogs. Recently I asked for a particularly aggressive bull type dog to be put in another room before I entered a property. The owners begrudging agreed but we're very arsey about it, saying he was just noisy and wouldn't harm a fly. The following week, the dog attacked my colleague, she needed 15 stitches in 2 wounds.
It's not always down to breed though, sometimes it's just completely useless owners.

Yes I completely agree. We watch our back every walk we go on, and we are sure to leave the park/beach etc if we see a dangerous dog breed. They are terrifying.

We're not really talking about a genetically controlled breed of dog here. At worst we're generally talking about the thousands of puppies that come from criminals knocking together two dogs and then selling the puppies as way to make and launder money.

At best we're talking about some idiot without brain calls breeding their 'pets' for cash.

Puppies bred with no concern for temperament or mental or physical health. Brought into the world without medical support and who spend the first 8 weeks of their life being ignored (or worse!) without proper upbringing.

That's not a breed. It's just a type and in many cases the law has already been broken several times by their existence by the time they are sold to some poor, ignorant fool who hasn't really understood what they are buying or even what a dog really is.

Ban that type of dog by all means - but you can guarantee another type will come along right after it to fill the void.

Imo, dog licences should be brought back, and people should have to meet certain criteria before they can own a dog. As for dangerous breeds, they should be banned.

I agree, dogs shouldn't be so readily available and more should be done to close down puppy farms. I also think that people shouldn't be able to advertise puppies for sale as I'm sure people see the ads and buy on a whim without the knowledge of what they are getting into or the expertise to properly train them.

You won't get dogs banned , they've already said if you ban a certain breed the Chavs will just turn their attention to another breed .
You need to stop indiscriminate breeding not ban certain breeds .

I don't agree. It's not the breed that's usually the issue but the owner. I've seen beautifully behaved "dangerous dogs". I do believe the standard should be higher for ownership. Only registered breeders should be able to breed - if unregistered it should be a jail sentence; and all potential owners should have to attend a training course. Once they have completed the course and provided a clean DBS they can own a dog.

Ban that type of dog by all means - but you can guarantee another type will come along right after it to fill the void

Absolutely. And the OP is a case in point because most people reading it (and some on this thread already) will assume it refers to Bull breeds. It doesn’t. The OP is referring to an Ovcharka. I’ve long thought that guardian breeds are simply not suited to being pets and, given any kind of restriction on the Bull breed of choice for the kind of moron who should never own a Yorkshire Terrier let alone a dog that can potentially kill an adult, guardian breeds will be the next ‘problem dog’.

I’m all for banning breeds, I also think everyone who owns a dog should have a licence and have to pass a basic care and handling course before they are allowed them. Same for cats. Plus all should be spayed:neutered.
Mainly from a looking out for the animals point of view.

Deja vu ... we were here 30 years ago.

They certainly do. And I am sure that there will be an investigation as soon as the OP (who is clearly an expert in dogs) stops posting anonymous and unverifiable "facts". There are plenty of avenues, including the Health & Safety Executive, where workplace accidents not only can be reported, but often they must be reported.

Alarmist (and in many places factually inaccurate) posts and the most incredibly boring YouTube video imaginable created by anonymous sources do not make a good basis for judgements or public policy.

Of course, it's easy to attack a charity and give them no possible comeback when you remain anonymous. If this matters so much OP, come out and make it all public in person instead of hiding behind anonymity. Until that happens this is nothing more than another goady thread.

My daughter was badly attacked by an American bulldog this year and I want this bully breed baned they are dangerous to the public

if these signs are ignored the dog may resort to biting as a last resort I've always said there is no such thing as a bad dog, only bad owners and this is an example of that. If you are a responsible owner then you know the instant your dog is unhappy.
Unfortunately fuckwits like breeds that are big and are presumed to be aggressive, this is the fault of the fuckwits-not the dogs.

i don’t disagree but you’re going to struggle getting support. It’s 2023. Who even posts YouTube videos that are a slideshow of text? You could have posted the transcript but you didn’t. It’s really hard to follow and your wall of text here doesn’t help. It’s a skill to deliver vital information in the right way, to get the support you need. Ultimately dogs in rescues are in a stressful situation so id assume regardless of breed that they’re more likely to bite

Here's the thing...the existing breed-specific legislation is fundamentally broken, so adding more "breeds" to that list isn't going to help.

Remember, the way the government determines a dog's breed is by measuring its head, height and build - absolutely nothing to do with its genetics. That leads to the ridiculous situation Belfast council engineered - whereby a dog was confiscated and killed simply because a neighbour didn't like dogs and reported it as a pitbull. Sure enough, the wardens showed up, measured him, and determined that he was a pitbull...but determined that his littermates (who were in the same house) weren't. They then spent ridiculous amounts of money hiding the dog from the family's lawyers for well over a year, as well as fighting it in court, and eventually killed the dog without a court order. Incidentally, that court held up the legal standard that a dog's measurements determine its breed, and thus threw out actual DNA evidence proving that he wasn't even partially of any banned breed.

A dog that had never even growled at anyone, much less bitten - passed all temperament tests, and was so docile that he rolled over when attacked by other dogs.

Meanwhile, there are thousands of actually dangerous dogs out there, kept by shitty owners and used to bully and intimidate people.

So yeah...go after the breed of dog if you want, but the only result will be legal pantomime where the authorities confiscate and kill easy targets, and studiously avoid any of the dogs that are actually the problem, as well as doing legislative gymnastics to avoid doing the hard yards in making back yard breeding illegal under all circumstances (which is where the bulk of the problem begins).

Can we just ban the sort of people who buy these dogs from breeding humans so it's all over in a few generations! I don't like bullybreeds but would you also add things like the German shepherd, husky even chihuahuas can be naughty.

Realistically this will not happen. I think the best we can hope for is compulsory muzzles on any dog out in public.

It depends what you mean by dangerous dogs. Do you want all staffies, rottweilers, German shepherds etc to be banned? If so, yabu and I am saying that as someone who has also worked with dogs and studied dog behaviour/dog genetics.

I’m all for banning breeds, I also think everyone who owns a dog should have a licence and have to pass a basic care and handling course before they are allowed them

Great in theory but in practice most people will find a way to pass and then disregard all they have been told. We have the requirement for a driving license and yet the amount of absolute weapons on our roads is astounding.

People always say "it's not bad dogs /specific breeds, it's the owners". And yes, your average chihuahua is probably ore aggressive than some of the big scary looking dogs, but... you wouldn't let any randomer own a tiger. So why do we let anyone keep a breed of dog which is on par with. Tiger when it comes to bite strength ?