People now dumping bull breed puppies, what can be done?

[NmeChngeFail]

Just seen this on local FB and I'm sure this isn't the only case.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/391520164531031/permalink/2023633937986304/

What can be done to stop things like this happening or is it inevitable with the recent ban? I'm not even sure if they are the banned breed

I think this ban should have involved euthanasia as a matter of course. The precedent of the ban of pit bulls (involving neutering and muzzling) is not appropriate here as pit bulls did not kill so many people and other dogs.

Which dogs should be euthanised, in your opinion, "as a matter of course"? See my earlier post about the Defra criteria - which can actually be applied to a wide range of dogs, including Boxers...

I'm not actually sure what they would do re euthanising dumped puppies.

Because the DDA is based on measurements and size of an adult dog, and that cannot be ascertained in puppies. So they should remain in secure kennels until they can be judged against the DDA stipulations and be made available for rehoming if not subject to the ban. Puppies whose status is unknown for any reason are routinely kept for many months in those conditions (which of course has a major impact on their socialisation)

Nowt, now we watch the chaos unfold.

The route to exemption has literally been opened today and will cost owners around £100 per dog. Many owners are discovering that their dog cannot live at their property according to their tenancy agreement even if they can afford it.

Owners have to guess as to whether their dog fits the criteria and should be exempted or not - guess wrong, big fine, court, trouble, possible prison etc.

So you've got those who don't care, those who are just total bastards, those who are panicking and don't know what to do and no brains to figure it out, those who have spent the last month or two trying to find a new home hor rescue space and have failed, those who genuinely think they've tried every avenue...

Dumping dogs one way or another.

Most of these dogs being dumped will be the harmless wimpy sooky ones - but some won't be, they'll be a risk to the public.

So who clears up this mess?

Dog rescues - either they take them in and then fill up their capacity with dogs who can't be rehomed... or, they take them in and euthanise and get a reputation as dog killers, bad publicity all round, donations dry up, end of rescue (and you know there are human lives involved there, those humans burn out, suffer MH problems, suicides are not wildly uncommon)...

Dog wardens - take them in, euth them - well we don't have enough dog wardens, for a start, but again thats people having to decide to kill multiple healthy, friendly dogs... funnily enough those people go into that job because they like dogs. This does them no good at all.

Vets - at the end of the line there are the vets, day after day of euthanising happy healthy dogs. We're already seeing fewer vets entering the profession and high MH issues and suicide. This'll really help matters.

I predict:

Government will tally euth numbers and exemption numbers.

Because people are panicking and will be exempting dogs that aren't really type, and euthing dogs that aren't really type, those numbers will be higher than the true picture of XL bully numbers and far far higher than the number of those actually behaviourally dangerous.

That is fine, thats a win for government - 'Look, we found there were BILLIONS MORE THAN WE THOUGHT'... (easy to massage that figure given the guesswork they did for how many there are is ridiculously low!)...

Because the height stipulation is apparently binary, dogs under it are not XL Bullies...

This means that we're going to see a round of seizures of Pitbull types, another win for Gov - 'look, we found all these extra dangerous pitbulls too!'...

Those will cost the taxpayer a fortune as the only route to exemption is court based and most local authorities will seize and hold dogs whilst that happens.

Those desiring to hold onto their genuinely dangerous scary dogs will continue to do so, in backrooms and basements.

These dogs will as they always have, occasionally escape, be left with Grandma, be left near a kid and we'll still see horrific deaths as a result.

But that'll be ok, because the government did what it could. Lots of pats on backs for Government yes yes.

I'd like to see lengthy jail time for backyard breeders.

I'd like to see lengthy jail time for backyard breeders.

Of any breed ideally, especially for people running puppy mills.

The Facebook page for where I live has older bully dogs going for £20/£50. Trouble is these dogs are often owned by a certain type and they are happy to dump, get rid of it for £20. Trouble is anyone buying a dog for £20 is not going to follow the rules for owning the dog when they come in, the owners just don’t care!

No body should be dumping an animal but people are arseholes

Yes. Labradoodles, border collies, huskies. Gorgeous dogs and the shelters are full of them.

Heartbreaking for the staff having to do it. A while back, the same puppies would have been brought in to be chipped/vaccinated etc.

Absolutely spot on.

I will add, however, that the lack of resources to police this dreadfully flawed piece of legislation will mean that dogs will only be identified by the authorities after there have been incidents involving them. And so the problem it's meant to solve will go on.

If vets are finding it hard then perhaps some of the mass euthanasia work can be contracted out to abbatoir workers. They routinely kill healthy animals for a living.

I can never see why people think it is ok to kill animals for meat, either for human or pet consumption, then get upset about dogs. Double standards methinks.

Indeed, hopefully people will stop profiteering from poor breeding of dogs. Long term positive.

Short term is what to dobwith these poor dogs that people are dumping. Don't they love their animals? They could have them sterilised, muzzle them and keep as pets? Why dump? Or does that mean they weren't that committed to the poor animal anyway?

It's sad.

A lot of dogs are likely to be PTS. It is highly unlikely that many of these (usually) untrained dogs will be homed.
The RSPCA should be spending its money on education about the needs of dogs, dog ownership and dog training instead of spending money on prosecutions.

Please tell me they're dead before this happens!

God that's so sad - poor little things

They didn't ask to be bred/born. TBH, the biggest problem is irresponsible dog breeding, the importation of dogs bred on puppy farms in Europe, and puppy farms full stop. All breeders should be licensed. It's not too hard to find these people - they advertise quite openly on Pets4Homes, Gumtree, Craigslist.

Surely that's not how you really euthanise for bird flu? That's inhumane

Sadly I think in these cases that’s the kindest option for puppies like this

Vets - at the end of the line there are the vets, day after day of euthanising happy healthy dogs. We're already seeing fewer vets entering the profession and high MH issues and suicide. This'll really help matters.

So true. DSis used to be a veterinary nurse, but she left because she couldn't bear to put down healthy animals and it happens all the time. Owner is going on holiday, pet is getting on a bit in years, but still healthy - PTS. It broke her heart.

I'm an animal lover but we need to be putting surplice animals down. There aren't enough homes for them and kennels aren't suitable long term. This isn't just bullies but the hundreds of neurotic huskies and collies in shelters too.

They’re going to die. And it’s very sad, but I’d rather 1000 ‘nice’ bully dogs died than another child was mauled.

Unfortunately, the sort of scum who gets these dogs do dump them as they don’t actually care about them. If I (a spaniel and golden owner) was told I had to muzzle mine in public and get them castrated I would; but that’s the difference between a proper owner and a scummy bully owner.

TBH these rescue centres make me sick. RSPCA are deliberately hiding that some of these dogs are bully types: they say breed unknown in the main details and then sneak in it’s a bully in the detail. They claim these dogs can live with children. They can’t. The rescue centres are part of the problem.

It tugs at the heartstrings because they're puppies.

Just think about what they will turn into.

Yes it's unfortunate but better than the life that awaits them.

It does not make any sort of sense to rear and kill cattle to provide meat to keep dogs alive in shelters with no hope of being successfully rehomed. To do that is a very screwed up way of thinking.

I may be wrong but I thought existing XL bullies would have certain restrictions like muzzled when out and owners require to be registered but that there was nothing onerous that needs to be done. Puppies taken to a vet born after the ban comes in force would mean the vet would have to contact police. No idea what happens

Yep there's a BBC interview doing the rounds on FB at the moment featuring an XL bully owner who is desperate to prove that his dog can be off-lead at all times and it's perfectly trained.

Despite the fact that he rehomed it at 15 months and has a sketchy past.

People like THIS are the problem. Too stubborn and full of themselves to think that the rules don't apply to them so on he will go, walking it offlead and un-muzzled.

All rehoming centres can at present rehome the XL bully types - the ban comes in on 1 Jan, doesn't it?

What they do with puppies - especially if dumped so parental description unknown - is harder. Because they cannot know (unless they know both sides of parentage) if those puppies are going to grow up and have bodies with measurements that mean they cannot be rehomed legally.

I think the hope is that people will by and large stop breeding, whilst hoping no-one notices the immediate problem of what to do with puppies that you suspect may be of a banned type, but cannot show that is the case until they have grown to near adult size.

Of course there's bound to be those who try to breed just bigger or just smaller or head set at a different angle, or other slight difference to the banned description.