Monday, July 30, 2007

How scary is this???

A member of the D For Dog forum has posted this very scary link. It gives a list of 75 breeds of dog which are banned in some states of the US. It not only includes the usual suspects - Staffie, Mastiff, EBT (all of which are prone to whine and drop at your feet, paws in air, for a belly rub) - but also Fox Terrier, Airedale Terrier, Springer Spaniel, Newfoundland!!
Newfoundlands are bred to rescue humans, for goodness sake!! I've never heard of anyone being savaged by one - you're more likely to get accidentally sat on or drooled on... and as for the Fox and Airedale terriers - why them and not the JRT? Because they can be vicious too - I mean, yes at one end of the spectrum we have Mollie, who will just sit and look bemused as a small child attempts to pull her leg off, but at the other end there are JRTs who will bite you just because you looked at them funny. Or rather, because you looked at them at all. Or because you happened to walk somewhere within half a mile of them and your trouser leg looked tasty. And yes, I speak from personal experience here.
I'm sure my friend Helena will be mortified to learn that her dogs are banned in the parts of the US, possibly in the very states that she once lived in.
It's madness, utter madness - politicians scrambling to do something, anything to make it look like they've got control of the situation - a situation, incidentally which only exists in newspapers and on television. Wouldn't it be better to bring in compulsory dog licensing, chipping/tattooing and socialisation/obedience? Oh no, that would be a sensible thing to do, wouldn't it...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, I heard something about this a few years ago. I'm on an airedale discussion board and apparently a member in the US had learned that airedales are extremely expensive to insure in her state because they're "vicious". I don't know, nothing could be further from the truth. The smaller breed terriers can be horrible with the wrong owner but I dare anyone to actually come up with proof that an airedale would harm either a person or another dog unprovoked! Provocation has to be immense, compared with many other breeds. Ben's 7 and never been in a fight and he hangs out with both other males (and bitches) several times a week. I do know of insecure airedales, usually the kind you see at conformation dog shows, but as I see it they are insecure because of poor socialisation and horrible lives. Interesting to be the owner of "dangerous dogs" :-P . Dangerous to cats, yes... :-D /Helena

Kerrio said...

it IS madness and a political bandwaggon *sigh*

Blame the deed - not the breed.

Oh well.

LarryS said...

Springers banned, how ridiculous! And as for Fox Teriers, well, we reckon our Lady might have a bit of that breed in her.
Its just crazy, it really is! How about banning some dangerous people,like the ones who come up with these stupid ideas!

Em said...

Hi Larry

Well, since Lady is a JR x, she almost certainly has Fox terrier in her - one theory is that they are originally Fox terrier/Whippet crosses - hence my note about JRs in the post... hey, maybe they should consider banning whippets too... (!)

Unknown said...

Well. From what I've read, they're originally pure fox terrier but they've been bred not on their conformation (aside from selecting short legged ones etc).

Em said...

I've read so many theories... The JR Club reckon they're from a couple of different old types of English terrier which are now extinct - they also specify that the true Jack Russell is the long-legged variety... I feel a post coming on!! :D