Tag Archives: american pit bull terrier

12/3/11

National BSL? Say no!

Photos © Ruthless Photos

Here I go again!  If you have not sent letters to Brendan O’Connor or John Rau rejecting national BSL, click here to see past letter proformas.

If you have, good, now I’ve got another letter for you to send.

This letter I have tailored to be sent to Jay Weatherhill (SA Premier) and Paul Caica (minister for sustainability, environment, and conservation).  I also sent it to my local member.

It is (loosely) based on CommunityK9’s letter, which I also suggest you look at and consider sending. (If you’re not in SA, they have some recommendations on who you should be contacting. I’m a bit of a politics failure, so their suggested recipient list is a great help.)

You might even want to use bits of mine and bits of their’s.  I don’t mind. As long as you send a letter, I’m happy!

So, without further adieu, here’s the letter to be sent to Jay Weatherill (via vaughan.julienne@dpc.sa.gov.au) and Paul Caica (minister.caica@sa.gov.au). Continue reading →

11/28/11

South Australia: Don’t Copy Victoria’s BSL!

After my breed specific legislation letter writing spree, I just received a extremely concerning letter from The Hon. Brendan O’Connor MP (via Amanda Rishworth MP) regarding dangerous dog legislation is South Australia.

Photos © Ruthless Photos

This post is a call to action.  Now is the time to immediately write a letter of protest to Brendan O’Connor. We do not want South Australia to replicate the mistakes of Victoria’s breed specific dog legislation.

Letter from Brendan O'Connor - click to enlarge

The most fundamental aspect of the letter is this:

…the Australian Government … is taking steps to protect Australians from dangerous dogs… The Attorney-General and I have written to our State and Territory counterparts to encourage them to develop nationally consistent laws relating to the registration and management of dangerous dogs, including offences and penalties.

To me, there is no doubt, that these ‘nationally consistent laws’ mean copying the flawed and devastating laws hurriedly passed in Victoria, as a knee jerk reaction to the tragic death of Ayen Chol.  Already, Dr Karen Davies has described how “for the first time in 20 years I am questioning if I still want to do this job” euthanasing a sweet natured dog that unfortunately met the current description of a ‘pit bull’.  Then there stories of councils refusing to register dogs of pit bull type, leaving them vulnerable to euthanasia.  And rangers being abused while seizing unregistered pitties and systematically doorknocking to ensure annihilation of pitbulls in some council areas.

And, amongst this, dog bites are still happening in Victoria.

All dog savvy people know that this is only the beginning of the ‘epic fail’ that is Breed Specific Legislation.  Sadly, it seems that politics is more interested in looking sexy than reducing dog bites.

I have a letter written to both Brendan O’Connor and John Rau (the Attorney-General), and they’re provided in a more general fashion below.  You are most welcome to copy and paste these, word for word, or write similar letters to these individuals.  Please, please do something.  We can only try. Continue reading →

12/28/10

“Off the Chain”

Today I found an interesting documentary on dog fighting, called “Off the Chain” (you can watch the first part here on YouTube, and follow the links through to the other 5 parts.  Please be aware that some footage is quite graphic).

For me, I always like to get alternative viewpoints on issues.  This documentary achieved this.  There are plenty of segments that educate us on the evils and tragedy of dog fighting, but this documentary actually allowed us to hear people from the other side – people who fight dogs themselves.  I have never heard this viewpoint before, so I was very happy to get this perspective.
 

The major issue this documentary brings up to me is that dog fighters cannot seek medical treatment or humane euthanasia of their animals because of the fear of prosecution.  I wonder if there was more protection of dog fighters and their privacy if less animals would suffer.  (It is like drug users – when a person overdoses, we don’t then charge them for the use of an illicit substance.)

This documentary also covers the inefficiency of breed specific legislation, and brought up many points I agree with.

Another area of interest was that the rules for dog fighting was also covered.  They explained the procedures for a dog fight, and how winners are determined, etc.  This was very educational to me – I never knew of these rules and, actually, they seemed reasonably fair despite the questionable context.

Overall, I recommend anyone who can withstand some gore to view this documentary and see if it challenges your current thoughts about the dog fighting scene.