Panorama

This wouldn’t be a dog blog if I don’t comment on Panorama last night. Obviously I watched it, any caring dog owner would, and that is unfortunately the problem. The ‘caring’ dog owners would not breed from a dog to make money. The ‘caring’ dog owners would not hand their dog into any rescue centre because it doesn’t match the furniture. The ‘caring’ dog owners already have their dogs chipped, vaccinated and maybe even neutered. ‘Its all those others’.

So what can be done? They could bring in licensing, and I would be very surprised if the government doesn’t, but that will cost a lot of money to administer and like all these things, the people that care will get it done and the people that don’t, wont.

It focused a lot on Staffies, not surprisingly, but there are lots of other dogs being bred for cash. Teacup Chihuahuas for instance can fetch up to and over £1000.00. And if you ask the breeder, they could ‘drop it round tonight’. The problem with Staffies is not the Staffies. It’s the media image of the Staff. Personally, I’ve met more snappy JRTs, Yorkies and Westies than Staffies, but these are normally the ‘nice’ ones, brought up by ‘caring’ dog people.

So, even though licensing I think will come to force, it wont stop the rescue centres being overwhelmed with unwanted dogs in the short term. I think its great that the Rescue Centres have finally come out and showed figures on how many healthy dogs are being put down. I am embarrassed to say that if Tommy were taken into Battersea, he would be put down. On lead, he can snap at another dog. There is no rhyme or reason, and sometimes he can be happy with a dog one day and not the next. So he would be PTS. I think I’d be hard pushed to find any dog that is completely bomb proof. But I suppose Battersea need an ‘excuse’ to keep putting these healthy dogs down.

I think they could look at the stipulations they have for rehoming, maybe ‘adjust the bar’ a bit. Look at the people wanting to adopt, not just if the box is ticked or not. I know a lot of people who have bought dogs because they couldn’t adopt and that leave their dogs at home all day whilst they are at work. Most of the owners feel guilty about that, and these dogs probably receive the same, if not more, attention, training, walking and care than someone who is at home all day. If they live in a flat, so what? If they are prepared to walk down the stairs to take ‘Tiddles’ out four / five times a day for wees, does it really matter?

I am worried about the future for dog owners. We live in an increasingly intolerant world where the media exasperate situations to a baying mob. Most cases, its not the dogs fault, it’s the owners. But who really wants to hear that??