New UK Licensing Laws – Ball Of Confusion

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146 – November/December 2019

By Lee Connor
I know that many of my American friends are following the great Brexit debacle with interest; a disgraceful episode still rumbling on over here three years after the result of the vote was announced, and many of you are scratching your heads in sheer disbelief at what is happening. So many have asked me, ‘What on earth has happened to your country?’
I cannot give a sensible reply; like a lot of my countrymen (well, those who live outside of London) I am equally baffled and ashamed by the pantomime unfolding all around me.
But, thankfully, I have my sensible world of dogs to retreat into…right? And surely there can be nothing in that world quite as infuriating or complicated as disentangling ourselves from forty-odd years inside the European Union…can there?
Well, funny you should say that because a year ago it was announced that new dog breeding licensing laws were to be introduced in England.
They were being brought in – allegedly – to ‘crackdown on puppy farms and puppy smugglers.’
Many of us were immediately skeptical. The government is notoriously bad at drafting animal laws, and especially laws pertaining to dogs. We all remember and are still living with the consequences of the Dangerous Dog Act. This ill-thought Act (a knee-jerk reaction to a number of high-profile dog attacks) by the then Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker, vowed to ‘rid the country of the menace of fighting dogs.’
Subsequently, the following four breeds were banned: Pit Bull Terrier, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino and Fila Brasileiro. The Act also covered crossbreeds of the four types.
Dangerous dogs were classified by how they looked, judged and condemned simply by the ‘type’ they resembled. This became known as a ‘breed-specific law’ but actually the law doesn’t recognize a dog’s pedigree.
Instead, UK legislation bases the decision on whether a dog is legal or not entirely on looks alone. Neither a dog’s breed, the breeds of its parents or even DNA testing is involved…the decision is made solely on looks and measurements. Obviously, this has brought about some farcical and some tragic outcomes. Classing a dog as ‘illegal’ based on looks alone means that in a litter of crossbreeds, half could be deemed illegal, whilst the others could be perfectly legal types.

Click here to read the complete article
146 – November/December 2019

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