Tuesday 8 December 2009

Hard Cases = Bad Law

Veronica Lynch, mother of Kelly Lynch who was mauled to death by two Rottweilers in Scotland, has been hauled out by the 'Daily Express' in a bid to wrest away the crown of 'Most Opportunistic Chip Wrapping' in the UK:
Everytime a child dies like this I feel sick to the pit of my stomach. It is as if it is happening to Kelly again. I will be writing to Gordon Brown asking what his plans are because he cannot ignore this problem any longer. His Government has just not done enough.

These deaths can be prevented but not until the Government wakes up and changes the law. Dogs and their owners should be strictly regulated by the authorities.
Oh, you can see what's coming, can't you?
All owners and their dogs should be put on a national register so they would have to go through a licensing process and not everyone would be granted a licence if they were unsuitable to keep one of these animals.

Then they would be subjected to annual checks to see if their circumstances are changed, if there had been any incidents or if there was any breeding going on.

I even believe there should be a limit to how many dogs one person can keep. It must be extremely difficult to keep control of one powerful dog, let alone two.
All dogs? Mrs Doyle's chihuahua is to be registered along with Wayne 'Stabby' McChav's pedigree Pit Bull/Alligator cross? In what world does that make any sense?

And how are we supposed to pay for this, given that Gordoom has bankrupted the country? It isn't just the register itself, it's the salary and IT and accommodation for the thousands of civil servants needed to check on the estimated 22% of the population that own a dog...
The Government managed to introduce the smoking ban, which no one thought would work but look at how easily that was put into place.
/headdesk
I know a national register would upset a lot of dog owners but it’s the only way. Besides, responsible owners have nothing to fear.
Ah, heard that one before...
I’m not anti-dog, I’ve owned dogs all my life but there are certain breeds that are too unpredictable and too powerful to be allowed without tight regulation. If it is done right then powerful dogs would never end up in the wrong hands.
Yup. The gun laws after Dunblane made sure that handguns never ended up in the wro...

Ah. Right.
I spent a lot of my life campaigning to get the laws changed after Kelly’s awful death. The Dangerous Dogs Act came about on the back of this but it was so disappointing because it didn’t include breeds like Staffordshire Bull terriers.

Staffordshires are billed as being good with children but if that is true why are there so many that attack youngsters and end up maiming or killing them?
I know, it's a complete mystery, isn't it?

I mean, it's like the way BMW boast of their car's amazing road-holding capability, yet stiil each year, some of them leave the road and hit trees and brick walls! What's up with that?

Could it be there are other factors at work, and that they are the problem?

All we need now to complete this mishmash of control freakery, mawkish 'Do it for the chilldreeen!' sentimentality and selfishness is a nice conspiracy theory.

And right on cue:
Campaigning was cathartic but it was also extremely difficult on a personal level. Nothing could bring Kelly back. There is a powerful dog lobby: it’s a big-money business and they will defend their breeds extremely robustly.
Well, it could have been the Jews behind it, I suppose. That's the usual 'shadowy powerhungry group' of desperation...
People need to be constantly reminded that we have a duty to protect our children and it is a duty in which we are failing.
No. People do not, and people are not. Individuals may well be.

How about we approach the problem by focussing on them, for a change?

But no. With the parlous straits the Labour Party now find themselves in, I can see some clown tabling a bill before long, in the desperate hope of winning the votes of the 'out of their minds with grief' voting bloc...

9 comments:

SaltedSlug said...

Christ, they'll take any toe-hold they can find, won't they?

von Spreuth. said...

All owners and their dogs should be put on a national register so they would have to go through a licensing process and not everyone would be granted a licence if they were unsuitable to keep one of these animals.

Then they would be subjected to annual checks to see if their circumstances are changed, if there had been any incidents or if there was any breeding going on.

I even believe there should be a limit to how many dogs one person can keep. It must be extremely difficult to keep control of one powerful dog, let alone two.


Hold on a minute.

This article could have been taken DIRECTLY from the pre gun ban firearms certificate!

No, in fact I am bloody CONVINCED he has taken an old F.C and replaced "Gun" with "Dog".

Ask ANY one who had one, or was a copper at the time, doing "yearly checks on gun owners".

And we ALL know where THAT led!

von Spreuth. said...

Reminds me of Monty Pythons "Cat licence".

"You have taken a dog licence, scribbled out the word dog, in purple crayon, and written in "cat"".

Mike said...

Easy tiger, this is another case that can simply be put down, like the dog was to bad parenting

The only loser then was an innocent child

Jeff Wood said...

Von Spreuth, you are right.

You may also remember we had to get permission on our ticket for the precise calibre (breed) of (dogs) we proposed to acquire; acquisitions of (dogs) had to be notified to Licensing within 72 hours.

Disposals of (dogs) had to be similarly notified. We could sell or give (dogs) only to other certificated persons or dealers.

Ammo, sorry dog biscuits could only be held up to certain quantities and calibres, and licensing officers would sometimes count them.

If you wanted another (dog) you had to apply for permission, and it was easier if you got a one-for-one variation and disposed of one dog before acquiring another.

Actually you still do, but I tossed my firearms certificate on the table at the time of the last Confiscations. Played into their hands in a way, but I will never again own a gun at the discretion of any current British government.

von Spreuth said...

I have my service weapons, which stay at work, and my personel weapons. Obvoously licenced.

But then at present, my back garden is the winter quarters for the cannon. six six pounders, five six pounder Haubitzer, which to the layman look just like cannon anyway, and three mortars. All of them "live fire". (They are for the Re-enactment group I am in).

Twenty+ kilo of black powder in the cellar. a hundred meters of slow match, and a couple of hundred pecussion caps.

My peronal Muskets (five Brown Bess, a Baker carbine), and three 1800 Navy boarding pistols.

And, except for the black powder, I need a licence for NONE of them.

In fact they do not even need to be "owner registered"

But take the dog for a walk, and if you have no "licence", you CAN get a €500 fine.

Explain THAT???

(Rhetorical question)

Mike said...

guns don't kill people, people kill people

dogs kill anything they can eat unless they are trained to look like a rat with a hollywood hair-do, in that case they just make noise and waste air

chavs are lower than people, guns and dogs, they have no purpose

the best gun in the world is one that is never used

JuliaM said...

"Christ, they'll take any toe-hold they can find, won't they?"

Yup! And if its 'for the children!!' they get an easier ride...

"This article could have been taken DIRECTLY from the pre gun ban firearms certificate!

No, in fact I am bloody CONVINCED he has taken an old F.C and replaced "Gun" with "Dog"."


And it'll be about as much use...

"...this is another case that can simply be put down, like the dog was to bad parenting"

It does seem odd that she only realised that Rottweilers were powerful, potentiqally dangerous animals after the fact.

But then, there were two other people with her, so she may have assumed a level of safety that didn't exist.

"Played into their hands in a way..."

Not really much choice, given the alternatives. And the sentences passed on illegal gun owners who had not realised the law changes, such as the chap recently with the revolver in storage.

Although, it can be easier for some to escape charges...

banned said...

Owners and traders of pit-bulls and the like should be put down.