A Real Shaggy Dog Story...

Harry - a banned breed of pit bull - was picked up by a dog warden last August and kept in kennels while his owners lodged an appeal with Sevenoaks Magistrates Court.

Couple Beth Golding and Jake Myers claimed their dog was a gentle animal who had been left stressed by his experience but the court heard he was a banned breed and the onus was on them to prove he was not dangerous.

Which task they were up to, right?

Reader, they were not....

The court heard how Harry the dog, who lived with Miss Golding in a three bedroom maisonette in Cheshire, had been staying with her partner's brother while the family went on holiday last summer.

Representing Miss Golding, Alison Morgan said there was a suggestion the animal had been sold but it was unclear how he ended up in Kent.

As murky as a chav's job prospects!

Miss Golding, 22, said her dog had never posed a risk to her two young children, age one and two and while at home had been obedient and loving.

She said she had owned Harry from the age of four weeks but had bought him believing him to be a Staffordshire bull terrier, a legal breed of dog.

She said since being told Harry was a pit bull after he was picked up last summer she had adapted her home putting up six feet fences around the property and child gates in every room.

She must have a really well paying job, eh?

Kent Police dog handler, Tracy Cook said she visited Harry at kennels at a secret location in the county last October where she assessed him to be "too much for a dog handler to handle"

She said despite the presence of two leads he had nearly pulled over her colleague, PC Nigel Marshall and had a "highly driven prey drive" with "endless resiliance."

Translation: The usual chavdog nightmare threatening everything in its path while the owner is absorbed in Facebook on their mobile...

...dog behaviourist, Nickola Engel said she did not consider the dog "presented a risk to anyone" and claimed his anxious behaviour and pulling on the lead could be attributed to the two months he had spent in kennels.

You really can pay any 'expert' to say anything you need them to in court, can't you?

But under questioning she admitted the dog had broken its lead in an attempt to get to some geese, pulling her over during a visit two days before that of the police assessment.

Oops!

...chairman of the magistrates bench, Anne Lightbody said they could not be sure the dog did not continue to pose a risk to public safety and therefore ordered him to be destroyed.

Thank god! Could the vet do the necessary on the useless mouthbreathing owners too?