Breed specific legislation

If, like many dog lovers, you oppose breed specific legislation this campaign is one you’ll want to support.

Born Innocent, an organisation which lobbies against BSL legislation, is today asking the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) “Where is the Love?” for our dogs. The organisation is urging Defra to #Haveaheart and consider the plight of dogs who fall foul of the BSL laws.

Organisations and individuals from around the world have backed the charity in its aim to put an end to the controversial legislation which currently prohibits four types of dogs being kept in the UK. In the four months since the campaign was launched, people have flocked to support the petition. In fact more than 52,000 people have backed the RSPCAs opposition of BSL – and that’s just in the last four months.

The Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors (APBC) has added its voice to the growing chorus of concern over the Dangerous Dogs Act (DDA), 1991. The Act bans four types of dog, judging them by looks alone, rather than taking their behaviour into account, and the RSPCA, the Blue Cross and Battersea Dogs Home have brought out reports calling for change to the legislation.

The RSPCA wants people to demand that the Government launch an inquiry into how the Dangerous Dogs Act (DDA) applies breed specific legislation.

The Dangerous Dogs Act was introduced in 1991, and applies breed specific legislation via section 1. The RSPCA has this week released their report into the effectiveness of the act. Appropriately – in many ways – the report is called, Breed Specific Legislation: A Dog’s Dinner.

There has been a huge public response in the 24 hours since Battersea Dogs & Cats Home launched its damning report on the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. A quarter of a century since the law was passed, Battersea is calling for a repeal of Section One of the Act which outlawed four breeds of dogs from the UK: the Pit Bull Terrier, the Dogo Argentino, the Japanese Tosa and the Fila Braziliero.