Dangerous dogs: Bred to fight, left to die

By David Harrison 558PM GMT thirteen March 2010

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A dog"s hold up one of the neglected "staffies" at the RSPCA"s Harmsworth Memorial Hospital in north London Photo Geoff Pugh

The mild house pet was brought to the animal sanatorium on Thursday. The cross-bred Staffordshire longhorn terrier had been pounded by an additional dog and bitten so exceedingly on the leg that the bone was exposed.

"It was a intolerable case," says David Grant, the executive of the RSPCAs Harmsworth Memorial Hospital in north London. "But in 41 years as a oldster I have never seen so majority cases of cruelty and slight as I am observant today."

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To spell out his point he walks along a line of cages, each containing a dog with unhappy eyes, mostly "staffie crosses", Staffordshire longhorn terriers cross-bred with incomparable dogs in an try to have their owners see tougher.

"This one was knocked about by the owner," he says. "That one was carnivorous and emaciated. This one was harmed after a quarrel with an additional dog. And that one was scored equally to a vituperation and deserted after being used to breed."

It is a joyless gallery. Last week, in the face of flourishing regard about "status dogs", the Government voiced a examination of the Dangerous Dogs Act and a offer that owners should have to take out mandatory word for their pets. But Mr Grant is not assured that will have any stroke on the outrageous numbers of standing dogs being bred in Britain for profit, for word and for fights.

He watches a veterinary helper take an svelte dog out of the cage. The dogs spinal column is perceivable by wafer-thin skin notwithstanding days of being fed well at the hospital. "The owners brought it in observant it hadnt eaten for a month. Yet when we gave it a play of food it gobbled it up. Will new laws or word have any disproportion to an owners similar to that?"

Mr Grant, 65, says that majority people who abuse their dogs have usual characteristics. "They are customarily young, ill-educated males, from poor, inconstant backgrounds, live on the misfortune legislature estates and are mostly concerned with gangs and drug and alternative crimes. They live outward the law. They have no status, so they find standing from their dogs."

Many of the dogs brought in have been harmed in fights. "We get dual or 3 a day," Mr Grant says. Last Wednesday there were three, brought in by the owners. In the watchful room there are dual more.

"Theres no point banning a multiply of dog because, as we are observant today, they will simply have make make make use of of of of alternative breeds and crosses and spin them in to infamous animals," he says. "The Staffordshire longhorn terrier and the longhorn mastiff are great family pets, but they have been demonised since of what insane owners have done."

The owners impel and infrequently woe their dogs to have them aggressive. They set them on alternative dogs, and cling to them from branches to make firm their jaws. Often the quarrel is with a dog owned by a part of of a opposition gang, but infrequently they are set on trusting pets, terrifying the dogs and their owners.

"We get people entrance in sad since their dog has been severely harmed by a dog egged on by the owner," Mr Grant says.

Many explain the dogs are required for word on severe legislature estates and a little relatives have speedy their immature kids quite girls to have make make make use of of of of pets in this way. Police contend thugs mostly have make make make use of of of of dogs instead of knives, that are some-more expected to lead to a prison sentence. They give the dogs names such as Killer, Terror, Chaos and Asbo, and have make make make use of of of of them to conflict people in streets and parks.

The claims are corroborated by the statistics. The RSPCA says dual thirds of the complaints it receives are about immature people utilizing dogs as weapons. The series of dog owners prosecuted for causing damage rose by 50 per cent in in between 2003 and 2007, according to the Ministry of Justice.

More than 1,000 standing dogs were seized underneath the Dangerous Dogs Act in London alone last year, up from only 43 in 2003, but the complaint is abundant all over Britain.

The new "weapons" can, however, spin targets. Vets at the sanatorium not long ago treated with colour with colour a dog that had been shot. Twenty-three pellets were private from the head. Owners mostly spin on their own dogs, with acts of cruelty that pauper belief. They spin indignant with the dog for a innumerable of reasons it is not as big and clever as they would like; it is not a great fighter; it urinates on the building when it is fearful of being beaten; or merely since the owners wants to recover his own restrained anger.

Recent cases at the sanatorium embody dogs whose owners have stabbed them, scalded them, stubbed out cigarettes all over their bodies, and a usual one kicked them and pennyless their legs.

In one new box a three-month-old puppy an additional staffie cranky was found erratic the streets with a damaged jaw, the outcome of a aroused kick. Vets detected that it additionally had a damaged leg and damaged ribs. "In the initial 3 months this puppy suffered 3 attacks that had damaged bones," says Mr Grant. "It creates you consternation what sort of people we are traffic with. I am certain that in majority of the misfortune cases the owners have been dipsomaniac or high on drugs. But so majority only dont assimilate that they are being vicious to their dogs, or they think the OK to be cruel."

Mr Grant says that majority of the immature men and a little women similar to to have the dogs as something they can carry out in their lives. "Thats since you see a little of these dogs off the lead. The owners are display off since they think they can click their fingers and the dogs will obey. But that doesnt regularly happen."

He creates a eminence in in between those who wish "status dogs" to see difficult and those who wish "fashion dogs" to see cool. But he says both are paid for by people who have no thought about how to see after them properly. "They are not fed or tranquil properly, they get diseases that are not treated with colour with colour and, when the owners get fed up with them, they are thrown out on to the streets," he says.

The direct for staffie crosses and alternative dogs not criminialized by the Dangerous Dogs Act has pushed up the cost of a puppy and stirred majority owners to multiply dogs "indiscriminately", according to the sanatorium director. The dogs can fetch up to �500 each, but when the mom has served her tact role she is mostly abandoned.

At the hospital, Michelle Canwell, 25, a veterinary nurse, rises a staffie cranky out of the cage. "This one was deserted since it had been used to multiply and once it had finished that the owners no longer longed for it," she says.

The Dangerous Dogs Act bans array longhorn types, Japanese Tosas, and the dogo Argentino and fila Brasileiro mastiffs, and allows military to seize any dogs that are dangerously out of carry out or if they are used to bluster or dominate someone. Illegal dogs have to be put down, but dogs homes are incompetent to cope with the series of seized dogs watchful for great homes.

Mr Grant says the law is woefully unsound to understanding with standing dogs, and the RSPCA and the military are left to "sort out an unholy mess". He would similar to some-more internal authorities to follow Wandsworth legislature in south London, that is piloting a programme that would bluster legislature tenants with eviction if they unsuccessful to keep their dogs responsibly.

"The dogs are not the problem," he says. "Its the owners we have to sort out."