BULLDOG’S TORTURE SHOCKS US ALL

From my Crossing the headlines column in Dog World (13 April 2016) I reflect on the case of Baby the Bulldog whose abusive owners were let off lightly.

Reading through the newspapers there are many, many times that you literally despair at the depths of depravity mankind can sink to and one story I read last week really made me wonder what on earth has gone wrong with some of our young people today and it seriously makes me fear for the future.

Andrew and Daniel Frankish’s hideous crime only came to light, two years after the offences had been committed, all because of a sim card being discovered on the floor of a supermarket. When the footage contained on the card was played it revealed truly harrowing footage of two brothers systematically torturing their pet Bulldog.

DOG CARTOONS – OCTOBER 2013

Here’s links & page numbers of cartoons in the October 2013 issues of Dog News (USA):

4th October 2013 (page 122) http://issuu.com/dognews/docs/100413 (Welsh Terrier)

11th October 2013 (page 75) http://issuu.com/dognews/docs/101113 (French Bulldog)

18th October 2013 (page 133) http://issuu.com/dognews/docs/101813 (Variety of Puppies)

25th October 2013 (page 100) http://issuu.com/dognews/docs/102513 (Yorkshire Terrier & Japanese Chin)

 

NO POLISH BUT PLENTY OF SPRAY-PAINT

From my ‘Crossing the headlines’ column in Dog World (11th September 2013) where I discuss the need for a common sense approach to the issue of dog fouling and litter in general.

 

It’s a subject guaranteed to provoke a storm of response, so it’s no great surprise to see the perennial problem of ‘dog turd’ once again raising its ugly head in the media.
Recently, Rochford Council announced that it was going to tackle the problem by giving the poo deposited on its streets ‘the Essex spray tan treatment’ by spraying it a tangerine shade of bright orange. It is hoped that the bizarre project will shock owners who fail to pick up after their pets into changing their bad habits. The press proclaimed it as a ‘novel experiment’ but, of course, dog owners know different.
A town near to where I live attempted a similar stunt back in 2010 but their colour of choice was a dark Phthalo green (which I thought was a rather strange choice for faeces deposited on parkland) and they also had high hopes that the ‘shock value’ would persuade errant dog owners to ‘pick up’.
On a recent trip to the town it was clearly evident that the headline-grabbing gimmick hadn’t worked as one had to assume moves that would make any ballet star envious simply to avoid stepping in the many doggy deposits.

SOMETIMES YOU JUST NEED TO LISTEN

From my Dog World column ‘Crossing the headlines’ (10th July 2013) where I look into the direction our UK Kennel Club appears to be heading in.

These are certainly turbulent times for the world of pedigree dogs. Hardly a week goes by without some edict being issued from Clarges Street that often results in the stirring up of simmering resentment! What with the reductions in CC allocation, the registration of ‘undesirable colours’ and now the talk of registering ‘cockerpoos’ and ‘doodles’. It’s certainly left a number of us scratching our heads in confusion questioning the direction in which our Kennel Club is heading?

Well it seems we need question no longer as a recent article by Ronnie Irving appears to shed light on the KC’s thinking. It appears that because 4,000 labradoodles were microchipped last year (through the KC’s microchipping system) it now feels compelled to “help and advise” the breeders of such dogs on how to breed healthy animals. One way of doing so, it claims, is to welcome them onto the Assured Breeder Scheme and encourage them to use the relevant health screening tests.

THE WRONG END OF THE PYRAMID?

From the letters page of Dog World (8th March 2013)

A few nights ago I was flicking through the TV channels at home and, despite the vast array of channels, as usual, there was precious little worth watching. However, I did have the misfortune of stumbling across a documentary on BBC3 focussing on the every day lives of the inhabitants of the Harpurhey council estate in Manchester. Now, the only thing that held my attention was the sight of a litter of eight ‘boxer’ puppies – eight snow-white puppies galloping through the kitchen and front room of a crowded two up two down styled terraced house. I was intrigued and continued watching. It turned out that the couple owned an almost-identical pair of white ‘boxers’ (siblings?) and, of course, the inevitable happened and a litter was born. The programme followed the couple’s desperate attempts to find the pups new homes before they sank beneath an unrelenting sea of faeces and urine! A friend later told me that the previous week’s episode showed a couple whose pair of ‘chihuahuas’ had given birth to a litter of five pups.

MICROCHIPPING: THE BACKLASH

From the news pages of Dog World (27th February 2013)

In less than a week since my letter was published in Dog World, responses came in from four major parties involved in the pro-microchipping campaign. Interestingly, their defence was a regurgitation of meaningless (and later disproven) statistics and propaganda and failed to confidently answer my questions.

http://www.dogworld.co.uk/product.php/88727

DANGERS OF MICROCHIPPING

From the letters page of Dog World (22nd February 2013)

I am surprised at the widespread blanket acceptance of the recent compulsory microchipping announcement. It seems everyone from the Kennel Club to the Blue Cross and obviously the Veterinary Association welcomes the proposals with open arms. I found it strange that such a monumental move didn’t bring about any dissenting voices. Maybe, I thought, this was one of those rare cases where everyone was ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’ but, with a bit of research, I discovered this wasn’t the case.