Rescues Having To Report Any Dogs With 'type' Characteristics

[purple_mog]

Hey folks,

 

just looking to see what other experiences are really - one of the rescues local to me that I do a fair bit of rehab work with has a new policy to follow. Just to make it absolutely clear this has been introduced by a head office type place, the local staff are very unhappy about it and feel it doesn't help the dogs or their work.

 

Basically, every time a dog is surrendered/taken in as a stray etc the staff have to fill out a questionnaire which includes the (ridiculous) list of 'type' characteristics. If the dog is deemed to have any ONE of these, the police must be informed and a 'trained' officer will assess the dog. If dog is felt to be of type, the dog will then be destroyed.

 

I'm trying to find out if this is a national policy in any sense, if any other rescues/branches of rescues have been asked to do this and their experiences. Is it in fact a legal requirement???

 

Many thanks

Mog

[cycas]

First Oldies have heard of this so far as I know - though as our dogs are all oldies in foster homes we probably wouldn't be first to get a letter..

[blackmagic]

It would be illegal for a rescue to rehome a dog that is of type so I expect the rescue are covering themselves.

[gremlin22]

we have been told we must do it at our rspca branch, handed down from on high! but a member of staff has to attend a dog identification course run by DLO so if they don't feel it is of type it doesn't get reffered but if they felt it may be it must be reported to local DLO.

deed not breed all the way...that said we recently ran a microchipping event and someone "may have" attended claiming their dog was a red nose pitt cross...they "may have" told us that...some people are clueless..

[Rumpole]

in theory if you have a pit bull type in your possession you are committing a criminal offence whether or not you knew the dog was type.

 

if you were then to rehome a pit bull type again whether you knew or not you would be committing two criminal offences.

 

In practice not everyones an expert and that is accepted by the authorities in the majority of cases.

 

However if your possessed then rehomed said pit bull type was to come to the attention of the authorities for doing something bad in theory you could be dragged into things, in practice you are not an expert and werent to know, so although you had possessed and rehomed an illegal dog and would be guilty as these are strict liability offences you would be unlikely to be penalised unless you did it knowledgeably however if you were brought to court you would be guilty

 

so its a back covering exercise

[Happylittlegreensquirrel]

Mel

 

could you answer a question for me that I meant to ask weeks ago and forgot

 

 

are the police visiting rescues in london/countrywide to assess dogs like was shown briefly on the Panorama Battersea program or is that solely at Battersea

 

 

Thanks

[Rumpole]

Battersea work with the Met police by choice and some local councils will bring in the police if they feel they have a type dog in their care (pound)

 

The police will also as always act on complaint so if someone calls them to say i believe such and such (private owner or kennels)has an illegal dog in their possession they will respond as they will do to a report of any criminal offence.

 

But they do not as a general rule go trolling round rescues looking for possible pit bulls.

 

If they were to be called out to a rescue then the rescue would have to go forward as owner and provide a designated keeper in order to be able to get the dog registered, technically this means the dog cannot be rehomed to anyone else.

[Happylittlegreensquirrel]

Thanks Mel