On Monday the 9th of June Gerda Verburg the Dutch Minister of Agriculture lifted the ban on Pit Bulls in the Netherlands. The law had been in place for 15 years. The main reason for the lift was because it was found to be ineffective.
Now existing laws will be enforced. These include making sure dogs are on lead and the promotion of education programs. There is also a plan for a temperament evaluation process for dogs displaying any aggressive tendencies.
“RAD exempted purebred dogs that were registered in Holland, such as the American Staffordshire Terrier and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. The policy was applied to non-registered dogs on the basis of their appearance as being of the “pit bull type”. These characteristics included a powerful build, a square head, a pointed tail and a short coat. Genuine pit bulls (American Pit Bull Terriers) are not recognized as a real breed in Holland, and therefore they could not be registered as purebred” says International Friends, Best Friends Network.
Rottweilers were added to the law in 2000 and this breed will also be removed.
Sadly however many innocent dogs have died since this law was introduced in 1993. Dog were not assessed before being euthanised. The criteria for destroying the dog was simply based on how the dog looked.
This is of course the problem with BSL or Breed Specific Legislation. It simply does nothing to protect human or dog and leads to the destruction of innocent dogs based on breed or appearance while the breeding of fighting dogs or aggressive dogs goes underground. Not forgetting the heartbreak caused to many dog owners who had to allow their loyal pets be destroyed.
The Netherlands have excellent, structured animal welfare laws and offer considerable help and assistance to many animal welfare organisations in other EU countries offering homes to many stray and unwanted dogs. This law was not in line with their other animal welfare laws and it is best that is has now been scrapped.
We support the Netherlands decision to get rid of this law and hope that other EU countries will follow suit and realise that BSL (Breed Specific Legislation) does not work. We need education and the promotion of responsible ownership. Punish the deed not the breed.
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Comments
This is Great, a good bit of common sense.
Surely every country should do this, we are in the year 2008 and we had better ideas hundreds of years ago- its obvious idiot people- idiot dogs. I myself am not a Pit bull enthuasiast but i still like them, i like some of the guarding breeds, their is a hell of alot of work in bringing up the perfect dog, the bigger more powerful the dog the more work and responsibility their is, the truth is any dog especially a big dominant breed is to much for the average person, and they have more brain than alot of their owners, so if some1 doesn’t understand or can’t be bothered say- to learn about a Rottweiler? why the hell are they buying 1 or better still ,they don’t deserve to, in my mind dog bites and attacks etc come from many reasons not just thugs, my examples- 1 – dim people. 2- people that have dogs but are not 100% into them, thugs, lack of training, owners lacking confidence and skills, treating a dog like a toy, mental torture and physical punishment the list goes on, and going by this their are very few attacks, and nearly every attack will go back to the owner not dog, bad driving bad crash, bad owner confused dog. WELL DONE HOLLAND, WELL DONE
banning pitbulls is like banning cars people get killed by cars in accidents whos responsible the car or the driver any car can be deadly in the wrong hands or with defected parts ……samething with dogs … any dog .pit bulls are no more responsible for the way they are breed raised or trained then cars are for the way they are designed ,build ,or driven …….in 2000 a 10 lb pomiranion killed a baby clearly the dog not the breed here but are they banned no becuse they are small little dogs and thats all i have to say but for we all should follow thier lead