Dogs Trust & Kennel Club quietly omit “bully breeds” from politicians’ “Dog of the Year” vote. Royal SPCA rehomes bully breeds but does not insure them.
LONDON, United Kingdom––Amid ongoing heated national debate over proposed amendments to the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, either to expand the list of prohibited dogs to include the pit bull variant American Bully XL, or to drop breed-specific provisions entirely, a recent joint announcement from Dogs Trust and the Kennel Club could scarcely have been more disingenuous.
“We’re delighted that the Westminster Dog of the Year competition will be returning in September 2023, taking place in Victoria Tower Gardens,” the announcement began.
The Westminster Dog of the Year competition has no relationship to the annual Westminster Dog Show held in New York City by the American Kennel Club.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Contest held to butter up Members of Parliament
Rather, it is a popularity contest among participating Members of Parliament and their dogs. Members of the public choose their favorites from photographs of the politicians and dogs.
“Since 1992,” Dogs Trust and the Kennel Club continued, “the Westminster Dog of the Year competition has enabled The Kennel Club and Dogs Trust to engage with parliamentarians who are passionate about dogs and to identify those who are willing to raise canine issues and policies in Parliament.”
Just what “canine issues and policies” are currently before Parliament?
Dogs Trust, the Kennel Club, the Royal SPCA, the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, and the British Veterinary Association have together long been leading proponents of gutting the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, calling themselves “The Dog Control Coalition.”
(See The RSPCA recommends you & your pets for a pit bull’s dinner.)
Why so-called “Dog Control Coalition” wants to undo the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
The central feature of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 is a poorly enforced national ban on four “foreign” pit bulls and pit bull variants: the American Pit Bull Terrier, the Dogo Argentino, the Fila Brasiliero, and the Japanese Tosa.
Pit bulls identified by any other name, including Staffordshire, American Bully (XL or otherwise), Bull Mastiff, Olde English Bulldog, and Cane Corso, remain legal and increasingly common in the United Kingdom, along with Rottweilers and other known high-risk breeds.
Despite that, the Dogs Trust, Royal SPCA, and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home remain––like most animal shelters in the U.S.––full to bursting with pit bulls they cannot find anyone to adopt.
Also like most of the U.S. animal sheltering sector, the leadership of Dogs Trust, Royal SPCA, and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home are imbued with the notion that somehow, if only they could suppress the deadly reputation of pit bulls, they could place all the pit bulls they cannot place now in good homes.
None of the participating pols pose with bull breeds
Continued Dogs Trust chief executive Owen Sharp, “The Westminster Dog of the Year competition is strictly apolitical; judges will be looking for the dogs’ good deeds and devotion to their owner rather than policies or opinions. It’s a fun filled day out with an important message at its core – helping to promote dog welfare issues and encourage responsible ownership.”
Here is where the disingenuous element becomes most evident.
Among the 16 participating Members of Parliament posing with their dogs for the 2023 competition, the dogs include five Labrador retrievers, two cocker spaniels, two cockapoos, one Jack Russell, one Sprocker spaniel, one Cavapooshon, one Saluki, and one Cairn terrier.
Two participating Members of Parliament are not posed with a dog, but one says she formerly had two spaniels. Those two Members of Parliament say they will allow Dogs Trust to choose a dog for them––but that dog, whatever the breed, is not shown to voters.
None of the dogs depicted in connection with the 2023 Westminster Dog of the Year competition are pit bulls, or any other breed generally recognized as dangerous.
The Royal SPCA can’t count
At that, though, the Dogs Trust and Kennel Club joint announcement barely approached the hypocrisy of an August 14, 2023 Royal SPCA “urgent” warning against expanding the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
“According to the RSPCA,” summarized Ryan Paton and Catherine Addison-Swan of GBNews, “dog bites have increased 154% in the past 20 years, with 48 deaths from dog-related incidents between 1989 and 2017. Of the 62 dogs involved in these incidents, 53 were breeds not on the banned list.”
The Royal SPCA count is, first of all, incomplete. ANIMALS 24-7 has logged details of 63 fatal dog attacks in the United Kingdom since the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 took effect, involving 84 total dogs, 69 of them pit bulls.
(See United Kingdom dog attack fatalities, 1991-present.)
Also supposed to have been banned under the Dangerous Dogs Act were any dog bearing the characteristics of the dog breeds specifically named, but that language has never been enforced.
RSPCA sued for injury inflicted by pit bull
The Royal SPCA is also currently facing a liability lawsuit, filed in April 2023, seeking compensation in excess of £200,000 for having fostered out an “American bulldog” named Kiwi, who was in fact a pit bull, to Joanna Harris, 49, of Crowborough, East Sussex, after Kiwi had previously attacked two other women.
Harris alleges that the previous attacks were not disclosed to her. Kiwi in early September 2021 mauled Harris so badly that her left arm was amputated.
Responded the RSPCA to the lawsuit in a prepared statement, “We assess the health and behavioral needs of animals before rehoming,” adding that it will take a dog back “if the new owner does not feel happy or safe.”
However, reported Mark Duell for The Daily Mail, “It is also alleged [in the Harris lawsuit] that the RSPCA failed to remove Kiwi from Ms. Harris’s house when she reported that he tried to bite her on August 26, 2021 – a week before the incident in which she was injured.”
The RSPCA sells pet insurance that does not cover bully breeds
Since the Royal SPCA also sells insurance covering the dogs it rehomes, one might presume that Harris’ injury was covered.
Not so, reported Charlie Peters of GBNews on August 18, 2023.
Instead, Peters found, the RSPCA “Pet Insurance policy limitations state that it will not pay for any claims for dozens of breeds, including the American Bulldog, American Indian Dog, American Pit Bull Terrier, American Rottweiler, American Staffordshire Terrier, Irish Staffordshire Blue Bull Terrier, Irish Staffordshire Bull Terrier, [and] Pit Bull Terrier.”
Further, the RSPCA “policy states that no claims will be paid for dogs who are ‘mixed or crossbred with any of these breeds.’
“It is standard to exclude a list of breeds based on their own rating factors”
“The American Bully XL, which the RSPCA has opposed being prohibited,” Peters observed, “is an American Pit Bull Terrier cross, which would see any owners of the breed being blocked from its insurance policies.”
An RSPCA spokesperson told Peters, he wrote, that “Our insurance is provided by a third party and unfortunately it is standard to exclude a list of breeds based on their own rating factors.
“We are not able to change the list of excluded breeds and the alternative would be offering no insurance.”
“This is rank hypocrisy”
Responded economist Sam Bowman, to Peters, “If they truly believed that these breeds were safe, and other insurers were wrong, then the RSPCA could win more business by offering insurance for these dogs where their competitors would not.”
Added Lawrence Newport, maker of a recent film about dog attacks, “This is rank hypocrisy. Does the RSPCA think these dogs are dangerous or not?”
(See the Newport film here: https://www.lawrencenewport.co.uk/p/why-are-so-many-children-dying-to.)
Current polling suggests that about 57% of British voters favor expanding the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 list of prohibited breeds––and enforcing it to the letter.
Irish law bans none, but restricts all pit bulls & several others
This is what has long been done in the Republic of Ireland, which has had four fatal dog attacks since 2015, compared to 34 in the United Kingdom.
Explained Brendan Keane for the Enniscorthy Guardian on December 6, 2022, “The Control of Dogs Act was introduced in 1986.
“In Ireland there are no dogs banned. However, 11 breeds are on a restricted list that means conditions are attached to who owns them, where they can be housed, and how they are controlled when out in public.
“The dogs on the restricted list include: American Pit Bull Terrier; English Bull Terrier; Staffordshire Bull Terrier; Bull Mastiff; Doberman Pinscher; Rottweiler; German Shepherd; Rhodesian Ridgeback; Akita; and Japanese Tosa.
“The eleventh dog on the restricted list is categorized as ‘Bandog,’ which is a cross-breed of any of the aforementioned restricted list dogs.
“An XL Bully, although not on the main restricted list, is categorized under the ‘Bandog’ tag as restricted.
“All dogs on the restricted list,” Keane finished, “must be muzzled and on a lead in public at all times. The lead must be strong and short – no longer than six feet, six inches in length. Such dogs must also wear collars with the owner’s contact information.”
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