The latest savage attack by three pitbulls should prompt government to push through long-awaited legislation to control dangerous animals, it was claimed yesterday.
A draft bill is already in the hands of the Attorney General’s office after a prolonged study by vets, government officials ans animal welfare workers.
“It is time this bill went through Parliament,” said Nassau vet Dr. Peter Bizzell, claiming the Bahamas Humane Society, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the verterinary profession had been involved in its drafting.
But he cautioned against targeting pitbulls, claiming that the breed is hard to define and that the real issue is confinement of potentially dangerous dogs, not the banning of a specific type.
Concern has been growing for some time that pitbulls are being bought as “designer dogs” by young Bahamian men, then allowed to breed with the local potcake population.
As a result, the once docile potcake packs are becoming increasingly aggressive while other pitbull derivatives are growing in number.
Dr. Bizzell said banning pitbulls is not the answer. Such regulations were easy to circumvent because by mating pitbulls with other aggressive breeds, it was possible to call them something else, he said.
And a ban might prompt enthusiasts to import even more aggressive breeds. “There are dogs worse than pitbulls, but I am not going to name them,” said Dr. Bizzell. “banning a breed is not the answer.”
He said legislation should target the “deed not the breed” and concentrate on the proper confinement, licensing and regulation of dogs with stiff penalties for offenders.
In Spain, he saids dogs carried microchips so that owners could be instantly identified. Dr. Bizzell said there was no evidence to suggest that pitbulls bite more than other dogs. In fact, US statistics show that cocker spaniels are top of the “biting league” but pitbulls were notorious because of their tenacity and power.
“What we need is for people to be taught responsibility,” he said.
Source: The Tribune
