Lennox

There is a dog called Lennox in Belfast, Ireland, with a noose around his neck.

He’s been living like that for two years. In a kennel after being ripped away from his family for simply looking like a Pitball Terrier. His registration papers, issued by the same council that did the impounding, say he’s a Bull Dog. He has done nothing to cause the community concern. There was no reason for his detention or death sentence.

News on Twitter, Facebook and other media sites have been saying for the last week that he’s due to be killed tonight. That’s every night for the last week. They also say that his family have been told they are not allowed to visit him in his final hours and his ashes will be posted to them. We don't know the details of what's happening currently, but you can be sure the basics are true.

We had a similar case recently in Melbourne, Australia. Luckily, that dog was returned to his owners after an investigation.

Both of these stories have occurred because of one thing. Breed Specific Legislation.

Frankly it’s rubbish.

How can you punish an animal based purely the misfortune of it's birth.

Do we punish people born into poor, bad neighbourhoods purely because their heritage tells us they are likely to commit crime. No, we wait until they do, if they do. If they do, then they get imprisoned. Why can't we extend the same courtesy to dogs?

Throughout my life I've seen different breeds come under fire. Dobermans, Rottweilers, German Shepherds and now PitBulls.

Any dog has the ability to be vicious. One of the scariest dogs I ever met was a Pomeranian. Cute and fluffy to look at, but if you got within a five feet radius of his ‘territory’ and that was whereever he happened to be, he’d latch on and only let go if you poured water down his nose holes. Sounds cruel, but that dog did damage. I wouldn’t go near it, or Santa as he was named. The owner would say, ‘Oh, never mind dear, he’s just being protective.’

That dog lived to be 16 years old with his owner defending his name, the whole neighbourhood wanted him gone, he was a menace and proved it many times. I was lucky enough not to be scared for life. He was a Pom, how dangerous could a Pom be? He never did, but I’m pretty sure if a toddler had ever wandered into his range, he could have done fatal damage.

Of course, the council wasn’t interested. We had a vendetta against a harmless, yappy, little fluffball according to them. You can bet your butt if it had been something bigger, they’d have been around like a shot.

I have friends that have bull breeds. My friends are calm, loving and most of all, leaders of their packs. The dogs are smoochy, friendly and well behaved with other dogs and humans alike.

If we need to stop anything, it’s stupid owners that don’t know how to treat dogs to get the best from them.

BSL doesn’t work, it’s a faulty system that punishes arbitrarily. Think about what you're doing governments and councils of the world.

Most of all though, I'd like to say, if he isn’t dead already, let Lennox go!





Update: 23.58pm Lennox has been put to sleep in Belfast http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/news/news.asp?id=3109