Lennox - A dog sentenced to death because of the way he looks

When a couple gets divorced they sometime use their children as pawns. It is a most disgraceful tactic.

How is using this dog in order to fight a court decision, and hope that legislation is changed or ignored, different to that?

Originally Posted by rin

People should not be allowed to have Pit bulls.

wow, is this the middle ages when a person owning a cat was considered a witch? i think that one should have a license if they want to own a *dangerous* breed of dog, or a dog which is a mix of such breed.

pitbulls may be difficult to own, indeed. but dogs can be trained to behave, to be aggressive or not to be aggressive. there are special equipment which can be used in order to minimize the chances for the dog to bite, as far as i know. dogs shouldnt walk around the street without a leash, even i it's nice to see them proudly walking in front of their owner..
fixing the dog may actually be good for both the dog and his owner, in more than one way.

and if the *authorities*take your dog away from one reason or another, you cant just walk in and take it back. but they should decide really fast what they want to do with it, and not wait 2 years for whatever they were waiting for. the family could have gotten a new dog by now, and carried on with their lifes..

It's like in my country, Huskies are so popular and don't get me wrong they're lovely but dammit this country is tropical. It barely gets any colder than 24*C. Poor dogs! :((((

Originally Posted by NekoTheCat

wow, is this the middle ages when a person owning a cat was considered a witch? i think that one should have a license if they want to own a *dangerous* breed of dog, or a dog which is a mix of such breed.

pitbulls may be difficult to own, indeed. but dogs can be trained to behave, to be aggressive or not to be aggressive. there are special equipment which can be used in order to minimize the chances for the dog to bite, as far as i know. dogs shouldnt walk around the street without a leash, even i it's nice to see them proudly walking in front of their owner..
fixing the dog may actually be good for both the dog and his owner, in more than one way.

and if the *authorities*take your dog away from one reason or another, you cant just walk in and take it back. but they should decide really fast what they want to do with it, and not wait 2 years for whatever they were waiting for. the family could have gotten a new dog by now, and carried on with their lifes..

Yes, can, and you know that many people would want a dangerous dog for the only reason that they would then belong to an elite group. For such people training the dog would just be an inconvenience not to be bothered with.

There are so many dog breeds, why does it have to be a dangerous breed?

[Chrysaetos]

Some people even let their pitbulls run freely in the street. I just found it out today when I was walking with my dog. He came by and started attacking and if it wasn't for another man coming by and our shouting the pitbull could've killed my dog. Luckily he has no wounds.

Disgusting creature..

Time to carry a knife (or perhaps something more serious) when you're letting your dog out.. How sad it that?

The owner is to be blamed, but it's always the same breeds who are aggressive and they should no longer be bred. I encounter so many breeds while walking and there are plenty who only lick and play. But others are just aggressive and should be dealt with accordingly.

[beloved_ofmars]

Originally Posted by LPC

I won't comment on the legislation about pit bulls, but why can't the family get a vet to do a definitive breed identification? Cross-breeds are not forbidden, as far as I know. Or even as a last result (although expensive), they could get a DNA test done and then a court order for the dog's release.

Unfortunately, the law in the UK seems to be on the look of the dog rather than the breed. Lennox was seized and killed because of how he looked, a DNA test sadly would have made no difference.

Originally Posted by Rin

People should not be allowed to have Pit bulls. IMO a blanket ban is appropriate because only a few people can provide what this breed needs.

As far as Lennox goes, if the owners would love this dog they would have asked a vet to euthanase him long ago. How can someone put this dog through so much stress that he even loses his fur, and then claim they love him? What for? To prove that they are right? Incomprehensible.

No, they tried to save him because they loved him. As for people not being allowed to keep Pit Bulls, some people should not be allowed to keep dogs full stop. Michael Vick for a start, should never have been allowed to have those dogs. Many of the Vick dogs are now working as therapy dogs.
As for poor Lennox, he was killed by the Belfast City Council last month. Victoria Stilwell asked if she could take him, at no costs to the council, and take him to the US. They refused. I think that if Lennox had continued to exist, and gone on to get his Canine good citizenship award, it would have been highly embarrassing to them. The whole reason Lennox was killed was because they wanted to save face.
Rest in peace dear little dog, the fight against BSL will continue.

Poor Lennox.
You're correct, Rin, that that poor dog shouldn't have been left to suffer for two years during the legal proceedings. The photos of the place where they were keeping him are deplorable. And that's the biggest problem I see in this story. That's no place to hold an animal even for a few days. Even if the plan is to end their life at the end of their stay, that is terrible, terrible conditions.

The family just wanted someone they loved back, of course they fought against the system. Is it too much to hope that the opposing party could at least have taken the trouble to treat a living creature kindly while it was in their possession? I guess we don't know everything about how he was kept, but if Lennox was so stressed that he was losing large hanks of fur off his flank, we can reasonably assume the conditions were sub par. When the dog was taken, the people who took him also assumed responsibility for his treatment. There is no good reason why it should ever have gotten to the point that, as you implied, the kindest thing the family could do for him was allow him to be euthanized. Who treats a living thing, with no personal history of violence, that way?

[shadedragon]

I hear you all talk on ppl shouldn't breed dangerous dogs. But they do. And where are those puppies going to go? Dead? Or somewhere they can be loved and treated like family? Putting a dog to death is to some like putting a child to death. Both lives are precious. Both don't really understand what is going on. But if your child was to be put to death, and you thought there was a chance to break them free, would you try, or would you hand the doctor the ok to let the child go? In my opinion I'd be fighting like mad, and doing all that I could to put the dog and the child in the best conditions possible. I'd come in just to comfort the animal, or the child. I would work my hardest to get them out of their as soon as possible, but I wouldn't give up, and what if you did win, in the end and the child/pet was set free? To know you let your own child or someone else's die without that knowledge.. that's what makes it so hard.
And to discontinue breeding them, when they are beautiful and still precious is like telling all aggressive ppl to not have kids anymore, bc we don't want anymore aggressive ppl. Those kids, what would we do with them if they kept coming? We would want to be there and help them, guide them in the right direction. Just like those kids, those puppies have to be given a chance. We aren't in charge, we can't be Fate and expect it not to come back to us. If we keep taking away those rights to life when we say that all should be free... then maybe we should take a good hard look at what we are doing and deciding, bc we may as well toss ourselves on the list too. Like a government killing off anyone not It but similar or the same as It. I would provide other examples, but that would go a little overboard. We aren't Mother Nature. We aren't the hand of Fate. We like to pretend we are, but we're not.
.. ranting.. angrily :P sry guys, but I'm one of those ppl who just love these creatures, no matter who or what they are. Everyone can change.
just don't forget, that puppy was someone's kid

[Chrysaetos]

Originally Posted by shadedragon

I hear you all talk on ppl shouldn't breed dangerous dogs. But they do. And where are those puppies going to go? Dead? Or somewhere they can be loved and treated like family?

Nobody here is advocating a culling of puppies. Reproduction can be prevented without taking those measures.

Your comparison with aggressive humans doesn't work, because there's no way we can prevent that and humans can change also. A pitbull is a pitbull ,aggressiveness is an intrinsic trait of them.

You say you 'love' these creatures, let's see how you talk when one attacks your own pet or one of your children..

That is pretty mean to kill a dog just because the way he looks