Dangerous Dogs

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article6898663.ece

'weapon dogs'

'Over the past few years, the proliferation of the “weapon dog” — American pit bulls and other bull breeds — has been prodigious. From 2002 to 2006, the Metropolitan Police picked up 43 weapon dogs. In 2008 they seized 719. This year they are on target to remove more than 1,000 animals from London’s streets. Battersea Dogs Home reports that bull breeds account for nearly 50 per cent of its “inmates”, a proportion that has doubled in the past five years. In England and Wales the number of prosecutions brought under the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act has also more than doubled in the past 10 years, and the number of convictions has tripled. And on any given night there are hundreds of seized dogs in taxpayer-funded kennels, awaiting judgment. '

'Bull terriers were bred as weapons'

'The provincial government [of Ontario] produced a law that banned all bull breeds and derivatives, including pitbulls and the Staffordshire bull terrier. All such existing dogs had to be registered, neutered and muzzled, leading to the bull-types dying out and owners learning to love the labrador or pug. The result? A huge fall in the number of dog-related injuries and incidents