Bsl Panel Discussion

[Aphra]

I'm going, but I don't know much more about it.

[dragonwoman]

I'm going, but I don't know much more about it.

Anything to report?

[Aphra]

If you've been following the topic, I don't know that there was a lot of new information, but the panelists were interesting. The first speaker did a really good job of laying out the history of BSL legislation in Victoria, in all it's various permutations. She also distangled the dangerous dog from the restricted breed legislation which was useful since lots of people (including VLine on one of their brochures!) get them confused.

The second speaker talked about the issue of trying to predict dogs behaviour from how they look and worked through some of the current research on the topic of phenotype, aggression and behaviour.

The third speaker was David Lowe(?) from Dogs Victoria. One of the things he said, and he said it publically so I assume I can repeat it, was that he had seen the internal DEPI report on the dog that killed Ayen Chol, including photos. He said that the dog in question weighted 52kgs, which would take it well out of the range of a pit bull.

I'd say the audience was made up of people who are passionate about pit bulls and others interested in animal laws issues generally.

Although I have no wish to disparage the passionate pit bull people or any of the anti-BSL people, I do think they need to develop a more strategic approach if they want to make changes. I don't think they realise that the general public don't care if pit bulls are nice dogs or not, the general public have bought into the government-created hysteria about the breed (and the reasons for that are sadly cynical), and believe that the legislation will make their children safer.

The only useful approach is that this legislation doesn't make children safer, and in fact it puts them at more risk, and therefore we need better legislation to keep people safer.

We have a state election coming up and a window of opportunity to influence the opposition to see a more useful approach to dealing with dangerous dogs and other animal welfare issues generally. Does anyone know who, if anyone is doing that work?

I did a live twitter feed from the panel @Tails_End.

[dragonwoman]

If you've been following the topic, I don't know that there was a lot of new information, but the panelists were interesting. The first speaker did a really good job of laying out the history of BSL legislation in Victoria, in all it's various permutations. She also distangled the dangerous dog from the restricted breed legislation which was useful since lots of people (including VLine on one of their brochures!) get them confused.

The second speaker talked about the issue of trying to predict dogs behaviour from how they look and worked through some of the current research on the topic of phenotype, aggression and behaviour.

The third speaker was David Lowe(?) from Dogs Victoria. One of the things he said, and he said it publically so I assume I can repeat it, was that he had seen the internal DEPI report on the dog that killed Ayen Chol, including photos. He said that the dog in question weighted 52kgs, which would take it well out of the range of a pit bull.

I'd say the audience was made up of people who are passionate about pit bulls and others interested in animal laws issues generally.

Although I have no wish to disparage the passionate pit bull people or any of the anti-BSL people, I do think they need to develop a more strategic approach if they want to make changes. I don't think they realise that the general public don't care if pit bulls are nice dogs or not, the general public have bought into the government-created hysteria about the breed (and the reasons for that are sadly cynical), and believe that the legislation will make their children safer.

The only useful approach is that this legislation doesn't make children safer, and in fact it puts them at more risk, and therefore we need better legislation to keep people safer.

We have a state election coming up and a window of opportunity to influence the opposition to see a more useful approach to dealing with dangerous dogs and other animal welfare issues generally. Does anyone know who, if anyone is doing that work?

I did a live twitter feed from the panel @Tails_End.

Thank you