Blog

Criticise dog owners at your peril.

Increasingly it seems that dog owners are not aware of or care about the dangers, etiquette or protocol of walking their dog.

One of the worst crimes you can commit against dog owners is to dare to criticise them or try to offer advice on how they should control or care for their dog. Most owners immediately take offence or become hostile perhaps out of arrogance, embarrassment or guilt. Increasingly it seems that dog owners are not aware of or care about the dangers, etiquette or protocol of walking their dog(s).

Once a person acquires a dog many believe they automatically assume the status of an expert on dog care and behaviour. But many have little idea of the legislation that surrounds responsibilities of dog ownership and the risks their dog could pose to themselves and others. A fatal recent incident in the U.K. where a young woman dog walker was killed by a pack of eight dogs she was exercising highlights this lack of understanding.

dog walker with pack of dogs
An fatal accident waiting to happen and one that recently did.

This attitude manifests itself in many situations such as when facing an out-of-control dog hurtling towards you growling and with hackles raised. This has happened to me on three occasions recently while out on countryside walks and in each case the owner has taken umbrage when asked politely to keep their dog under control. One incident involved a dog than ran up snarling with hackles raised and circled behind us while we stood stock still. The owner some 50 yards away sauntered up and just remarked “he won’t harm you”.

Any attempt to point out their responsibilities under the U.K. Dangerous Dog Act 1991 in not allowing their dog to cause fear and/or apprehension to others is met with being petty-minded. This also includes allowing a dog to jump up at you.

dog owners not clearing up after their dog. animalrightsandwrongs.uk

Dog owners do not take kindly to be given advice.

Pointing out to an owner that they haven’t cleaned up after their dog or have left full poo bags hanging from a branch or dumped by the side of the path causes instant offence and anger and it is a brave person to even consider it.

Then there is the problem of what to do when you see a dog being needlessly mishandled or ill-treated. It takes an even braver person indeed to intervene these days. I once saw a woman violently yanking her dog’s lead so violently every few yards as she walked along that she was pulling it off its feet. All because he wasn’t adequately trained on a lead. She did not take any advice calmly when I intervened.

The ultimate insult.

The ultimate insult to a dog owner, or any other pet owner for that matter, is to be accused of animal abuse or infringing byelaws such as not cleaning up after their dog. Like parking wardens, officials like RSPCA Inspectors and council staff issuing fines often find themselves in altercations. The problem in the case of dogs lies in that most owners righteously believe they are all experts on canine care and ownership and can do no wrong and act as they want.

Most dog owners are thankfully considerate to other people and their dogs, but there does seem to be an increasing number who do not understand their duty to others, and it is the dogs that may suffer in the end from their indifference or selfish behaviour.

Related Articles

Giant Pandas for rent. No way to treat a vulnerable species.

China has been renting out Giant Pandas for decades at astronomical fees. The sorry state of Ya Ya and Le Le are the result.

In December 2022, Memphis Zoo returned two sorry looking aged Giant Pandas named Ya Ya and Le Le back to their homeland to great fanfare and publicity. According to the zoo Ya Ya and Le Le helped “pioneer research and conservation projects” and drew visitors to Memphis to “get a small taste of the exquisite culture of the People’s Republic of China.”

But according to several animal advocacy groups the zoo had not been providing them with adequate food or enough outdoor freedom and cited instances of them pacing in circles. These groups had been criticising the zoo for months and have claimed victory now that they are being returned to China. But it would appear their return may have been more to do with their contract expiring. And what are they returning to?

Giant Pandas Ya Ya and Le Le
The poor old pandas being airlifted home

What future for Ya Ya and Le Le

At 24 years old and 22 years old respectively, having already exceeded the usual life expectancy by a considerable amount, Ya Ya and Le Le may not have much of a future. Not to mention the stress of being uprooted and flown round the world.

Few people realise that Giant Pandas are “rented” out by China. After the Second World war China was in the habit of “gifting” Giant pandas to other countries as part of trade agreements and diplomacy and zoos would clamour to house them. But in 1984 China changed this policy and began leasing them for high monthly fees. This changed again in 1991 to ten year leases costing up to US$1 million dollars per year with any cubs born having to be returned to China.

Some cynics have suggested that the Giant Panda is used as a “strategic asset for geopolitical reasons” because of the many trade agreements coinciding with their arrival in a country. The Pandas at Edinburgh coincided with a £2.6 billion worth of trade contracts for Britain. Zoos in France, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand also received Pandas following trade agreements.

Giant Pandas can assure a zoo’s financial future

They always come in pairs and the zoos pray they will breed as any cubs born boost their visitors and make them tens of millions in revenue. Any cub born costs the zoos a further “baby tax” until they are returned to China for breeding at 2 to 3 years old to support a healthy gene pool. In 2012, Toronto Zoo paid the going price of $1 million per annum for a pair and they produced two cubs which resulted in visitor numbers shooting up.

Edinburgh zoo rented a pair in 2011 named Yang Guang and Tian Tian with a contract costing £600,000 a year and they must be returned at the end of  this agreement. Not that the zoo was too worried about the investment as visitor numbers shot up by 4 million in the first two years at £16 plus a head. This contract was extended by two years because of Covid and they are due to go back in 2o23.

The crowds tend to have a habit of losing interest if a cub is not born to reinvigorate the attraction, but luckily a cub was born in 2017 to much excitement and media coverage and probably to the relief of the zoo’s accountants.

Giant panda cubs lined up in China breeding centre
Bred for what?

Captive numbers have increased, but for what?

The number of wild and captive Pandas has increased to over 2,000 and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have downgraded their endangered species label to “vulnerable”, but this does not mean that they are plentiful in the wild or will ever be, as there is very little room in suitable habitats for their release.

China (and of course the zoos they have been rented to) has bred and reared over 400 giant pandas and love to show off all the cute babies to world acclaim, but allegedly only 10 have ever been released into the wild since 1983 and only two of these have survived which appears to make a total nonsense of breeding them for release.

The bottom line seems to be that Giant Pandas have been reduced to tradeable merchandise.

%d bloggers like this: