Her kommer lidt mere reel oplysning om episoden:
Dette er en e-post mottatt fra raserepresentanten for Staffordshire
Bullterrier i England, Mr. David Levy, vedrørende den tragiske
hendelsen hvor en SBT tilsynelatende skal ha drept sin egen eier.
Man har vel lært at man skal alltid være kritisk til hva man leser i
pressen.
Alexander Andresen
The death of George Dinham in Wandsworth on Friday 9th May (reported
in today's
media) was a tragedy. What is perhaps worse for his family is the
current speculation and mis-reporting of the circumstances of his
death. At best, some of the reporting is being "economical with the
truth", at worst it is intentionally distorted and trying to spread
unnecessary and unjustified fears to hundreds of dog owners.
It is very difficult to ascertain the FACTS of the evening although
the Daily Mirror article (
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12963073&method=full&
siteid=50143&headline=DAD%20KILLED%20BY%20PET%20DOG)
does seem to contain a great deal of detail. There are also various
theories being promoted both in the media and on the internet. Much of
this is probably ill-informed. We do not yet know what actually
happened.
Some "facts" can be identified:
- It appears that Mr Dinham's dog Ben may indeed have been a
Staffordshire Bull Terrier. This will not be known for certain unless
and until a qualified dog judge has seen Ben but the issue is probably
irrelevant.
- The actual cause of Mr Dinham's death will not be known until the
Coroner has reported his findings.
- It is reported that Mr Dinham occasionally suffered from epileptic
fits. There are at least two previous reported cases of people
suffering from epileptic fits being killed by their own pet dog. One I
am pretty sure was in Belgium or Holland a couple of years ago and the
other in the UK in November 2001. (See
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/uk/1156305.stm).
- There is talk of Ben having "attacked" a 9 year-old girl just 3
months ago. The facts seem to indicate that he jumped up, did not
bite, but that the girl suffered a few minor scratches as a result of
being pushed over. i.e. the incident appears to be irrelevant to the
current situation.
- We are told that Ben was always walked on a muzzle. This appears to
be because he was not good with other dogs and nothing to do with any
previous incident with people.
- Mr Dinham's own family are repeatedly quoted as saying that George
and Ben were devoted to one another and that it can only have been a
tragic accident. Indeed Mr Dinham's brother says that Ben would nip
George to help bring him around after an epileptic attack.
The police (we are told) are apparently trying to decide whether Ben
should be put down. Obviously that would be illegal without Mr
Dinham's heirs' permission. The DDA does not apply since the incident
happened in a private dwelling and anyway, they can hardly claim under
section 5 that they cannot locate the owner. Unless the owners
(presumably Mr Dinham's brothers) agree to Ben being destroyed then it
would require a difficult court case and who exactly would be
prosecuted? What is surely more important is for animal behaviourists
to be allowed to test Ben and see if they can ascertain the actual
trigger that caused him to bite Mr Dinham.
We are already hearing of Staffords being rejected by families scared
by this story. You can be sure that if the Coroner eventually rules
that Ben was in fact not the actual cause of Mr Dinham's death, or
that Ben is not a SBT it will not warrant even a single column inch
tucked away on page 17.
Finally, IF Ben is a dangerous to the public then he should be
destroyed - irrespective of what breed he is. Would this week old
story have been given such prominence (Mirror, Sun, Guardian, BBC TV,
BBC news, many Internet news
sites)
if the dog had not been described as a "Staffordshire Bull Terrier"?
Did YOU see any coverage when 25 year-old "young mother" Kirsty Ross
was killed in what appear to be identical circumstances by her pet
Doberman in 2000, never mind front page headlines and extensive
radio/TV coverage?
The news story should be "what actually happened to George Dinham" and
"are there lessons to be learned from his tragic death". It's a shame
that once again "professional journalists" seem to have missed the
most important issue. Will they never learn?
David Levy
--
Nina El Falaki
Feca Somali & Bengal Cats
E-mail: cats@feca.dk
http://www.feca.dk