Guard Dogs - A Call to Action

Socially isolated, often physically abused, chained or
confined in a pen or yard, a guard dog's life is a
bleak existence. While individual dogs may be rescued,
all too often the place at the end of the chain is
quickly filled from the nearly endless pool of
available stock. What can be done to improve the lives
of these dogs?

For far too long our lawmakers have believed the BC
SPCA's rhetoric that "education" is a sufficient
answer. Education is necessary, yes, but not
sufficient. Even if an effective, high-profile public
information campaign were in place, it would still
take far too long to change the culture of abuse that
too many dogs live with daily. Mothers Against Drunk
Driving, founded in 1980, has made an enormous impact
on public mores; yet none of us would expect MADD's
education campaigns to substitute for enforcement,
even after twenty-five years.

Now is the time to demand laws prohibiting the keeping
of guard dogs. Whether staked out in a yard, isolated
in a garage, or delivered nightly to an industrial
area, guard dogs are incongruous in our urban
environment. It is well known that in and of itself,
isolating dogs can cause them to become aggressive.
Sadly, some owners, looking for a more vicious threat,
add physical abuse to the psychological torment that
their dogs suffer. Banning the keeping of guard dogs
will not only greatly improve the welfare of dogs
currently trapped in that existence, it will prevent
future abuses.

Banning yard dogs is one mechanism to bring about the
goal of ending dog abuse. Banning breeds may be
another. Dogs kept in yards or outdoor pens are
relatively easy to detect, while those confined to
basements and garages are not. Should we succumb to
the pacifying "out of sight, out of mind"?

For many years "animal welfare" organizations have
believed it necessary to convince more people
to take in the "unwanted" dogs. But making dog
ownership fashionable, thus creating a market for
dogs, has backfired. Backyard breeders have stepped up
to the plate, eager to make a quick profit. Protection
breed pups make up 21% of all litters advertised in
Lower Mainland newspapers. Surprisingly, it's not the
small breeds that are the most expensive. Protection
breed dogs (such as rottweilers, mastiffs, pit bulls,
German shepherds and Dobermans) cost, on average, $520
each compared with $475 for all dogs. Clearly,
breeders are responding to a market demand.

No one can doubt that the protection breeds are the
most often mistreated of all dogs in our society.
While there are, of course, happy well-socialized
individual dogs, our goal must be to eliminate the
abuse suffered by guard dogs. Laws that target these
most exploited breeds should be welcomed by those that
favor them. Well thought out legislation would not
demand the immediate elimination of these breeds, but
rather their natural attrition through strict breeding
and import controls.

Controversial though it may be, a two-pronged approach
of banning yard dogs and strictly controlling the
breeding and importation of protection breeds would be
a relatively quick and effective means to the end of
eliminating guard dogs from our urban environment. The
alternative is to allow generations of dogs to suffer
while human sensibilities evolve.