GERMAN
DOG owners, penalised by the German Federal Governments
draconian Kampfhund (Fighting Dog) laws for the past two years
are set to deliver their verdict on BSL German-style by delivering
a resounding vote of no confidence in Chancellor Gerard Schroders
SDP party in the General Election, due to take place in just
over a weeks time.
Up until August, the SDP has been lagging in the public opinion
polls. The main reason cited for this antipathy is due to
Germany's high unemployment rate, a record four million, coupled
with a failing economy the worst of all European countries.
To add to the Governments unpopularity, the terrible
flooding which beset many areas of Europe last month has left
the Government with the problem of how to pay the billions
of marks required to fix the damage. However, although compensation
for the flood victims has not been paid yet, Schroder looked
good by expressing his sympathy for the victims and thus has
recently risen in the polls.
On the downside for Schroder, the SPD is talking about raising
taxes to help with the funding for the flood victims. The
people in Germany are extremely upset that there has not been
a fund set up for emergencies such as these, to bring immediate
financial relief for the victims. Even now, there are still
several thousand people still living in shelters.
The main opposition party, the CDU (former Chancellor Helmut
Kohls party), led by Edmund Stoiber of Bavaria is still
plugging away at the high unemployment record and promoting
the fact that Schroder stated four years ago, if the unemployment
rate does not decrease with the SPD, then he, (Schroder) does
not have the right to remain Chancellor. In common with all
politicians around the world, Stoiber is telling the people
the CDU will put things back on the right track. Recent opinion
polls put both Stoiber and the CDU ahead in many key policy
areas.
The Bundis90/Green Party (which forms the coalition Government
with the SPD) has been severely lagging behind in the polls.
They are big advocates of BSL, not helping the Americans in
the war on terror to the point of outright opposition to the
sending of German troops to Afghanistan earlier this year.
The party has also been hit by allegations of corruption when
the press revealed the scandal of several top party politicians
using the Frequent Flier miles (from their Government
funded air flights) for private use. Several of the partys
top stars resigned when the scandal came to light.
However, the party has regained some credibility by talking
about the need to save the environment in the wake of the
German floods.
The FDP, normally the fourth-placed party in the power stakes
is rapidly rising and is now in third place in the opinion
polls. The FDP is the only political party that has fought
for dog owners rights and opposed the harsh laws
including the infamous Breed Lists at national
and regional level.
The FDP has indicated that they wish to form a partnership
with the CDU and thus form a strong alternative Government
to the SDP/Green alliance.
As for the BSL laws themselves, there has been no further
public discussion of the matter since the laws banning four
breeds (including pit bulls and Staffordshire Bull Terriers)
and the Animal Protection Act which gives animals rights
except so-called dangerous in April 2001
and September 2001 respectively.
Anti-BSL campaigner Cathie Detmar told OUR DOGS: "No
discussion at all. No need to, the typical German way. It
is done and they move on. The truth is, the Government are
really not interested in whether one breed is more dangerous
than another. This is evident by the many speeches given in
parliament. Their main interest was making the public afraid
of dogs and then setting up ordinances and laws to make them
feel safe again. It was really for the good of the parties
and their standing in public opinion."
Cathie Detmar comments: " The Animal Protection Act forbids
the breeding of the three listed other listed breeds with
the pit bull with the reason stated that these breeds are
NOT dangerous towards humans, but are dangerous to other animals,
cannot socialise with one another, reproduce normally being
deemed too aggressive for breeding and cannot produce a normal
litter, as they often kill their puppies. Both
laws made it legal to punish anyone breaking these rules by
time in prison and confiscation of animals. Thanks to this,
the politicians can say the laws and ordinances are working,
as no one in their right mind would dare to challenge them
with breeding or importing. They will say the number of dog
bites have been reduced. And if you still see the fear in
the public's eyes towards certain breeds the laws in place
are working exactly how the politicians hope they would."
On a slightly more optimistic note, only a few of the 16 regional
Lander (States Governments) have a law in place concerning
BSL. The majority of the states set up a dog ordinance so
it could be done quickly. In a rush to put these ordinances
in place, they simply tacked the dog ordinance to a police
ordinance relating to the safety of the public. The Berlin
Administration Court ruling on July 3 2002 made this method
illegal, thus throwing out every dog ordinance in Germany.
Now all the Lander are scrambling to bring motions to the
various regional Parliaments this autumn in the hope to have
laws in place by the beginning of next year.
The problem facing any Lander which wishes to utilise the
Berlin ruling in any BSL-related legislation is that the written
decision from the Berlin Administration Court has not yet
been published - only the press release was issued in July.
Until the written decision is published, none of the German
states can act until they see what exactly the judges decided.
However, it is expected that the ruling will be published
within the next month.
In the ruling, the judges ruled that no one could blame a
single accident on an entire breed. They said there are many
factors involved in a dog that bites: The dogs genetic
history, how the dog is raised, what the owner does with the
dog, what kind of environment the dog lives in, etc.
Detmar adds: "If what the judges said in court comes
out in the written decision, then it will be extremely hard
for the different states to ban a breed 'because they want
to'. They will have to come up with significant proof. This
court trial only affected all of the dog ordinances that were
in place in Germany (which was the majority of the states.)
It does not affect the regions with a law nor does it affect
the Federal Law against importing the four banned breeds.
This law is being challenged by the VDH (German Kennel Club)
and my husband Rudi and I are challenging breed clubs at the
Constitutional Court and the breed ban for Bull Terriers,
with the help of the Bull Terrier Club of England and the
U.S., plus the VDH and FCI. I checked with Dave Levy in the
UK and he knows of no Staffie breeder here prepared to sue
at the Federal Level. The same goes for the American Stafford.
Breeders here in Germany - not yet anyway.
"What is nice though, is not only are the national elections
going to be held in two weeks, but in the spring many of the
Lander have elections coming up as well. My hope is that Schroder
loses the General Election, thus losing the SPD/Green party
hold on Germany and thus helping us in the BSL arena."
Problem
Another
interesting fact in the ongoing political battle against BSL
is that during the last two years many politicians quoted
bite statistics of various breeds. These statistics are taken
from the Deutscher Statetag, the Government agency that compiles
all data on everything that occurs in Germany.
The problem with the bite statistics that various regions
used is that they were frequently manipulated. This fact came
to light at the Berlin court hearing. The Government constantly
quoted how many litters were born by using the VDH statistics
and comparing them to dog incidents for those breeds, thereby
coming up with a percentage.
It was pointed out that these litter statistics did not include
the hundreds of puppies born by dissident breeders
(those who are not a member of a breed club, so no official
pedigrees are issued.) So the percentage numbers quoted by
the politicians were incorrect.
Secondly the Dt. Statetag reports any and all incidents involving
animals, not just dog bites. But the government used these
statistics as meaning everything reported by certain breeds
were dog bites. This deliberate falsification of data was
exposed and justly corrected in the Berlin ruling.
Every region has quite a number of lawsuits in progress against
BSL. Before the Berlin decision, there were over 40 lawsuits
alone in Lower Saxony. After the Berlin trial, the need for
most of the lawsuits passed since the State currently has
no BSL-related dog law.
However, campaigners estimate that there are at least 12 to
15 lawsuits per region currently in progress.
Cathie Detmar sums up the German political situation relating
to BSL: "The hatred is still here towards many dog owners.
Last weekend, we were bringing one of our dogs to a friend
in Sweden. In the Northern part of Germany, about 30 minutes
before we reached the ferry for Denmark, we stopped at a rest
area to walk the dog and let him have water. He is a medium
sized red male, with a wonderful character. Is fine with all
animals, regardless of sex or species. We pulled in next to
a car that was also in the shade and its two occupants were
standing next to their car eating lunch. We opened the back
of the station wagon and the minute 'Brian' jumped out of
the car, the woman ran and jumped in her car and locked the
door. Her husband ran to the other side of the car and watched.
'Brian' who was only interested in getting his business done
and happily trotted off with Rudi to an area of trees.
They were both gone about 20 minutes and I stood by the car,
holding in my anger and keeping a neutral look on my face.
The woman slowly got out and ran to the other side with her
husband. Both were standing there like Indian scouts looking
for the 'monster'. I never looked at them nor acknowledged
their behaviour and it was damn hard. The minute Rudi and
Brian appeared and walked back to the car, the woman ran and
jumped in the car, quickly rolling up the window.
" The important note here: this happened in a region
of Germany where the Bull Terrier has never been on a high
rated List 1 or 2. It just goes to show you that the
media and politicians did a damn fine job.
"However, if the electorate turn against Schroder and
the SDP at the election, hopefully all this will change. We
live in hope."