SHOULD ANYONE be labouring under the impression that the anti-dog Breed Specific laws in Germany are no longer having a negative effect on dogs and their owners, the latest news from Germany should prove that, sadly, BSL is very much alive and well.

Last week, a crossbreed described by the German media as an 'American-Staffordshire-Bullterrier' cross allegedly attacked and killed a Shih Tzu in Lower Saxony. The police were called and initially used a machine gun to kill the crossbreed called 'Willi'. Eye witnesses said that the police officers then got into their police cars in an attempt to run over the dog, although they failed to do so.

According to a new report, the officers 'followed the trail of blood' and located the dog in a wooded area where several officers finally killed the poor animal with rifle shots.

Anti-BSL campaigners state that there was no indication that this dog was a threat to the officers or public. It was later discovered that the dog was microchipped and according to a local newspaper the following day, the dog had failed its mandatory temperament test. The owner, according to the paper, had been moving around in an attempt to hide her dog than have him destroyed after failing the test.

The results of the test are not known. if the dog had failed the test, then he probably should have been euthanased. It was the fault of the authorities not to make sure this had been done.

Conveniently enough, though a photo was not given, the dog was said to be a mixture of three of the four breeds forbidden in Lower Saxony, a point which anti-BSL campaigners assume was made to reinforce the Media/Government that these breeds can be ‘deadly’.