When BSL Laws Fail

In the past week, there's been a story that's been in the forefront. Lennox, a 7-year-old Lab/Bulldog mix was seized from his home under the "Dangerous Dogs Law" in Belfast. The irony is there is no Pit Bull in him whatsoever. The owners had no choice but to let the government seize the dogs or they would face imprisonment themselves. Never mind that this dog has never been aggressive or acted inappropriately to another dog or human being. In fact, his purpose in life has been to serve as a therapy dog to the owner's young daughter.

The gall of the Belfast city government to step in and remove this dog without provocation is ignorance at its finest. This breed specific law does not give dogs the opportunities to be judged as individuals but rather be labelled with a group of dogs that no one wants to deal with. They have overstepped their bounds to uphold a law that's controversial to begin with. Little did they count on the willingness of the family to fight back.

The family created a website called SaveLennox.co.uk to help get back a dog that was taken away from them for no good reason. They also started a petition which has over 155,000 signatures to bring Lennox back to them. In addition they have a Facebook page, Twitter Page and other social media outlets to help them get the word out about this injustice.

Since he's been confiscated by the government, he's been forced to live in decrepit conditions and treated as a nuisance. One can only see the true effect of neglect. The dog in the video above was happy, playful and loved by his family. Lennox has been so stressed by his captivity, his hair has been falling out. The dog that you see in internet photos is lonely, neglected and abandoned by the same entity that is said to speak for the voice of the people. This time, their voice has a huge frog in its throat.

About Belfast

Belfast is a city of 305,000 people. Known for its civil wars, one thing that makes Belfast stand out is that the Titanic was built there. Ireland is known for its lush green land and that also applies to Belfast.

It Didn't Matter

On June 12th, Lord Justice Girvan of the Appeals Court upheld the death sentence by the lower courts. Many have speculated that this was the need to save face. I think if he judged in favor of Lennox, it would have greatly diminished the strength of a law that few believe in its merits as is.

Generally, governments are elected to represent the people as a whole. They fight for their beliefs. This time, the governments miserably failed. All they've proven is they have a huge ego and are not astute enough to see the forest through the trees. It didn't matter how their actions affected the people.

155,000 + signatures hasn't made a difference to them. Testimonials of famous dog trainers like Cesar Millan and Victoria Stillwell has fallen on deaf ears. The voice of the media is powerful when sensationalizing dog attacks but is unheard when it comes to celebrating the magnificence of dogs. Even an article where the First Minister of Northern Ireland had issues with this.

This goes to show how pride can wound as much as prevail. Is Lennox still alive? No one knows for sure. One thing I do know is that when I visited their site a couple of days ago, there was a timer that counted the amount of time that Lennox had been seized down to the very second. When I visited the website again, that timer is nowhere to be found. Either the website owners took it down voluntarily, were forced to do it because of the government or worse yet, was taken down because Lennox was euthanized.

Looking Forward

I only hope Lennox's life is spared. However, this situation has tainted a beautiful, modern city because of the actions of a weak-minded few that are in power. They chose to darken the line in the sand instead of looking at the fact that this situation blurred it for good reason. Many times, no one is to blame, but in this situation, that's not the case.

Let's Discuss!

How do you feel about this?

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