Luke Judge

Even though the temperature has been quite low overnight, today’s clear skies have my two dogs and two cats splayed out in the sun, soaking up the rays of warmth.

I can’t resist going outside to ruffle their thick coats, full of static electricity. The cats roll over, turning their full bellies upward contentedly; my big dog can barely open his eyes, he’s so drugged by the sun.

Ah, but that every animal in the county was warm, well-fed, and in a loving home for Christmas.

If I could have a single wish fulfilled on behalf of our companion animals on the holidays, that’s what I’d wish for. if there was more room on my wish list, I could certainly fill it.

I’d wish that every cat who is allowed out of doors was spayed or neutered.

Every intact outdoor cat in this county contributes directly to the destruction of other cats — on the roads, in the ditches, and even in our shelters.

Thousands of feral cats are outdoors, cold, hungry, injured, or sick right now.

If someone cares enough about them, they will be trapped, and either humanely euthanized or vaccinated, neutered, and released in an area where the trapper will assume a lifetime responsibility to continue to feed them.

Anything short of this full commitment only makes things worse for the cats.

Feeding an outdoor population of intact cats only leads to more and more feline suffering, as the cats reproduce, fight for scarce resources and territory, and reproduce some more.

Releasing surgically altered and vaccinated cats does spare them from death at a shelter, but if no one takes a daily responsibility for feeding them, then they are effectively imposing a lifelong sentence of starvation on them. not kind.

If I could, I’d also wish that the many people who think they are being responsible by “finding homes” for the kittens that their cats “accidentally” were allowed to have are themselves directly responsible for the deaths of other cats. there are tens of thousands of cats dying in our county’s shelters because no one wants them.

Producing even more cats and “finding a good home” for them means other cats die.

Let’s stop the witless production; it’s easy. Make certain that you spay or neuter every cat you care for. Better yet, don’t get a cat anywhere but from a shelter, because shelter cats are all altered before they leave the building.

This wish, not incidentally, is aimed at not just the people whose pets have unplanned pregnancies, but the people who take half measures to help.

The local feed stores, for example: you take in kittens and give them to clients; very few of those kittens will end up spayed or neutered. The cycle of unwanted cats goes on.

Please send those kittens to the shelter, where they will be altered before they are adopted.

Dogs are high on my wish list. I wish that casual breeding was illegal, that making money from selling poorly bred puppies — with no guarantee as to health or temperament, and with no screening or requirements of the owners — was somehow punishable by law.

I wish that the people who produce a few litters per year for extra spending money, without a serious commitment to the dogs they produce, were somehow forced to retrieve and care for every dog they ever bred.

I’d like them to have to face the downstream results of their profit-making schemes: the dogs who ended up in a shelter because they were sold to an unfit home, or because they never received proper training, attention or veterinary care.

Hundreds of thousands of dogs die for lack of homes in this country every year; breeding should be strictly reduced.

For the dogs who are lucky enough to have homes, well, I wish they were inside, or at least have access to a very snug dog house.

I wish for them to have fences that keep them safe at home, collars that contain ID tags with current information, vaccinations against disease, and enough food to keep them warm and healthy.

I hope they’ve been socialized and trained, so they don’t bite or fight or end up relinquished for boredom barking or bad manners.

My biggest wish is to see fewer of them at the shelter.

Nancy Kerns is the editor of The Whole Dog Journal, and a member of the NW SPCA board of directors.

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The media has played a part in presenting certain dog breeds in a bad light, portraying them as aggressive and dangerous, in light of recent dog attacks: 4 children have been killed by dogs in 30 months. We even have a law called the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 which states that pit bull terriers, Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino and Tila Brasileiro are too dangerous to own or breed from so it is now illegal to do so in the UK. Dogs such as the pit bull terrier present a tough image which appeals to some people, particularly young men who use them and other breeds as status symbols to make themselves appear tougher. In these cases the dogs aren’t properly trained and aggressive behaviour may be actively encouraged by isolating the dog so that it isn’t used to or comfortable with strangers, or by teasing and provoking the dog encouraging it to bark and bite.

Some breeds were originally selectively bred for fighting, so have a greater tendency for aggression and have certain qualities such as a strong jaw, or they bite and don’t let go for a while. Therefore if they do attack then the consequences can be fatal, and there is usually much media coverage.   Four breeds: the Pit Bull Terrier, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro and Japanese Tosa, are now illegal to own or breed under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, unless you have an exemption from the court and follow the guidelines they lay down.  

However any dog can bite, especially if it is not trained or socialised properly, isolated, neglected or encouraged to behave aggressively. Allowing a dog to behave aggressively makes the dog think that this is appropriate behaviour, and if it gets attention on demand it believes that it is the top dog. If a dog thinks that it is at the top of the hierarchy then it may become aggressive if its status is challenged, such as being given a command: it believes that it is the top dog so it should demand attention not the other way around; or if another member of the family receives more attention than it.  

The problem is that current bite statistics can be misleading because many dog bites go unreported and only bites that require medical attention are taken into account for these statistics. This means that dogs that have specific fighting qualities from when they were used as fighting dogs or hunters, or larger dogs with more strength appear to be more aggressive than they actually are. When a pit bull terrier attacks it is more likely to have serious consequences, but some breeds from the toy group can be just as aggressive but their bites have little effect so the incidence isn’t reported and a distorted image is presented about aggressive dogs.  

A recent study carried out on 6,000 dogs and their owners found out 33 of the most aggressive dogs, and also those which have good temperaments. The study involved collecting data from two different groups. The first group consisted of 11 different breeds and the second was an online survey mainly involving owners, including 33 breeds. The conclusions from both groups were similar. It looked at the different types of aggression such as towards other dogs, towards strangers and towards owners. Some of the results were surprising, below are the top ten most aggressive breed:  

1. Dachshunds

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