Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Written evidence submitted by Naomi Mignone
1. I am very happy to have an opportunity to request that Breed Specific Legislation be repealed. BSL has been used to hold innocent dogs hostage and to wrongfully tear them away from their homes and cost them their lives. This is heartbreaking and permanently harms the families involved.
2. The Belfast City Council and its dog wardens have twisted BSL to suit their own political purposes. They have wrongfully taken Lennox away from his family and held him hostage in a filthy cement cell for more than two years. They have cruelly refused to allow the family to see Lennox or even to have their veterinarian check his health status.
3. Lennox has never shown any signs of aggression and has never bit a human or any other animal. He has never run loose nor caused any problem. Lennox is an American Bull Dog/Labrador Retriever mix. He is not dangerous and needs to be returned to his family immediately before Belfast cruelly and illegally kill him. The testimony of dog behavioral and training specialists verified that Lennox is no danger to anyone. The dog handler and dog warden are prejudiced against any dog that bears even a slight resemblance to a Pit Bull Dog. Lennox has been photographed licking the face of his captor, the prejudiced dog warden.
4. Please save Lennox from this cruel, inhumane hostage situation and force Belfast City Council to release Lennox back to his family. Please don’t let them kill this innocent dog. Lennox is the therapy dog to a twelve year old girl. She misses Lennox desperately and her health has suffered and so has Lennox’s.
5. There is far too much cruelty to animals and they need greater protections. Please do away with BSL and save Lennox. Please have harsher penalties and lengthy jail times for those who abuse, torture, and/or kill animals.
6. Puppy farms should be shut down to stop the cruelty to the animals and good homes should be found for the dogs and puppies. There are too many dogs and cats being euthanised in shelters due to overpopulation. People need to have their pets spayed or neutered and be responsible for their care. Without puppy mills or backyard breeders, the animals in shelters will have a better chance at being adopted.
June 2012