Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Written evidence submitted by the Tailwaggers Club Trust
1. I adore dogs so you may be surprised that my suggestion is to tax dog breeding. One study says there are 10 million dogs in Britain—10 million households and as many as 20 million voters. This is also a proposition that unusually will be as attractive to dog lovers as dog haters.
2. If we are to chip every puppy born, this is the best possible time to bring this in as chipping alone won’t change much at all.
3. I am the editor of Dogs Today—a newstand magazine for intelligent pet owners. I’ve been in the job for 22 years and before that I worked at The Kennel Club. I’ve been observing the situation closely for a very long time and have looked in depth at what has worked in other countries—many of whom don’t have anything like the status dogs problems we have here.
What Works and what Doesn’t?
4. The countries that make breeding dogs less attractive to passive people have much fewer dog problems. For example, in Sweden, every puppy has to be bought using a universal puppy contract that enables Sweden’s excellent general consumer laws to click in. It means if anything goes wrong with a dog in the first three years the breeder has to pay to sort it out—a three year warranty in effect. Good breeders consequently do all they can to breed healthy well socialised dogs and only sell to responsible owners. They also take out insurance just in case something does go wrong as vet bills can run to many thousands of pounds. There are obviously much easier ways to make money, so only really dedicated folk breed dogs in Sweden. Rescues are close to empty. Dog bites are very, very rare.
5. However, in Britain, literally anyone can be a dog breeder and there are virtually no consequences. According to the recent University of Bristol survey, (the most scientific study so far on dog ownership) we now have very many more dogs in Britain than ever before. We know from talking to the charities that we have very many more dogs in rescue—which is straining to cope, and very many more healthy dogs are being killed in council pounds because no one wants them. According to the rescue world most of these dogs are status dogs.
6. The facts are there quite plainly. Far too many status dogs are being bred. Why? Because breeding dogs is something that ANYONE can do. It carries no risk and the money you make is mostly cash in hand.
7. If you are not a licenced breeder—and a minority of breeders are—then normal consumer legislation doesn’t apply to you, either. The Sale of Goods Act and the Trade Descriptions Act need not trouble you as you are exempt unless you are a trader. And if a dog you breed goes on to bite someone, there’s no come back to you. If a dog you breed ends up in a council pound and is put to sleep, no one will come after you to pay the costs.
8. How can we dissuade people from breeding lots of dogs that end up being owned by people who are generally passive irresponsible owners who don’t train their dogs and then give them up and expect the council to put them to sleep? Quite simply, make it less profitable and more trouble than it is worth.
9. The BVA animal welfare committee—comprising of every serious animal charity and dog organisation there is—has spent quite some time working on a Universal Puppy Contract trying to produce something similar to the Swedish model, but without a subtle change to existing legislation it has no teeth.
10. It only needs a small amendment to the Animal Welfare Bill to say that all pups must be microchipped and that the Puppy Contract must to be used. I think there is something similar that regulates people who buy and sell cars as a trader rather than as a private indivdual. If you sell a litter make it that you need to be called a trader in the eyes of the law and suddenly dogs breeding becomes a lot less invisible.
11. Chipping alone will do very little. The National Dog Wardens Association recently said that already 40% of all lost or surrended chipped dogs have either incomplete or inaccurate information stored on the central databases. We also know from some of the high profile cases of stolen chipped dogs that have been rehomed to blissfully unaware new owners that the chip is currently no proof of ownership in law! These issues needs to be urgently addressed before chipping becomes mandatory.
12. I propose that anyone selling a dog is compelled to use the universal puppy contract (which gives rights and responsibilities to both buyer and seller) with the microchip. We need the puppy contract to enable our existing consumer legislation (which it doesn’t yet do but with a tweak will do!) and to enforce that the chip records be kept up to date with current breeder and owner’s details. Massive fines could fund the dog warden doing random checks like the police make random checks on cars for road tax and MOT etc. It would make dog breeding much less attractive to people who just want to make a few quid without anyone noticing! It would put off exactly the sort of people who should be discouraged from breeding.
13. How could it be enforced? Just like when you sell a car you have a log book, we need the same consequences and fines for not keeping your dog’s microchip records up to date. And if there is a breeding tax the money raised could fund the dog warden calling on litters to chip them and record the litter at the same time? Or for vets to do/check the paperwork—which can be downloaded free of charge over the Internet. Or the RSPCA. Or if a private chipper is used they have to pass the details on to the database handler or lose their chipping licence.
14. If you live next door to someone who is having lots of litters or if you buy a dog you discover not to be chipped and contracted you can phone the dog warden or the RSPCA and they can check it. The people who hold the chip details need to open up a new field for breeder details which remains on the system together with the chain of ownership.
15. Perhaps the local authority could publish a list of litters that have been registered—a little like they publish on line planning applications. If litters are more visible people won’t be able to hide the income. And if a litter is born that isn’t registered with the local authority then neighbours/purchasers can call the dog warden/RSPCA.
16. Only chipped and contracted dogs should be allowed to be advertised for sale—and websites like Gumtree should face massive fines if they don’t prevent unchipped and contracted pups from being advertised as so many status dogs are changing hands on high volume sites like this. The online marketplace needs a big fine to make sure they do more checking as they already break so many of their own voluntary rules. Maybe any dog passing through a site and later PTS could result in a fine for the retailer too? A bit like the way the performing rights people chase the copyright of a song. When anyone who has profited from the sale of a dog they need to pay part of the costs. Maybe then massive companies like Gumtree might stop effectively trading in status dogs and ultimately misery?
17. If a chipped dog is unclaimed at the pound how about the breeder is also contacted and given the option of taking the dog and paying the fine or paying for the dog to be rehomed or if unwanted PTS. Why shouldn’t the breeder pay for this cost out of the profit of breeding the litter? Shouldn’t that be part of their business plan? Good breeders would love to be contacted as they’d want to take their dog back rather than have it end up in rescue.
18. If the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act had done what it said on the tin the Pit Bull would now be extinct, yet we now have very many more than we ever had before. The attempt to neuter every dog failed dismally and somehow the Act made the breed have even more of a cachet for those people on the edge of criminality. Proving what is or isn’t a Pit Bull has proved a huge waste of everyone’s time and resources led to lots of gentle big dogs in very safe hands being criminalised. While many people breed with unsocialised status dogs untroubled by the law—until one of their own dogs kills or maims one of their relatives.
19. Did the DDA actually make children any less prone to attack? No. Sadly, like pyramid selling, everyone with a status dog has already had lots of litters was such an attractive no risk proposition and we have extremely passive poor ownership.
20. It would seem that one way to tackle the dangerous dog situation is stop so many dogs being bred in the first place—by making breeding have more of a consequence. In affect we should have a tax on dog breeding—rather than dog ownership. Control the number of dogs produced so that fewer passive people acquire them. Let’s slow down the production and leave only serious caring breeders intent of doing things properly to produce the next generation of dogs.
21. There are lots of other ideas I have that would work with this but I reckoned the dog breeding tax was possibly one not going to be proposed by anyone else so I’d concentrate on that one, main, strand.
June 2012