Heaven can wait Animal Shelter shared Team Dogs photo. Jan 17 at 1:28pm · This BSL is crap and has to stop, so many beautiful well balanced dogs put down because of their appearance, often temperament tested under stressful conditions in which no dog would be likely to pass. It is with heavy hearts and tears in our eyes that we can inform you that as of this morning Bonnie is no longer with us. She was killed this morning by Breed Specific Legislation. Graeme McEwen, of Barristers Animal Welfare Panel, worked late into last night exploring every possible option for her, but unfortunately her options under New South Wales legislation had run out. Team Dog wants to extend our greatest and most sincere thanks to Graeme for his compassion and fighting spirit. Because of Graeme we can know that Bonnie was given every single opportunity we could possibly give her. This is the reality of Breed Specific Legislation in New South Wales, in Australia, and around the world. Bonnie had the support of Team Dog, Hawkesbury and Blacktown Councils, Fetching Dogs, Barristers Animal Welfare Panel and thousands of supporters online, in person and around the globe. She had a wonderful, foster-based rescue group with the best behaviourists on board ready to take her on and work with her if she showed any issues stemming from her less than stellar past. But none of that matters under Breed Specific Legislation – all that matters is her appearance, and the results of a subjective ‘temperament test’, performed by a Vet, that merely measures her responses to stimuli at a single snippet in time. Studies have shown that even the most well researched and constructed ‘temperament tests’ elicit very different responses from the same dog when re-tested, even if performed as close as 24 hours together. Could Bonnie have ‘passed’ the temperament test today? We’ll never know. We are all understandably incredibly upset, frustrated and angry at the injustice of what has happened to Bonnie. It’s time to channel all of that into something productive - we must not let her death be in vain. We must not let her memory disappear. Join us to keep her memory alive and to show our legislators that we do not support ineffective, costly and inhumane animal management legislation. Breed Specific Legislation is being repealed all over the world – we want Australia to listen to the research and listen to the public when we say we want this gone and replaced with proven, well researched, breed neutral responsible pet ownership legislation. You can do this by joining our #BonnieLives campaign, inspired by Animal Farm Foundation’s ‘I am the Majority’ campaign. Print out the attached poster, fill in your name and your occupation and photograph yourself holding the sign with your pets, your family, your friends, or anything else you can think of. Get creative – we want to see this spread across social media today. Post the photo on your own timeline with the hashtag #BonnieLives, (and if you’re on Twitter and Instagram – those as well) and then either post it to our wall or email it to [email protected] so that we can add it to an album here on the page that can be shared in the future. We extend our sincere condolences to all the staff and volunteers at Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter, where Bonnie has been held for the last two and a half months. They loved her, they cared for her while she was in awful condition, and they fought hard to be legally allowed to release her. We can’t imagine how they are feeling this morning in light of what they have been forced to do.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 03:35:20 +0000
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