Dogs: Leash or Muzzle?

Three years ago Ash the labrador, was a stray dog roaming the streets of Chorlton, Manchester.

Today, he’s a trained sniffer dog, searching out drugs. He sniffs clubgoers on the way in to bars and clubs in Manchester City Centre. If he sniffs out anything suspicious he will sit by the person until his handler has made the search.

He’s also trained to sniff out firearms.

All this on 6 weeks of training! Just shows what a professional dog trainer can do, even with a stray.

Tomorrow Monty is booked in to have another operation on his ear. Poor little sausage.

This will be the second time he’s needed his ear cleaning and draining under anaesthetic since he was attacked in the park and suffered a nasty cut to his ear.

I’m sure he’ll be fine, and thankfully we have pet insurance…

But would this have been necessary if he hadn’t had the injury? Would the other dog have been able to attack him if it were on a lead or wearing a muzzle? I don’t think so.

Get well soon Montgomery Burns

xxxxx

Manchester City Council are taking the initiative in a new drive to enforce dog owners to keep their dogs on a lead whilst in the park.

They propose to stop dogs running loose completely in 15 parks, and in selected areas in 97 others and dogs will be banned completely from play areas.

Dogs will be excluded from play areas, sports grounds and cemeteries and there will be a limit on the number of dogs people can take on public land.

The parks highlighted include parts of Heaton Park - one of the largest municipal parks in Europe, Ardwick Green Park, Beech Road park in Chorlton and Sackville Street.

There would be an on the spot fine of £80 for those dog owners found with dogs off the lead.

Manchester City Council says the ban will help tackle dog fouling and the problem of stray dogs.

The council currently spend £33,000 on cleaning up dog fouling, £100,000 on dog services like dog wardens who round up 1,000 stray dogs per year.

Councillor Paul Murphy, executive member for Direct Services, said:
“We know that we need to take further steps to control dogs as all the feedback that we get from talking to residents has identified dog fouling and stray dogs as a real problem.

“Most dog owners in the city are considerate and responsible but as always a minority do not care and it is this minority that we want to tackle with these new proposals.”

Keeping dogs on leads in parks would also increase safety for children, the elderly joggers and cyclists.

I will keep you up to date with my efforts to change the Dangerous Dogs Act to include my ‘Lead or Muzzle’ campaign