Security firm slammed for putting down healthy dogs

this is a follow up of the story i posted last week

GROUP of animal lovers has slammed an Enfield security firm for
putting down large numbers of guard dogs after it went into
liquidation.

Up to two dozen dogs are believed to have been put to sleep by the
Ministry Protection Services last week, though the exact number is
unknown.

The firm, which "prides itself on having the biggest dog section
the private sector can provide", did not do anything illegal, but
several dog owners have voiced anger that more of the animals were not
rehoused.

Many posted critical messages on a Facebook discussion site, which was set up following the incident.

Sally Nicholson-Fisher, 49, from Brighton Road, first notified the
Enfield Independent about the incident. She said: "People say the firm
did try to rehome the dogs, but they were just too vicious, but I would
dispute that.

"I tried hard to intervene and take the dogs off their hands, but
didn't have any luck. It all happened very quickly and I don't believe
they tried very hard at all.

"I feel appalled by it. What really irks me is that these dogs were
bred for security reasons, made to be vicious and then disposed of when
they were no longer useful."

Writing on the Facebook site, James Henry Eades called for the law
to be changed: "I am so upset and angry at the injustice of training
dogs to be aggressive and then having them killed.

"Anyone manipulating dogs to be aggressive has a moral responsibility to these dogs for life.

"Apparently there is no legal responsibility to keep these dogs
alive, but in situations such as these - eg "security" dogs - the law
needs to be changed."

Ministry Protection Services could not be contacted, but a friend
of the owner, who works in the animal industry, defended the decision
to put the dogs down.

He said: "Hundreds of dogs are put down all the time by the police, the prison service, the Army. It is often unavoidable.

"This poor guy hated having to do what he did. It was not done on a
whim. He tried extremely hard to rehouse the dogs, and all the dogs
that could be rehoused were rehoused.

"The fact is, some dogs are too aggressive to be put in a new home and the safest thing to do is put them down.

"All these do-gooders on Facebook need a reality check."

Dog welfare charity Dogs Trust declined to comment on this specific
incident as it did not know the full details, but confirmed that "no
healthy dog should ever be put to sleep".

A spokeswoman said: "Should any company that utilises working dogs
go into liquidation, we would advise them to immediately contact
rehoming charities or breed rescue associations before taking the
drastic step of putting them to sleep.

"Retired working dogs can make great pets and we firmly believe that no healthy dog should ever be put to sleep."

Not sure if this will make me very popular but, extremely sad though it is, I feel that there is probably a lot of truth in what the friend of the security firm owner said.

It's not necessarily a question of training them to be aggressive and then disposing of them when they are no longer useful. They are trained to do a job and its not everyone that can handle them.

Imagine the outcry if one of these dogs was rehomed and then went on to attack somebody?

I have seen how some people handle difficult dogs (and horses for that matter) and it often involves brute force. 'Knock all that aggression out of them!!'

Putting them to sleep may well be the best solution.

i hear what your saying Bev, but surely they could of been re-homed to other security firms/police/army/prisons, after all they were experienced dogs in this field and not needing much training would have saved a lot of money for anyone/firm taking them on.

awww Hilary you have had a lot of sad times with dogs and rats
Sheba XXXX

It's very sad

Sorry to hear that Hilary