Tues 1st Sept: INSANITY!

 Everyone must know about the recent cases of dogs being seized by AFCD because they "might" have some fighting dog DNA in them, and the situation has now reached a point where sheer insanity has taken over.  

Pets are being forcibly removed from homes, with the latest case being one (clearly a sharpei cross) whose responsible owners were taking it to AFCD to update the license.  Who are these experts who can so easily determine a dog's breed mix just by looking at them?  What an amazing talent these AFCD staff seem to have, something I've never noticed in my 30+ years of taking dogs from AFCD Centres.

My own experience is that the staff at AFCD vary from kind to the opposite, but none have any clue about dogs, or animals in general.  They're government workers who just go to work, do their job (mostly paperwork) and then go home.  

I don't know what AFCD are hoping to achieve by this latest knee-jerk rection to a couple of cases, even if they were serious and heartbreaking.  It doesn't make every dog a monster, but this is the way they seem to be heading.  As many others have said, just being a particular breed doesn't mean that a dog will behave in a certain way, but these cases of dogs being taken from their homes the dogs were mixed breed!  What absolute insanity and unfairness, not to mention downright cruelty.

Show me the qualifications of these breed-identifying superstars and I might believe that they know something no one else does, but the fact is they have no clue.  Even the vets that work at AFCD do very little, if any, actual veterinary work, and their knowledge is far less than those of us who actually interact closely with dogs on a daily basis. 

This has to stop.  If you haven't already done so, make a formal complaint to the Senior Veterinary Officer at AFCD, Dr Bi Den Denise at bi_den@afcdgov.hk, and also write to the Ombudsman at complaints@ombudsman.hk.

In the meantime, if AFCD come knocking at your door YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LET THEM IN!  

Don't take your dog to AFCD for any reason if there's the slightest chance that they will suddenly declare it to be suspected of being a fighting breed.  To be honest, even a chihuahua could be part pit bull as far as they're concerned.  

Stay out of the way to keep your dog safe, because what's happening now is very, very frightening.