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: WAY OF THE WORLD;
REMEMBER THE VICTIMS
(Cutting Daily Telegraph June 26th 1995) Many thanks to Georgina in Dulwich
: BY AUBERON WAUGH
DAY AFTER day we read of innocent dogs sentenced to death under Kenneth Baker's infamous Dangerous Dogs Act of 1992, which responded to some ephemeral gutter press hysteria about bitten children with a Nazi-style edict condemning whole breeds of dog to sterilisation, physical restraint and death.
The latest victim is Jessie, a toothless, crippled, brain-damaged Staffordshire terrier bitch, sentenced to death by lethal injection for resembling a non-existent breed called American pit-bull, after 15 months in a police cell costing, with legal fees, some £20,000.
This iniquitous act is enthusiastically supported by the RSPCA whose chief inspector, called Jan Eachus, testified that Jessie "looked an awful lot like a pit bull". The judge, before passing sentence, said that he had no discretion to do anything else.
Similar agitation by the gutter press has resulted in a whole network of Dog Wardens hired at great expense by the local authorities to complement the RSPCA's work in arresting and locking up any dog found wandering free.
A sad letter from Norfolk tells me of another Jessie, this time a 12-year-old arthritic alsatian living in wildest rural Norfolk, who was in the habit of calling on the neighbouring house, 50 yards away, for a biscuit from the nice lady who lived there. Intercepted by the local dog warden and impounded as a stray, Jessie was held in a dog pound until her owner managed to trace her and pay a £35 fine.
At least she has not been sentenced to death for resembling an American. As we read the daily lists of dogs condemned to death, we learn what it must have been like to live through the Great War, reading the daily lists of those who were missing or killed in action. Soon we will have Kenneth Baker cemeteries and Kenneth Baker memorials on every village green. Perhaps that is exactly what a dim and easily forgotten politician most hopes to achieve. /cutting ends
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The RSPCA is supposed to care for and protect animals not be instrumental in achieving a death sentence for them. Would you be prepared to condemn the above two poor animals to death?
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