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APPEAL TO QUEEN AS DOG JESSIE IS ORDERED TO DIE
(cutting Telegraph (?)June 23rd 1995 by Melvyn Howe) Thankyou Georgina of Dulwich
: The Queen is to be asked to intervene after a judge ruled today that a crippled, brain-damaged family pet called Jessie was an American pitbull terrier type and condemned her to die by lethal injection.
The decision by Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC was met with shouts of "shame" and "disgrace" and "murderers" from a packed public gallery.
Immediately after the case - unofficially estimated to have cost the taxpayer £25,000 - top dog psychologist and defence witness Dr Roger Mugford said he was "flabbergasted" at the result of the three-day appeal hearing at Southwark Crown Court and would be taking the matter to the monarch.
He had told the court that eight-year-old Jessie, found by children wandering unmuzzled and unleashed in central London's Hyde Park 15 months ago after being accidentally abandoned by her owner, had been wrongly branded a pitbull by police and the RSPCA.
There was no doubt, he insisted, that she was a Staffordshire bull terrier which shares a common ancestry with the American breed.
Outside court Dr Mugford, a leading expert on dog aggression, declared: "This country is not fit for a dog safely to walk in a Royal park without being set upon by the totally obsessed RSPCA inspectors. "It is disgusting ... their involvement stinks. It is an appalling situation." He said it was the worse case he had come across since the Dangerous Dogs Act came into force in 1991.
Dr Mugford, who was once called to Buckingham Palace to treat a couple of snappy royal corgis, continued: "Great Britain will be the pariah of the dog world. "I will be taking the matter up with the Queen. She will be very disturbed to know what has been done in her name."
The court heard that Jessie's owner, Mark O'Brien, 33, who was given the dog by a tenant some years ago, was convicted last December at Bow Street Magistrates Court of infringing the act by allowing the animal to stray in a public place without a muzzle or a leashe.
| He was fined £150 amd heard Jessie receive a mandatory death sentence. Yesterday, in an emotional reunion Mr O'Brien of Beasant Way, Neasden, north-west London, was able to stroke his dog for the last time after she was brought to court as part of his fight to save her life. |
The judge, outlining the court's reasons for upholding the death sentence on the animal, said the Act was a "deliberately severe piece of legislation". It was clearly Parliament's intention that it was in the public interest for dog owners to pay the price of breaking that law with their animal's life. The only avenue of appeal against such a decision was for the owner to prove that on a balance of probabilities the dog was not a pitbull terrier.
The judge said it had emerged that Jessie was "very unwell" suffering from both paraplegia and brain damage. The quality of her life was poor, although that was not a matter that could be allowed to influence the court's decision.
"In our view, in view of Jessie's condition, it would have been desirable if on the initiative of the appellant the experts could have come together at an early stage in this matter and written a joint report on Jessie's condition for the benefit of the authorities who would then have had the opportunity to consider whether it was necessary or appropriate to throw the full weight of the law behind this case.
" He said he and the two magistrates sitting with him during Mr O'Brien's legally-aided bid to overturn his conviction had carefully listened to a wealth of expert evidence. The court had come to the conclusion that Mr O'Brien had put before them a "wholly spurious argument" in his efforts to save Jessie. "Because they recognised essential characteristics of pitbull terriers are speed, strength, agility, athleticism and aggression leading to a capacity to wrestle other dogs, and because Jessie has none of these attributes, this is an important signal that she is not a dog of the pitbull terrier type
. "One has only to add into the equation that Jessie could have none of these attributes because she is a very sick animal, to appreciate the fallacy in this argument," said the judge.
Both he and the magistrates had been impressed with the evidence both by a veterinary surgeon called by the Crown and RSPCA chief inspector Jan Eachus. Both had told the court their first impression on seeing the 18 inch high, light brown and white dog was that she was an American pitbull type. But of the testimony of Dr Mugford and that of Kennel Club approved judge and dog expert Dr Peter Larkin, he went on: "We find their evidence to be well intentioned but to be unreliable and unacceptable. In the court's view neither had successfully argued that all the "essential characteristics" of the pitbull terrier were present in Jessie and that at best she was a poor representative of the Staffordshire bull terrier."
The judge added he had also been unimpressed with Mr O'Brien's account that he had become separated from Jessie after he had a lovers' tiff with his girlfriend, with them both storming off in separate directions and each believing the animal was with the other.
After weighing up all the evidence the court had come to the conclusion that the appeal had to fail and that the destruction order on Jessie must stand. She would be put down by a Metropolitan police veterinary surgeon, or one on their approved list. The judge ordered unemployed Mr O'Brien to pay £250 contribution to the prosecution costs of £750. Outside court Mr O'Brien said he was "completely disgusted" but not surprised at the court's decision.
| "I am also disgusted at the RSPCA's involvement. I always thought the RSPCA stood for prevention of cruelty to animals but as a result of their involvement my innocent crippled dog, with no teeth, has been condemned to die." Mr O'Brien, who works for the Retired Greyhound Trust on a voluntary basis, added: "I won't get to see Jessie again." |
Trevor Cooper, his solicitor, said they would consider the judgment carefully to see whether there was "any room for manoeuvre" for appeal. He went on: "If we can't appeal, Jessie will be destroyed within three weeks by lethal injection, and if that does happen then the Dangerous Dogs Act has condemned a crippled, brain-damaged dog. "But there is no evidence that that dog is a danger to the public whatsoever. "It is hard to believe we are a nation of dog lovers."