My Weapon Is A Dog – BBC Three
On nearly every high street from Penzance to London and Glasgow to Belfast, there’s a new “must-have” accessory for some young men. Not the latest trainers or mobile phone, but fierce, snarling dogs.
Rickie Haywood-Williams explores the hip-hop and peer-pressure culture that has led to this growth in aggressive dogs in his hometown of London – on the streets and abandoned in shelters. He discovers that dogs are bred, bought, sold and given away with incredible ease.
In some cases dogs are deliberately trained and even abused to make them vicious. Methods of “toughening up” dogs include chain fighting and beatings. The owners claim it’s all necessary for protection – but are they always in control of their animals?
Rickie learns that the “Staffie”, formerly a dog of choice, is now being replaced by bigger, fiercer breeds as the dog to have. Shockingly, he discovers that the Pit Bull, the most notorious status dog of all, is back with a vengeance.
Rickie meets victims of vicious dog attacks to hear their reaction to the rise in aggressive dogs. He also visits vets at Harmsworth Animal Hospital as they desperately try to patch up dogs after they’ve been abused or neglected.
The film also seeks to understand the status dog culture from the owners’ point of view – examining the question of why so many young men want to be feared.
Thursday 21 May
9.00-10.00pm BBC THREE
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I’ve just seen the TV Film ‘My Weapon is a Dog’
and what a brilliant balanced programme I thought it was..
Well put together and strangely entertaining at the same time – This show was a glimmer of light on all too often
tedious BBC 3
I’m glad that Rickie said that, unlike knives or guns, dogs have feelings, and can be hurt themselves.
If people treat Pit Bulls and Staffies and other so called ‘dangerous’ dogs the way they do, do you still expect them to be good dogs? If you were beaten, fed gunpowder and chillies, thrown in a pit and expected to fight to the death, would you still be mentally stable?
Like the policeman said on the show (I think he was a police man?), 90% of the problem is at the owners end of the leash.
It doesn’t matter the breed of dog, if you were to treat a Labrador, Dachshund, Great Dane or whatever the same as APBTs etc. are treated, you would have the same problem.
And some ’sweet’ breeds have already been treated in such a way. With consequeces. It’s just that no one wants to hear how the sweet little Golden Retriever killed Granny.
But it happens. Don’t just think it’s the Bully breeds.
If you are to get a dog, treat it well, train it and socialize it well, feed it a proper diet (not like Pedigree or Bakers, awful stuff) and care for it well, and you will have a GOOD dog, it’s just Bully breeds need that little extra, because Bully breed owners need to show people that these dogs can be gentle companions.
Hi I own a staffi that got a bad cut on his leg on monday an a vet wouldnt see him just because he is a staffi i like the way you are bringing this to ligth but wot about the people with this kind of dogs that dont use them as weapons going to do. it is wrong an they shudnt be allowed to use them like that