Electric shock collars for dogs

[Merlin]

I havePhillip Pook, 48, from Ogmore-by-Sea in the Vale of Glamorgan, was fined £2,000 and ordered to pay £1,000 costs for using a battery-operated collar to train his pet border collie.

The collars, which were banned in Wales last year but are still legal in other parts of Britain, give the animal an electric shock when it strays beyond designated boundaries. About 500,000 British dog owners use the device.

The Kennel Club welcomed the prosecution. A spokesman said: “Electric shock collars train dogs through pain and fear.

“They are a cruel, outdated and unsuitable method of training dogs.”

A spokesman for the RSPCA said Mr Pook had been “very bloody minded”. He said: “This has got to be the most expensive dog collar ever – he’s paid £3,000 for it. He was using the collar because he was too lazy to put up a fence.

“Electric collars have now been outlawed in Wales and there’s no excuse for using them. I am under no doubt this would have caused the dog pain.”

Magistrates at Bridgend were told that the collar gave an electric shock to Mr Pook’s dog, Dougie, when it went near a specific fence to escape from his home.

A young couple found Mr Pook’s collie, wearing the illegal collar, roaming a beach near his home in Ogmore-by-Sea.

They handed the collie over to the Dogs Trust charity, who traced the owner through a microchip.

David Prosser, prosecuting, said: “This is the first prosecution under the regulations for this type of collar. It operates like an electric fence, and if the dog approaches the boundaries or tries to escape it sends a shock. He didn’t accept that it was illegal because it’s legal in England. But this is the law as far as Wales is concerned.”

Magistrates were told the dog ignored the shocks and kept on escaping. It was known at a local kennels as “the dog with the shock collar”.

Mr Pook admitted the offence but claimed he didn’t know the collars had been made illegal. Electric shock collars, which are used to train unruly cats and dogs, were banned by the Welsh Assembly last March. The collars are still legal in England and Scotland. However, their legality is due to be debated in Parliament at Westminster and in Scotland.

The Electronic Collars Manufacturers Association has denied that use of such collars is painful to dogs.

On its website, the organisation says: “Mild static stimulation that your dog feels [is] designed to be undesirable so your dog will avoid it, yet is totally harmless and humane.”

The association said dogs learned in “small stages”, and therefore it takes an average 10 minutes twice a day for two weeks for a dog to be trained wearing an electronic collar.

The Welsh regulation prohibits the use of any electronic collar designed to give a dog or cat an electric shock. Owners caught using the device face a fine of up to £20,000 or six months in prison.

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always thought them cruel and so thought I would copy this article I read today in the DT;

[steve]

What a load of cr*p! The fence collars bleep first and if the dog continues then they get a zap. It didnt stop our loony going over 2 wires (2m of zaps!) over a fence and 6ft drop the other side to chase a deer when we first had her

Electric collars are good IF USED PROPERLY - that is the training collar, rather than fence collar (that also work well, normally!) We just have an electric fence around the edge of the garden to keep hungry Labs out of the chicken pen and to stop foxes eating the chickens.

Steve

[Rabbie]

Quite agree with you, Steve. I think the welsh are being very hypocritical in banning these collars while doing nothing to stop the appalling puppy farms which are the doggy equivalent of concentration camps. With regard to the passive collars I fail to understand how these are crueller than an ordinary electric fence. After all if the dog reacts to the audible warning it receives no shock at all. The only way an animal can tell if an electric fence is in operation is by receiving a shock. 

The problem with the training collars is that there is a potential lack of consistency in the dog receiving the shock depending on the competance of the operator. Perhaps these should only be allowed for use by licenced operators.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Our lab has a shock collar as we are not allowed to put a fence up on our property (no one is in the neighbourhood).

It's a fantastic device and now the dog is trained he knows exactly where the boundaries are and I don't think he has ever been zapped since.

Most people here use them and a neighbour has just had an invisible fence installed last week.

The shock isn't that great anyway, it's certainly not going to harm them if at all.

[Chats du Quercy]

We installed a radio fence for our lab cross, 6 years ago. We were strict with the training and it works wonders!

She knows her limits and has a huge area to roam freely in. Even is she doesn't have the collar on, she doesn't go out of the limits and it gives us peice of mind that, unlike our last dog, she won't be run over at the edge of our property by some idiot on a mobile phone!

To add insult to injury, we were held liable for the damage to his car.

[nomoss]

How can you be so indignant? Maybe the idiot on the mobile phone didn't expect an idiot to allow a large dog to roam on the road.

[steve]

mmm, maybe you like being an idiot yourself and drive illegally.

What a burk

Steve

[nomoss]

No I don't drive illegally. I don't allow dogs to illegally roam without a lead, either.

My young son was seriously hurt when a burk allowed his dog free to jump at his bicycle.

Why do some dog owners think they have a right to make their own rules and insult anyone who objects?

[Chats du Quercy]

The dog was NOT on the road but on our land, at the side of the road - just to put the record straight!

The idiot was seen to be on his mobile phone and swerved into the dog who was minding her own business on the grass!!!!

[nomoss]

[quote user="Chats du Quercy"]The dog was NOT on the road but on our land, at the side of the road - just to put the record straight! The idiot was seen to be on his mobile phone and swerved into the dog who was minding her own business on the grass!!!![/quote]

I'm sorry your dog was run over. My son's dog was always fenced in or tied up as we could never stop him wandering off, no matter how tired he was from walks. He managed to sneak off from inside the house one evening, got over a 6 foot fence, and was run over on a nearby main road. Our fault though.

[sid]

Important to put this into perspective... driving and using a mobile phone is illegal; minding your own business while walking or running around your own property is not! It's bad enough to lose a loved pet but it could equally be a child or indeed an adult that gets hit.

[nomoss]

Chats du Qurcy, I apologise for my initial reply. I just have strong reactions to animals wandering onto the roads.

It is so dangerous for others if drivers swerve suddenly to avoid them, and heart breaking to hit an animal with a vehicle.

[Salty Sam]

I see it was the RSPCA who secured through private prosecution - as is their way, the conviction. Wonder how long it'll be before they try and prosecute farmers or anyone using electric fences which incidentally, provide a much harder jolt.

Also in South Wales, the same caring animal charity who used captive bolt guns on 10 dogs including pups, at one location, rather than take them into care!