(please be in mind this section is my personal opinion and is not meant to conflict with anyone else's beliefs or thoughts)
The fair treatment of all living creatures is important in not just showing that compatibility is possible on Earth, but that us, as humans, have the compassion and the power to make it happen. First, segregation and hatred was abundant with events like the Holacaust and problems in the South. It still exists but because of actions and voices spoken it was dealt with. You cannot leave anythiing go unjust. What living creature (human beings) should be able to determine the life of any other living creature whether its another humans being or an animal. As in this case its a man's best friend, a canine. Maybe just because its not in our country we should not think about it, when actually it can happen to our nation someday. One of my closest friend who lives in Germany is dealing with this. She's a skinhead girl that's on the run. Looking for a place where she can moved where the neighbors won't report her or kill her Stafford. Here is a copy of two news article that tells about a huge issue in Germany that deals with canines:
On the Hysteria Against Canines in Germany:
Dead Dogs Walking ...
The container outside the „shelter“ was filled with small and frail canine bodies. It was filled: legs and heads jutting out. It was a scene in front of the animal „shelter“ in Mönchengladbach, Germany. Clotting blood had run out of one dogs nose, the eyes were bulging out of its skull, as if the dog had been strangled.
These animals were killed shortly after German states had passed new laws severely restricting the lives of dozens of canine breeds and their owners. Laws that are quite probably the most restrictive in the world. These acts will mean the death of ten thousands of innocent dogs, whose only „crime“ is to be born as one of the banned breeds (or even cross-breeds). These laws are having their effect, unspeakable horror and sorrow for dogs and owners.
What Happened? After six year old „Volkan“ was killed by two so-called fighting-dogs in Hamburg, Germany, on June 26th, the country, led by the immediate and intemperate comments of national leaders including Prime Minister Schroeder, turned into a madhouse. Ortwin Runde, mayor of Hamburg, said, „We aim to kill as many dogs as possible.“ Hamburg’s authorities installed a telephone-hotline for „good citizens“ to denounce fighting-dog-owners. The hotline broke down from overuse in the first day. Everybody seemed to see every dog as a „fighting-dog.“ Police found that even puppies were being reported. Politicians and journalist are now using terms that remind one of Germany’s darkest past. Holger Christier, chairman of the Social Democrats (SPD) in Hamburg’s paliament, says the town „will be fighting-dog-free by November.“ We remember that, during the Third Reich, the Nazis called for „Jew-free“ towns. It is now appalling to hear even the „liberal“ Social Democrats using such terms.
These are the facts so far: At least 95% of the dogs whose extermination is planned, are gentle individuals, that have not been accused of attacking anyone. Under existing laws, individual dogs proven to be dangerous have always been confined or euthanized. But the media now are slandering entire breeds as „killer-dogs“, „bloodthirsty beasts“ or „killing machines“. „Vigilante“ justice is announced in case the new laws are not be put in action quickly: „BZ“ (Berlin newspaper): „People of Berlin are fed up with wash-out-authorities chickening out for some curs. They demand authorities like Hamburg or Munich saving them firmly from aggressive Biters. Otherwise they’ll take charge on it themselves.“
Mobs and thugs are already at work: A purebred Dogue de Bordeaux was doused with fuel and set on fire, it seems that a six month Rottweiler was tortured and killed the same way. A three months old Rhodesian Ridgeback died excruciatingly by poison, people had put on a walking trail in Kiel. In Lübeck some dog-owners found pieces of saussage filled with razor-blades. In Berlin a group of men injured a Pitbull seriously by kicking the totally defenceless animal, the dog had been tied up and was wearing a muzzle. Near Hannover a drunken man threatened to shoot a Bullterrier, pointing a gun at dog and owner. All over Germany dogs are kicked by passers-by and slandered as bloody beasts. This is even happening to small dogs and puppies of any breed.
Without demonstrable provocation, some animals have already been shot by the police. In several cases, dogs were shot because they were trying to protect their households, growling at police as they entered an apartment or growling at attackers in neighborhoods
And hatred doesn’t stop with attacks on only the dogs. Dog-owners living in flats are threatened by neighbours, their dogs are tormented and injured by some in stairways when dogs are being taken outside for walks. A young man from Hamburg was assaulted by three thugs with an iron bar and wooden boards, and his Staffordshire Terrier suffered from a deep flesh wound. In the same city, a young girl going for a walk with her Golden Retriever was pelted with stones, even the daughter of a well-known politician was hit in the face while strolling with her Bullterrier through the park. Actually the majority of the dog owning victims of assaults and verbal attacks seem to be girls and women. Elderly ladies with small companion dogs are being abused the same way as young girls with Huskies or women with Labradors. They are insulted as „sluts“ and „hookers“ who should be done away with by poison gas („Euch sollte man vergasen“). Many owners of the particulary defamed Pitbulls and Staffordshires only dare to go out in heavy rain or in the early hours of the morning.
Not only is the odd „man on the street“ perpetrating this madness. Official Germany and its media also seem to be out of control. German states are trying to trump each other, it seems, vying to have the most restrictive dog laws. In the past month, up to forty-two breeds of dogs, about one-third the number of purebred canine breeds recognized by the American Kennel Club, are now defined as „fighting-dogs“ and forced to wear muzzles.
In the past month, the long-buried spectre of German xenophobia has again reared its head. Germany’s „national dog“, the German Shepherd, though it is the breed most commonly associated with attacks on humans in Germany, is only being restricted with leash-force (in town-centers) in the state of northrhine-westfalia, together with all other dogs above a height of 40 centimetres (even whippets). Doberman and Rottweiler breeds are now also defined as fighting-dogs in two states. Breeds of foreign origin, on the other hand, are the ones most commonly being restricted or to be euthanized and banned altogether. Breeds of English, American, French, Spanish, Italian, Asian and East-European origin are the ones at risk. State and local taxes for so-called „fighting-dogs“ have increased nearly tenfold (ex post facto), and are now amount to about as much as the monthly income of a lower middle class worker (between 1200 and 1800 Marks).
State restrictions being enacted are painfully reminiscent of the laws passed in the thirties and forties in Germany. Owners of so-called „fighting-dogs“are being forced to put up large neon-coloured signs at their entrances announcing that a „fighting dog“ or „Kampfhund“ lives there. At the doors of apartments, households with dogs are branded with special-coloured tags. So-called „fighting-dogs“ are being banned in shopping-centers, as well. People with banned dogs are not transported by German Rail, and in Hamburg they are even not allowed to use regional trains, buses, harbour ferries. This means that, a family without a private car can take no family holiday, no Sunday trips, no weekend family visits. If their veterinary clinic is more than a walking distance away, these owners can’t even take the dog to the vet.
Some dog owners who refuse to give away their animals or have them euthanized may soon be left homeless. Some apartment complexes have already given notices to dog owners to move out, and most tenants associations are on the side of the owners, not the renters. The evictions orders will stand even if the dogs of the owners in question have consistently behaved themselves.
The litany of ostracism goes on. Owners of dogs throughout the country are being damned by media and politicians; they are labelled „unscrupulous“ and „antisocial elements.“ Noted psychologists are making facile and wholesale „tele-diagnoses,“ referring the „abnormally aggressive tendencies“ of owners of large breed dogs. All the while, on the other hand, children of dog-owning families are traumatized with the dread of losing their best friends. Some dog owners even admit to thoughts of suicide.
It’s still an open question where one might, if forced, leave the forbidden animals. Animal shelter homes have been and are crowded. Hamburg is considering donating all the dogs it collects to a former animal experiment facility of the local University. To house collected individuals of banned breeds, some states are even considering the contruction of special „camps.“
The killing of healthy animals „without rational reason“ is contrary to German law. „Euthanasia“ has been permitted only in cases of an animal’s severe disease or proven aggressiveness. In comparison with other nations, German animal shelters have good reputations, good facilities and are even well financed. Germans as a group always have donated substantial amounts of money to support private animal shelter organisations and placement services to prevent animals from being put to death. But, in Germany, this historic and kindly attitude toward dogs appears, at least in the past month, to have radically changed. „Dogs and other things“ These words are from the governments bill for abrogation of parts of the animal shelter act and may lead to the new direction. According to Otto Schily, federal minister of the interior, the legislative body of the European Community will soon be asked to follow the German lead and ban dozens of breeds from the Continent. British purebred dog owners are marshalling their defences in preparation for initiatives in their country.
Meanwhile, German dog-owners, their families, and friends are in deep despair as a result of the witch-hunt. Germany has one of the lowest numbers of dogs in households of any country in Europe. In fact, Germany hasn’t a particularly exceptional problem with so-called fighting-dogs at all. Every year there are from one to four persons killed by dogs nationwide, but more than 7,000 are killed in traffic-accidents. Germany is one of the last countries in Europe without speed-limit on motorways. Germany has a lot of social problems: High crime and a relatively large number of persons with records of violent crimes. There is an high rate of unemployment, and many live their lives in what might be called social isolation. Apartment rents take a large portion of a family’s monthly income. The gap between poor and rich is increasing. Pensions are insecure. To top all this off is a latent xenophobia.
Problems with unsocialized animals trained for aggression and criminals who organize illegal dog fights exist here in Germany as they do throughout the world. Some criminals abuse dogs and train them to threaten, injure or even kill people. The dog that killed little „Volkan“ had itself attacked humans previously, and it‘s owner had been accused of many crimes. This dog should have been seized long ago. Even according to laws already on the books pertaining to dogs, authorities had the duty to take action. Hamburg’s authorities took no action in several instances to protect the public and only half-hearted action in other cases in which these dogs attacked. Now, due to incompetent law enforcement, tens of thousands of innocent people and innocent dogs shall pay for these neglections.
It appears to be quite easy to channel frustration and anger endemic in a great part of German society away from real causes toward scapegoats. Just over fifty years after the end of second World War people are daring again to refer to „life unworthy of life“. Again they dare wholesale to criminalize, persecute, and stigmatize groups of persons innocent of any crime. As innocents are persecuted, as justice turns to perpetrate wrong, it may no longer be „only“ a question of dog owners and their companions. Let’s remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller, surviver of concentration-camp:
"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me – and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
We still have the opportunity to speak up. There is still time enough to speak up for innocent dogs and owners. There is still time enough for good people of other countries to help through contacts with German authorities. Finally, there is still time to help Germany and its Federal Republic remember the democratic principles upon which it was founded.
© Eileen Heerdegen, Hamburg, Germany
the website address: http://www.hund-und-halter.de/ber-u-gesch/material/seiten/Eve4.html
(You can help out by writing to the German Government and telling them your opinion on this issue)
here are some email address to people who have "power" mainly in politics that you can complian to or send porno to..ha
Slobodan Milosevic - slobodan.milosevic@gov.yu
Tony Blair - tony.blair@geo2.poptel.org.uk
The Dalai Lama - terc@unv.ernet.in
Paddy Ashdown - paddyashdown@cix.compulink.co.uk
Mag. Viktor Klima - viktor.klima@kabhbk.bka.bka.ada.at
Dr. Joerg Haider - joerg.haider@fpoe.or.at
President of the USA in Oval office - President@Whitehouse.Gov
First Lady of the USA - first.lady@whitehouse.gov
Newt Gingrich - georgia6@hr.house.gov
Vice President of the USA - vice.president@whitehouse.gov
Ted Kennedy - senator@kennedy.senate.gov
Senator McCain - Senator McCain@mccain.senate.gov
Oskar Lafontaine - lafontaine@spd.de
Dr. Wolfgang Gerhardt - wolfgang.gerhardt@liberale.de
Guido Westerwelle - guido.westerwelle@mdb.bundestag.dbp.de Joschka
Fischer - Joschka.Fischer@mdb.bundestag.dbp.de
Dr. Gregor Gysi - g.gysi@pdsll.zerberus.de
Dr. Gunter Rexrodt - guenter.rexrodt@liberale.de
Dr. Jurgen Ruttgers - juergen.ruettgers@bmbf.bund400.de
Liddy G. Gordon - potent468@aol.com
Daniel Patrick Moynihan - Senator@dpm.senate.gov
Ross Perot - 71512.4600@compuserve.com
Patrick J. Buchanan - 76327.1260@compuserve.com Tho
mas A. Daschle - daschle@daschle.com
Dr. D. James Kennedy - djk@cr-online.com
Christine Todd Whitman - ToddCWhitman@rutgers.edu
Good news came with bad news: on Monday September 11th: the Administration Court of Hessen announced their decision declaring the injunction against the Hessen fighting dog act as being accepted. Until the court's main decision next year major parts of the dog edict are thus invalidated.
The last paragraph of the media reports on this good news brought the bad news that as of October the authorities of Hessen will start with "the killing of the dogs".
Such news is to be heard each day. Dogs that were seized, abandoned by their owners or otherwise ended up being imprisoned in Germany's over-crowded shelters or state container camps - death penalty is waiting as the only way to exit this kind of accommodation.
An Internet petition is being created responding to this news, that also Hessen now is to join this mass killing. The same night more than 25 signatures are entered. It is Wednesday, September 13th and there is so little time left until this 'deadline' in October.
Petitions
Usually petitions are being sent via snail mail or fax. A pile of fax pages fluttering into the offices of the competent Ministry of Interior might have a more negative effect than a petition should have. The decision to hand-over that "plea for clemency" into the hands of a responsible person is therefore just a logical consequence.
So easy to say, so hard to realise. None of the persons contacted in Hessen, said to have good relations to the Ministry is able to organise an according appointment. Obstacles are being made to get over them - on September 29th I finally have my appointment. The explanation that this petition was started from Bavaria and is being signed by concerned people from all over the world is as true as a door-opener.
Together with the hard copy signatures that were collected in Bavaria, in Frankonia, Hessen and in Switzerland the petition lists a total of 578 signatures. There are entries from every part of the world: USA, Australia, Asia and almost every country in Europe.
Mr Günther, to whom the petition is handed over on October 2nd in the huge white building in Wiesbaden, the Capital of Hessen, obviously is very content with this campaign. The black folder contains 22 red sheets listing the entries of the internet petition together with the originals of the separately collected signatures.
The red-ribbon-sticker on the cover together with a red-and-black ribbon clearly symbolise my mission. Both insignias are well-known, also in this nerve centre of the mighty men.
The words I bring are clear: Germany has again got a bad reputation - this time for the way they are treating dogs. Calls for mass killings of certain breeds by both the German people and the politicians are being spread around the world and their answer is - again - "Fear the German". Being a German, living here, this is worrying me. If Hessen now fulfils the death verdict on innocent dogs that never did anything wrong this will be spread around the world within hours. So many entries from so many countries clearly prove this.
Furthermore, if the Administration Court in its main decision might decide on the dog edict to be completely invalidated - Hessen would have committed a clear crime, having violated the act for animal protection.
He explains the mass killing of dogs being reported via the media to be a hoax. He is also eager to declare, that there are no plans for mass killings either, and 'I can promise you this as a human being, as a civil servant and as a dog trainer I also would never back that and would strictly refuse that, too!'
Mr Günther who is training police dogs, and also performing the dreaded temperament tests on the dogs listed in the Hessen dog ordinance to be dangerous dogs very obviously also welcomes the decision of the Court that invalidates e.g. the muzzle compulsion for dogs that have proved to be not dangerous during such tests. That the dog edict could be announced to be completely invalidated, he does not believe though: it is basically correct. 'The euthanasation of dogs that did not pass the temperament test is quite a different problem', he declares, 'there is no reason why a private person should own a dog that is really dangerous. One has to regard this also under the aspects of animal welfare'.
Aggressive
Hints to dogs that are in second hands, being spoiled in history and kept safely do not change his point of view, although Mr Günther surely is a man that knows about dogs and does not misinterpret canine reactions for aggressions. Asked how many dogs he has tested and how many of them had to be seized for being 'inadequately aggressive", he tells of about 50 dogs being checked and two of them that failed. A smile and a 'not really a proof for the existence of aggressive breeds' is slipping me.
The petition was actually addressed to Mr Roland Koch, the Minister of the Land of Hessen. Mr Günther promises that he will care for the forwarding of the petition to the hands of Mr Koch, and that the petition will not end up in a litter bin.
© Gabi Woiwode in Munich
the website address: http://www.ourdogs.co.uk/
