Why Don't We Have A BSL forum here?

[wvvdiup1]

I have a good question: Bear in mind, I realize this is a positive reinforcement training website, but the forums are all dog related and a few related to Victoria's TV Show and her books, however, I am wondering what about the BSL (Breed Specific Legislation) issues that are currently popping up all over the world, why isn't there a forum or a thread about this? I know Victoria, a good many of you -this forum's members, including myself are against BSL, so I ask again, why isn't there a BSL or "Anti-BSL" forum here?

When we share our information, our knowledge, and our experiences with one another, no matter of what country we reside, we can beat BSL anywhere when we work together, not divided!

[emmabeth]

No reason not to start a specific anti-bsl thread, I thought it was well known enough Victorias thoughts on BSL that it would be taken for granted that we, as a forum, are anti-bsl?? no?

I thinkt he reason for not having a seperate forum area is just that there are so many forum areas as it is, and then you run a higher risk of people posting in the wrong bit... and so on.

Feel free to start a thread here, either in General Chat or in the Breed area?

[wvvdiup1]

I think we should have a BSL forum to share our ideas, our thoughts, as we love our dogs and are seeing practically everyday those rights to or of owning a dog no matter of its breed is being eroded by corrupt organizations and politicians who do not care enough for the rights of people or the needs of animals but by some profit!

With a forum here, we, the members of this forum, can discuss all these things and work together for a common goal; that is, work together for the good of all dogs and get rid of the prejudices, discriminations, and injustices that are laid against any specific breed of dog, because it is being a dog, that ends with that specific breed banned or euthanized in extreme cases, just because their owners didn't take the responsibility of training them properly, or keeping them safe, or keeping other people safe when knowing their dogs are/were a liability!

Why should all of a certain breed be banned when their owners have taken full responsibility of their dogs, because the actions of a few?

[nightsrainfall]

Truthfully I'm not active enough to achieve anything against BSL unless I'm either having a conversation with someone and it comes up or the BSL is locally organized so that I can make an impact on it.

I think there are anti-BSL groups that have a good archive of information and ideas, but I don't remember where I saw them...

[SmallBarkBigBite]

I just wanted to say thanks for the links, I am checking those out.

[Fundog]

Just my .02 here, but I personally feel the whole board has enough "variety" on it, including with people cross-posting entire articles from other forums onto this one. Afterall, the whole reason there are soooo many forums and blogs and what-not out there is so people can pick and choose what they want to visit, and read, and join without necessarily having a "one-stop-blogging-spot." Know what I mean? Perhaps, since I realize a lot of people actually appreciate having all that "extra" literature posted here, you could just start a "Links to interesting Articles" thread, and just post the links to those articles that really got you excited, perhaps with a brief (just two or three sentences) summary of what it's about, and then if people are really interested in reading the article for themselves, they can follow the link. The "Interesting Articles" thread can be stickied on the "Articles" page, so these cross-postings don't keep pushing back the other extremely helpful articles that were written exclusively for this forum. Does that make sense?

[jacksdad]

good point about the articles forum fundog. actually, I know this is off topic, but now that you got me thinking about it...maybe the articles forum should be moderated. meaning you submit a article for review before it gets posted there. it would do two things. one eliminate "spam" postings of articles that are more news then training how to or academic learning. and two, prevent people from posting questions and not being seen and lost.

I know this would possibly create more work for someone and the criteria for getting a post added to the articles section shouldn't be too strict, just enough so that news and other unrelated stuff stays out making it easier to find the how to's and more in depth explanations of something.

Just food for thought.

As for the BSL suggestion. is this really the best place for it? I agree it's safe to say most people here are already pretty much against BSL so having such a forum risks simply preaching to the choir or beating a dead horse for the most part. Of course counter argument is that not everyone who comes here maybe informed or might actually support BSL because they don't full understand all the issues. In which case a BSL forum might help change some minds. being a somewhat emotionally charged issue it could be hard to change minds.

However, there is value to keeping this site as politically neutral as possible, being focused on training and behavior issues. it gets political enough around here at times, but something like a BSL forum risk really getting political to a level that would distract from the forums primary focus.

my two cents for what it's worth

[wvvdiup1]

We debate about other things "Dog", so I don't see any reasons why we shouldn't have a BSL forum! It would bring both sides to the proverbial table and come to, at least, some common ground! It's more to get the information out there than anything, or if you wish, more of an alert. Debating is, of course, optional!

As for posting articles, I do know we have a "Dog Training Articles" forum, but to write a few lines and post a link to that article? I don't think the administrators of this website/forum would want or allow that. In fact, I don't know many website/forums like this that does, even the ones I'm a member of don't, but the link is more of a reference than anything else on those websites/forums.

If someone posts a comment to an article here, anyone can see it, so it really doesn't get missed unless that individual misses it, not everyone else. Each of us chooses which thread to read and/or comment.

[Wes]

Basically agree with what Fundog and Jacksdad said. I'm fairly active in a local anti-BSL group with monthly meetings, as Rosie was an APBT and Sampson's a Doberman, but I do agree that having a special forum for BSL things would be sort of redundant. The link in your sig is helpful enough, I think. Very good website.

[emmabeth]

This is primarily a forum about dog training and behaviour, so I think a specific BSL forum wouldnt be appropriate, and as Jacksdad pointed out, we would on the whole be preaching to the choir anyway - it is rare (I am struggling to actually think of a time its everh appened) that someone comes here with a strong view that certain breeds are inherently bad or that BSL is a good thing.

Theres absolutely no reason at all that such things cannot be discussed within the forum areas we already have, but though I obviously cannot speak for Victoria or BoardHost, I suspect they would agree that there already are more specialist forums for action and discussion on the topic of BSL, and we would not achieve in a specialist forum area, anything we cannot do within the bounds of what we already have.

I do know that Victoria is thoroughly anti-BSL, as back years ago when I was on the committee for an anti-bsl organisation myself she lent us her support and worked with us at public events, so that isnt the problem. It is just a matter of spreading things too thinly, and that it would be a fair bit of work for no overall gain in the long run.

However as I say it isn't up to me, so do feel free to ask BoardHost about it and if he thinks is a good idea then thats fine.

[Mattie]

Personnally not having a BSL forum on here is very refreshing, I am not against it just the oposite but I don't want to see it everywhere I go. There are a lot of forums for that, too many really as some are not kept updated, if they are not updated then a lot of support is left out. It is far better to have less forums and have them up to date that for a lot of them that is difficult to keep up to date.

In the UK we have Deed not Breed which has got a lot of seized dogs back home but the forum they use I walked from, not saying why. 2 years ago I offered to help with manning the telephones, I was told they would phone me back as they were desperate for help on the phones, I kept contacting them and always got the same thing. I gave up.

[wvvdiup1]

Basically agree with what Fundog and Jacksdad said. I'm fairly active in a local anti-BSL group with monthly meetings, as Rosie was an APBT and Sampson's a Doberman, but I do agree that having a special forum for BSL things would be sort of redundant. The link in your sig is helpful enough, I think. Very good website.

Thank you, Wes! You're more than welcome to join, as many of its members are part of their own local groups and do work do work with others. K9BSL.com was just revamped here in the past week, so what we've posted on the old one was completely wiped cleaned when owners decided to scrub and revamp the site to make it more friendly.

[Wes]

I will definitely take a peek and register!

[wvvdiup1]

Wes wrote: I will definitely take a peek and register!

Hope to see you there, Wes!

If you have any problems, let me know!