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The Netherlands: More on lifting the pit bull ban

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#1 ·
The Netherlands: More on lifting the pit bull ban

How the UKCE worked to overturn the ban

By Sharon St Joan, Best Friends Network Staff Writer

Since the lifting of the pit bull ban in the Netherlands on June 9, we are learning more about the hardships experienced by pit bulls and their families during the fifteen years that the dogs were deemed illegal in Holland--and the actions taken by groups fighting against the ban. A number of Dutch groups worked energetically to have the ban overturned, among them the UKCE.

Gerard Kuiper, Chairman of the United Kennel Club Europe (UKCE), in the Netherlands, has been kind enough to share with Best Friends some of the actions his group took leading up to the lifting of the pit bull ban by the Netherlands Department of Agriculture.

Founded in 2004, the UKCE has registered more than 400 dogs who did not previously have purebred registration papers. Only pit bull-type dogs who did not have pedigree papers were threatened by the ban, which went into force in 1993.

The dogs for whom the UKCE issued papers were purebred American Staffords, and with this registration the owners could show the police that their dogs were registered and could not be impounded by law.

On many occasions, Gerard Kuiper was asked by judges to testify in court as to whether a dog, who had already been seized and impounded, was or was not a pit bull. Generally, apart from a few changes that were added later, the regulation applied specifically to pit bulls. His expert testimony was successful in freeing 71 dogs, who thus escaped a death sentence and were then returned to their owners.

In a single year, UKCE organized five demonstrations to protest the inhumane conditions in which the dogs were being held pending the final determination of their fate by a court.

The first demonstration was in The Hague, near the Dutch government buildings. Their second demonstration took place at the dog pound of Nieuwleusen, a small town of around 6,000 people. The third demonstration was held near the dog pound in the city of Louterbloemen, where protestors wore signs and walked through the streets, and a man whose dog had been confiscated because of the ban was interviewed.

The last demonstration was held in Rimpelaar; it is reported that dogs held at the dog pound there were severely mistreated.

UKCE continued to talk with Dutch officials in The Hague. After a year of gathering material, they had enough evidence to present a convincing case to Minister Verburg of the Department of Agriculture, who then called together a committee to study the issue.

The committee's report recommended lifting the ban, which was finally done on June 9, 2008.

Gerard Kuiper commented, "After 15 years the ban is gone! There will be another Dog Act, but never again will dogs be impounded just because they look like a pit bull!"
 
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#2 ·
Great stuff, its nice to know some places in the world are getting their heads screwed on right. We need to get this rolling in America, the real home of the APBT!!
 
#3 ·
Hope that you will help spread the word treu the internet that Netherland had no BSL anymore (1993 - 2008).
Belgium has never had one.

Now we in Netherlands importing manny Pitbulls from the US, and singning petitions to boycot for exemple Denver to not give any Dollar as tourist anymore in Denver. (Hopefully this will help to make a end on such a missunderstood breed that is punichd for owners actions or is put down to sleep becouse of his looks.


Greetings a happy Dutch Boy. :-D
 
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