A campaign has been launched to save the life of a dog that was reportedly found “raped by a human” and dumped with severe injuries on the streets of London.
Found as a stray in Hillingdon, west London, Olive the dog was ordered to be destroyed after she was assessed to be an illegal pit bull type breed.
The dumped dog, who was wearing a muzzle when discovered in April 2016, had a prolapsed uterus and her intestines were hanging out, campaigners told the Mirror.
Solicitor and dog law specialist James Parry, representing a group of animal-lovers who are going to court in a bid to overturn a destruction order issued in February last year, said that the canine was found “in a state that it should not have been”.
Scottish dog trainer Alexis Atchison, who has been travelling from Edinburgh to London over the last two years attending court hearings, argues that Olive is not a pit bull type dog and thus should be exempt from Britain’s breed-specific legislation (BSL) designating her a dangerous dog.
“We want her to live a normal life like any other dog. This is just ridiculous,” she told the Mirror. “A loving home awaits her but she’s not allowed to go to that loving home. She’s a great dog, a perfect dog. She’s been held prisoner for over two years.”
The case will go to Willesden Magistrates’ Court, which will decide in September on whether Olive can be exempted under the Dangerous Dogs Act and if the group of supporters who have brought the case to court can take ownership, according to Parry.
With a Facebook group page entitled ‘Olive’s Fight Against BSL’, Atchison launched a crowdfunding effort after she and other supporters of the dog were told to pay more than £16,000 in police costs.
The group also paid for three assessments by an “expert clinical vet behaviourist” which have revealed Olive to be a mongrel rather than a pit bull, Atchison has claimed.
Bred in England for fighting in sports, pit bull terriers were banned by the British government in 1991 after a series of incidents in which the dogs caused serious injury or death.
While campaigners argue that the Dangerous Dogs Act is ineffective and unfairly targets certain breeds “simply because of how they look”, statistics from DogsBite.org show the danger posed by pit bulls to be far greater than with other breeds, accounting for two-thirds of fatal dog attacks on humans over the past 13 years.