Dog owners warned over dressing up their pets at Christmas: RSPCA says outfits can leave animals feeling scared and that some people could be prosecuted if costumes are harmful http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...cared-people-prosecuted-costumes-harmful.html It's highly unlikely prosecution will come into fruition because it would be hard to prove as most of it would be behind closed doors. Should the RSPCA get involved, perhaps from an educational perspective ie: body language; over heating that sort of thing but prosecution I think is ridiculous. I think there is no right or wrong on this and it comes down to the situation of dog and item of clothing really, I agree with clothes for practical purposes and have no problem with the odd photo session as long as the dog actually does enjoy it , the odd dressing up day for a fun dog show, that sort of thing, but I don't believe a lot of owners can read their dogs' body language well enough to notice subtle signs if the dog is to hot miserable ect.
I agree that it is going to be a very difficult thing to prove. I cringe when I think of my poor cat who I used to take for a walk in a doll's pram wearing a bonnet. Although actually he was a strong-willed undoctored tom, so I suppose he would have just jumped out if it was bothering him. My training club used to have a fancy dress party at Christmas - I used to dress the miniature poodle up and she would walk around on her hind legs loving it, but there's no way I would have dressed up the border collie I had at the same time.
I hope this is just an educational message. Surely this organisation has enough cases of real cruelty to spend its time and resources on. Fancy dress dog clothes are a fairly recent fad, which will disappear when Joe and Josephine Public move their attention on to a new set of breeds.
Ridiculous. I do think a warning is a good because some owners don't realize how quickly a dog could over heat. But...Prosecution really? I think not. This sounds like something PETA would be behind. The only reason why I'd see actual prosecution being necessary would be if a dog actual did get too hot or something. Then it could be classed as over cruelty. It is unlikely that any costumes would be harmful though so seems a scare tactic. Never had any problem dressing mine up.
I dress mine up take photo then remove outfit, same for the fancy dress as soon as we are out of the ring I remove the outfits. My 3 happy Santa Paws
Your dogs are a little different Tina, because they do quite a lot of modelling, and are well used to their little 'jobs'. I would imagine that they rather enjoy the attention, (except Dottie the dragon), - and the treats that they earn of course.
Yes the hooligans have been dog models from 5 weeks old - K9 from 11 weeks old & Skye from 12 weeks old Yes I am a meanie lol
Could almost see the wife trying to do fancy dress up with Mouse. It used to take her 15 mins to put one of my sweat shirts on him last winter.
Well with all the cruelty and abuse there is in the world towards dog, the RSPCA have decided THIS is the one thing they need to educate the public on Ridiculous
Maybe I should sue the RSPCA for the "damage" done to my little dog because I had to cut her mesh harness off her? Oh, and remove her collar. Because I had to change the harness and being a silly old woman I like her collar to be the same colour as her harness. Oh yes, and a neighbour gave me some [human] baby teeshirts to keep her warm and she screamed her head off when I tried to put them on her. Perhaps the RSPCA would care to sort out the bites on my hands?
The RS#CA has been on the slippery slope for some years, It is now politically motivated and strongly influenced by the animal rights lobby and is becoming well removed from its original purpose, I am sure that the founders would turn in their graves if they could see the current state of their once wonderful organisation
