Calls to ban "barbaric" painful dog collars

Monday 25 January 2016

Dog lovers are calling for a ban on collars they say are barbaric and cruel - and almost 700 people have already signed an online petition to ban them.

Jo-Ann de la Mare set up the petition after spotting a dog wearing a collar designed to hurt it when it pulls at the lead in town last week - she took a picture which quickly took off on Facebook, and has followed up with a petition on change.org.

The collars that punish dogs for pulling aren’t actually illegal here and that's what hundreds of Islanders want to see changed - including the Head of the Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who called them abhorrent, appalling and hideous.

You can find Jo-Ann's petition here - almost 700 people have already signed it and she hopes the dog's owner will look into different ways to train the dog.

She said: “I just want the collar off the dog and suitable training methods to be used.

“I'm hoping that she will see how many people disagree with what she is doing and will decide to bin that horrible collar!”

Some Islanders who've signed the petition say "no animal deserves to be tortured like this" and that there are plenty of alternative training methods available and the Head of the JSPCA agrees.

Steve Coleman said: “We would never advocate them but we believe they should be banned like other places in the UK.

“Thankfully it’s rare, it’s only the second time we’ve heard of them here in ten years.

“They are one of the most abhorrent things to mankind, we don’t put chains around people and we shouldn’t put chains around dogs.

"They are not illegal, but I think it’s appalling. It’s a hideous device.”