Ban or Strictly Regulate Electric Shock Collars & Choke Chains For All Companion Animals.

I usually take my dog, Anapol, to walk every morning around my neighborhood. She's always on a leash, and as a matter of fact, I'm also planning to get her a dog leash girdle so that the leash itself doesn't hurt her neck.

Anyways, so we are walking as usual, enjoying the morning weather... listening to the birds singing and so on. And I noticed there was a beautiful dog by our apartment with a belt on his neck but no leash. Anapol had a bad experience few months ago whereas a loose dog attacked her while she was walking with my wife. Since then, if I see a leashless dog, I pick her up and carry her so that the dog cannot attack her.

The owner of the other dog was around. And she realized what I was doing and informed me that her dog has an electric collar. The dog was doing its business, and ran towards us since he saw Anapol. Probably just wanted to get acquainted... Now the owner of the dog was somewhat anxious and probably didn't mean to bother us, so she kept pushing the buttons for the electric collar. And the poor dog was all over the ground, rolling over and over, confused why he was getting punished. The owner kept yelling at him and telling him to go inside and so on. But obviously the dog didn't understand her - and as a result she kept pushing the buttons more frequently. And the dog was crying... It simply broke my heart.

To begin with, I was not even aware that there's something like an electric collar available to regular public. I understand that there are some people who are trained to use it, because not all dogs are friendly, and sometimes the dog trainers would use them appropriately to control and behave those dogs. On the contrary, general public are not usually well trained, even though there might be some instructions on how to use them available when they purchase the electric collars. But I fear only few people actually read those things...

Now, punishment in general is not the best way to train any animal. If not done correctly, it would only aggravate the animal, as well as hurt the animal beyond perception. According to Dr. Dennis Coon, a well known Psychologist, "Punishment tells an animal that a response was wrong. However, it does not say what the right response is, so it does not really teach new behaviors."

There was another petition like this one which was initiated by Australian Working Dog Rescue about 7 or 8 months ago. They wrote that scientific studies have proven numerous times that the use of these devices cause damages to the brain. As well as, due to the metal spikes that are pushed into the skin of each animal in order to deliver the electric shock more effectively, one can clearly see the wounds that these tools inflict on any animal they are used upon.

I mean come on! We live in the 21st century... and these practices need to stop. One of my good friend, who is also a dog trainer, actually supported the idea of continuing to use this tool because she felt that they are effective if used properly. The key here is "to use properly." How many people do you believe know how to use it properly? The instructions that come with the tool are insufficient because it doesn't make any difference to the people who are careless, uneducated, or specially to the ill-minded animal abusers. And there's plenty of them!

My argument to her was then there should be adequate restrictions & regulations to keep the animals safe! For instance, only state/city certified trainers should be able to use them and hence have access to the collars.There should also be yearly license fees and thorough training processes, etc. Pet owners who would like to use such a tool must have thorough training and understand the consequences of misuse.

Bottom line is, we must recognize that there are widespread abuse of the electric collars, as well as, choke chains & buckle collars. No one is blaming the ones who are using those tools correctly. But for the rest of the population the abuse is a fact. As a human being I feel that this needs to stop! And the only way to do it would be to ban or strictly regulate general population from using the electric collars, ban the sale of such products to the general population (unless licensed), so that that they don't fall into wrong hands.

This is going to be a tough fight. Because the companies that manufacture such products won't give up so easily. They will lobby the congress to disregard our petition. But we must unite and work diligently to make sure that we speak up for our companion animals!

And I am counting on you!

(Disclaimer: The photo of the dog with the electric collar was taken from google images, I do not own the copyright to the photo).