The Lanzarote Presa Canario Club has requested the modification of the Law on potentially dangerous dogs, because it considers that it was "a quick political solution resulting from ignorance, from not listening to experts in animal behavior, who repeat ad nauseam that the breed does not condition the dangerousness of a dog." The club has made this request public after the controversy over the danger of this breed, which was unleashed last week as a result of the death of a woman in Madrid due to the bites of her Presa Canario. "These news can make disappear all the effort that many owners have carried out for more than 30 years in my personal case, and 20 in the case of the Lanzarote Presa Canario Club," said the president of the association, José Antonio Machín.
The Lanzarote club has expressed its disagreement with the 2002 law and has stated that in it "practically all dogs weighing more than 20 kilos and with a height at the withers of 50 centimeters would enter as potentially dangerous, in addition to demanding a series of requirements from the owners." Likewise, they have pointed out that "in no case do they refer to psychological controls for the animal in question".
In this sense, the club has highlighted its "New Era Project", which started in 2014 to "demonstrate that this law should be modified since it responded to temporary circumstances" and that "it lacks the support of specialists who understand" dogs. "Focusing on our breed, the Presa Canario, we understand that there must be a control from the birth of the litter to test the temperament of the animal and select the balanced specimens that guarantee a social coexistence without problems, and sacrifice all those who, due to aggressive dominant excess or by default, may end in unfortunate events that drag the rest of the breed due to ignorance of the subject by the majority of the owners," added the Lanzarote Presa Canario Club.
"A character test"
In a second phase, the island club has advocated for the realization of a "character test to verify the evolution of the temperament detected with its subsequent social learning", so that it is confirmed that they are suitable for reproduction and allow the breed to evolve. All "without the 'fame' or 'mercantilism' ending up destroying it, given the lack of control and economic interest that it has aroused, which far from helping the development of the same, has become one of the worst enemies of the Presa Canario", the association pointed out.
To explain it, the Lanzarote Presa Canario Club has assured that "the personality of the dog, like the human one, is the result of two aspects that have nothing to do with the breeds." On the one hand, there are genetic factors, that is, innate, which constitute the temperament of the dog, which has a biological, somatic dimension, which is not modifiable or educable. In this way, they have alluded to that "its manifestation is not controllable". On the other hand, they have pointed out that "there is the character", which has a biological and social dimension, "where what is learned and what is genetic is added", which can be "modifiable, educable and controllable". That is why they have explained that the character is composed of temperament and learned habits, which constitutes the personality of the dog, so "it is individual and never extensible to breeds".
