MUCH of what follows is cogged from an excellent article by Simon Jenkins in the Times of London about the ridiculous quarantine laws in Britain. What justification can there possibly be for the same absurd, irrelevant and intellectually frivolous anti rabies quarantine laws which we also have in Ireland? These laws are maintained by ignorance, hysteria and the national obsession of Britcopying, which we do when we're not Britbashing.
Some years ago, simply because of attacks by certain dogs in Britain, some bright spark of a minister - I can't remember who it was and certainly can't be bothered looking the fool's name up - introduced a Bill for the muzzling and leashing of certain dogs in public. Why? Because the British had already introduced a similar law - and, where they go, we must follow. They get rid of trams; we get rid of trams. They outlaw certain breeds of dog; we outlaw certain breeds of dog.
Of course, the blithering idiot who composed the Bill here knew nothing about dogs; so among the species which had to be muzzled was the bulldog, which has no muzzle to be muzzled, and other amiable species like the Staffordshire, simply because it had, like the prime target, of such legislation, the American pitbull terrier, the name "bull" in its title. Applying comparable intellect, one might have muzzled, bullfrogs and bullwhips in public.
No Legal Definition
The nincompoop responsible for this idiocy probably was unaware that dog species have no legal definition. The law defines a motor car and a bicycle and private property, but it does not define in law the difference between a German shepherd and a Belgian shepherd, which to all intents and purposes are identical in every regard, except one: it is obligatory, in law, to muzzle a German shepherd, but not a Belgian one.
Needless to say, the law is not enforced at all. Dog owners still allow their hounds to cavort in that paradise known as Phoenix Park, with no problems at all. But the primary purpose - of appearing to tackle a problem - had been attended to.
The anti rabies law is different but the same; we do nothing until the British do something, though it is quite clear that the British failure to do anything at all in this regard is either pusillanimity or ostentatious piety, (although Simon Jenkins opines that it is the dog kennelling lobby, which makes millions from the mandatory quarantine of imported animals, that has caused the retention of the absurd quarantine laws, a theory I find hard to accept).
Simon Jenkins declares that not one genuine case of rabies has been detected in quarantine Britain in 20 years. The truth is that the great rabies factory that the British - and, by extension, we in Ireland - suspect exists in the outside world simply does not exist. It is not there. There is no rabies in Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands or all of Scandinavia. Germany, apparently, has sylvan rabies but it does not communicate to humans. As Simon Jenkins points out: does Denmark police its borders with Germany to keep out teutonic foxes?
Exaggerated Threat
The last recorded death in France from rabies was in 1928. The truth is this: there is no threat from rabies in Europe. It does not exist; and I suspect the reason why the law was maintained for so long was a canine version of the "wogs begin at Calais" view of the world. The modification of that old saw is that wogs dogs begin at Calais - and are not to be relied on.
The most interesting feature of the British laws which should affect us is that the British Ministry of Defence imports guard dogs from outside the UK or Ireland and waives the quarantine rules. This could mean that guard dogs in British army camps and in prisons in the North have been imported from allegedly rabid countries; yet blind Irish people cannot take their guide dogs abroad. Blind foreign tourists, or exiled blind Irish, cannot bring their dogs here.
How does this make you feel? Good? That the Brits are allowed to import unquarantined dogs to the North, but an Irish blind person cannot travel with his or her dog - is this not scandalous, quite scandalous?
We all know the truth. Rabies is not an issue in mainland Europe, in most of the USA, Canada or Australia. Even in areas where the problem exists, such as much of Africa, it does not incline us to take anti rabies jabs before we go.
Damage To Tourism
Can anyone calculate how much damage is being done to our tourist industry because of this absurd, outmoded law, which exists in defiance of common sense and our national interest? Do we keep it merely to keep the British in countenance? And, were we to throw it aside as the piece of outmoded Victorian junk which it actually is, what could the British government do? Take us to Strasbourg, where it would die the death of a thousand cuts before a delighted European court which no doubt would detest the intrinsic arrogance which underpins this silly, silly law?
The land border between the two politics means that whatever we do they will be obliged to follow. They cannot prevent movement of animals across the Border; they cannot introduce quarantine between Northern Ireland and Britain.
Yet, will we do anything about this? We will not. We will wait for the British to change their laws and then change ours, as no doubt we will change our clocks when they change theirs - and no doubt regard this as a triumph of independent mindedness.
There is no reason why we cannot unilaterally change our laws; if need be, we could insist on vaccination laws, though this would probably be unnecessary dealing within a European Union in which rabies is effectively unknown. Dogs cross European boundaries unchecked; and the Danes and the Germans probably dislike dying of hydrophobia as much as we do. It is time to abandon outmoded, ridiculous laws. A tenner says we won't until the Brits do.