I am about as politically aware as my 4 year old son. Actually, make that my 2 year old son! For me, left and right wings are found on a bird rather than a political bias. However, you would have to be living in a vacuum under the sea to be unaware of a certain referendum on which we will be voting come the 23rd June. Advocates for both sides of the Brexit vote have hypothesised numerous different potential scenarios to try to swing us undecided voters into their camp. However, to my knowledge, no one has considered the impact to the humble canine in their calculations. So, I thought I’d take the opportunity to throw a couple of canine curveballs into the melting pot:
Disclaimer! This article is thoroughly “tongue in cheek” and is not to be taken seriously!
EU workers
We have a lot of excellent British dog breeds: The Old English Sheepdog, the Scottish Terrier, the English Bull Terrier and the English Setter to name but a few. However, where would we be without some European influx? The German Shepherd has become a lynch pin of both the police force and the army for many situations. The German shorthaired pointer (of which I am a proud owner) can be an excellent all round gundog (if you can train them!). Let’s not forget the mighty Dachshund which can flush out a rabbit with the best of them. Just like in the EU, there is a bit of a German bias here, but overall you have to admit that our continental friends have provided a positive input…
Immigration
The Pet travel scheme has made it much easier for dogs to travel in and out of the UK. It has also meant EU dogs can easily travel into the UK. We do have our fair share of “canine asylum seekers” in the form of rescues from countries such as Greece -what is the impact on the home canine population? Do these EU dogs steal a potential job from a home bred canine? When they get here, do they contribute to the economy or just hope to the get benefits from a well-meaning animal charity? Overall, I think these continental canines do a great job of boosting the economy: They buy dog food, go to groomers and even darken the doorway of their local veterinary practice! In terms of housing, as a nation of animal lovers, I feel that there are more than enough owners to go around!
Bureaucracy
The EU is renowned for imposing inane rules and regulations on us hapless Brits. If we left, we could go back to weighing new born puppies in Lbs and Ozs, we could make our sheepdogs work more than 40 hours in a week without having to get them to sign a special contract, we could even allow dogs to eat meat on the bone whenever they like.
There we have it. Hopefully you have something extra to consider when you go to the polling stations in a few weeks, just please don’t factor it in to the way you vote!
