Latest news with #Rottweiler
Scotsman
3 days ago
- Health
- Scotsman
Child neglect in Scotland is an epidemic and we need to talk about it
PA If there's a case for another national inquiry, it is this Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Demi-Leigh had 14 teeth removed, some still her baby milk teeth, under general anaesthetic. Her mum had mental health problems and addiction issues and her stepdad was in prison. There was no one to ensure she had a clean toothbrush and toothpaste, much less a bedtime routine, and this was the inevitable consequence. She was eight. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Taylor's mum and dad kept a Rottweiler in a cage in the living room. There was a crossbow in the bedroom, ostensibly by way of protection, because his home was the local drug den. The dog was regularly fed; Taylor was not. Drugs were within his reach in the fridge, food was not. At the age of 10 he was barely attending school, instead spending most of his time in unimaginably filthy conditions in the family flat. Richie, five, was so obese he was unable to toilet on his own and none of his primary one peers would spend time with him. His isolation manifested itself in a violent, biting temper. The violent, biting temper made him more isolated in turn. I have, of course, changed names to protect their identities but Demi-Leigh and Taylor and Richie's stories will be achingly familiar to anyone who sits on the children's panel or works in a school or in a social work department or a hospital or anywhere else young people are. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad These children and thousands like them are victims of a great many things, the chief of which is neglect. Child neglect in Scotland is an epidemic. It ruins childhoods and has serious knock-on effects on wider society and future generations. Yet we don't really talk about child neglect in any coordinated way, despite the efforts of social work experts and academics like, say, Edinburgh University's Brigid Daniel who has been talking about the effect of chronic neglect for decades. And we should talk about it. You might think this would be obvious in and of itself, but if you want to reduce such a thing as childhood to the practicalities of pounds and pence then it makes eminent good sense to tackle neglect at root. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Young people who are well supported flourish. They make a meaningful contribution to society and they fail to trouble the justice system. They are not a burden on the taxpayer but become a fiscal benefit to the state. This week there has been politicking about the will we/won't we matter of holding a public inquiry into child grooming gangs. Keir Starmer sent Baroness Louise Casey to carry out a review into abuse perpetrated by grooming gangs in England and Wales. Starmer has previously said he does not believe a public inquiry into the issue would be worthwhile but has now altered that position in light of Casey's findings. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad His change of heart has caused him problems. He has been accused of u-turning, which is never politically expedient. The opposition is having a field day, saying Labour is failing to tackle the gangs of men who are ruining the lives of girls and young women. Starmer has been accused - again - of merely following where Nigel Farage's Reform UK has first led. And another issue has arisen - should Scotland be included in any grooming gangs inquiry or, if not, should it hold its own? There has been an unedifying spat over the issue between the Labour MP Joani Reid and the SNP's Pete Wishart. Reid, MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven, said it was vital there is a grooming gangs enquiry in Scotland, despite having voted against an inquiry being set up just five months ago. In response to Wishart's allegations of hypocrisy, Reid said her decision to vote against the founding of an inquiry was in response to a Tory amendment to Labour's Children and Wellbeing Bill. Reid was one of 350 Labour MPs who voted down that amendment on January 8 this year. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This kind of tit-for-tat helps no one and distracts from the fact the situation in Scotland differs from that of England. In England, eyes were averted from the abuse of young girls by Asian grooming gangs because of both a squeamishness in institutions afraid to be accused of racism and because of institutional misogyny that blamed victims for their own abuse. Girls in Scotland are being exploited, just as they are in England, but there is no real suggestion that organised rape circles are being ignored by officials. We have a judicial system that deals with grooming gangs and child rapists. We also already have an abuse inquiry ongoing now. The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry was set up 10 years ago, has cost millions of pounds and will cost millions more. Reid criticised the Scottish inquiry as being too limited in scope as it only considers children in care. She is only partially right - the definition of 'care' here is extremely wide-ranging. It includes children in, say, hospital or children in fee-paying boarding schools. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It would be possible to expand the inquiry to look for evidence of mass child grooming of the type in England, rather than setting up a new system. The problem with such a long-running and costly inquiry is that the can is kicked down the road, any recommendations are a long time coming and when they do come they are not implemented. Organised child abuse is abhorrent but we should trust the justice system to deal with it. During the Covid-19 lockdown children were returned from foster placements to known situations of family neglect because there was nowhere else to put them, for example. Social workers were unable to enter homes to carry out welfare checks. There are all sorts of knock-on effects from these elements of covid that are being quietly overlooked. What we don't know is the full scale of the devastating impact of child neglect, particularly post-pandemic.
Newsweek
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Mom and Daughter Play With Balloon—Then Their 82lb Doberman Gets Involved
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A lively Doberman pinscher named Diesel has won hearts across Instagram after a video of him interrupting a mother-daughter balloon game in a hilarious way went viral on the platform. In the clip, shared on Tuesday under the username @diesel_dobie, the poster, Hanny Thomas, and her daughter, from Palm Springs, California, can be seen playing back and forth with a balloon when Diesel decides it's time to get involved. The enthusiastic pup charges at the balloon with the strength of his 82lb body, fatally pawing the balloon, which he eventually ends up popping. "This is the fun you get when you live with an 82 lbs kid," reads layover text in the clip. The poster adds in the caption: "Balloons don't stand a chance around here. Wasabi in the background just taking all in what is going on here." Screenshots of the viral clip show Diesel and his owner, Hanny, playing with a balloon in their living room. Screenshots of the viral clip show Diesel and his owner, Hanny, playing with a balloon in their living room. @diesel_dobie Thomas told Newsweek that Diesel loves a balloon play session with them, and he always gets excited to get involved but also to pop the balloon. "His energy and happiness bring so much joy to our lives. I just want to encourage fellow pet owners to get their dog involved in fun activities as much as possible. They truly love being included—it means the world to them," she said. Doberman pinschers are strong, agile dogs, known for their intelligence and loyalty. But did you know that they were bred on purpose, as safety dogs? In the late19th-century, German entrepreneur and tax collector Karl Friedrich Louis Dobermann decided to breed the perfect dog to keep him safe while doing his job, which at the time came with some risks. While it is not certain what breeds were used to achieve this extraordinary canine, the American Kennel Club suggests that they may have used the intelligence, biddability, and stamina of a German shepherd; the strength of the Rottweiler; the pluck and speed of the German pinscher; and the scent ability of the Weimaraner. The video quickly went viral on social media and it has so far received over 57,600 views and 3,264 likes. One user, Dragonfire4evr, commented: "He's having so much fun!" said: "We love playing this game, gets intense." Filiuk.l added: "His fur is so shiny i feel like i need this hair care." Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Spectator
4 days ago
- Politics
- Spectator
My modest proposal
It's surely time we dropped our cynicism and got behind the government's National Abortion Drive, another noble attempt to kickstart our floundering economy. The United Kingdom has made great strides of late in this area, recently overtaking France in the number of abortions performed annually, the figures showing the largest increase since this sort of stuff was legalised. The door, then, is already ajar. All we need to do is push a little. Our elected representatives were intent on doing just that this week by voting for an amendment that will now decriminalise abortion right up to the day of birth. I don't wish to seem churlish, but to me this demonstrates a marked lack of imagination and ambition. Why not extend the period at which abortions are legal to several months, or even years, after the birth of the child? I understand that technically this would be known as 'infanticide' rather than 'abortion', but terminology should not stand in our way. There are plenty of left-wing ethicists, such as Pete Singer, who believe that infanticide is justifiable in many cases, using broadly the same arguments as those used to justify late-term abortions – that the foetus, or child, could not exist independently without its mother. Yes, I hear you cry, this is the same Pete Singer who thinks it's OK to shag dogs. But, as ever, you are missing the context and the caveats. Dr Singer believes that you may give your dog one only if it is part of a rich and caring relationship and does not involve coercion. I understand that it is sometimes a tricky issue to obtain written consent from a Dobermann Pinscher and that given the limited intellectual capacity of many dogs, they may not fully understand what they're getting themselves involved in. But Dr Singer is, as I have said, an ethicist, so I do not feel sufficiently qualified in challenging his jurisdiction on this issue. In any case, we are digressing. It is on the subject of infanticide that I've corralled Dr Singer into the argument and his advice here seems wholly sound. His views are nuanced – infanticide is justifiable only in cases of disability or, as he has put it, unwantedness. That is, if you've had the kid for a couple of weeks and decide it's an absolutely ghastly creature and all too much like hard work, you are allowed to terminate its existence. Pete does not offer advice on how to go about this business – poison? A rolling pin? Fed to the Rottweiler before your evening act of caring and consensual canine love? – but that's because he has much weightier matters on which he must adjudicate. His position, then, is what we might call ultra-utilitarian. It seems to me he might entirely agree with Jonathan Swift on the efficacy of eating children to assuage starvation, and the fact that he may not have realised that Jonny was having a laugh does not, for me, diminish the value of his arguments. Our abortion rate is soaring – and likely to soar still further if the likes of the Labour MP Stella Creasy get their way – although we still have some distance to go before we can match the achievements of the real abortion champions: countries such as Vietnam, Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau. Decriminalising abortion from 24 weeks to the day of birth will undoubtedly provide a fillip to the market and, frankly, given what we know about a foetus at 24 weeks – it has eyelashes, eyebrows, hair on the head and lungs and would be able to survive with medical care were it to be prematurely born – there doesn't seem to be a great moral difference, does there? Certainly not if you take the utilitarian view – and we should be honest here: what other view can there possibly be these days? In a sense, aborting a child at nine months is no more shocking than being able to go shopping on a Sunday, a notion which once appalled the pious in our society but which we now take for granted as our human right – to be able to buy crap on Sunday, just like on every other day of the week. And we are a much happier nation as a consequence. There are a few reasons for the huge rise in abortions recently. First, they are much easier to come by, as the medical clergy have become far more indulgent than used to be the case. Second, there has been the lessening of stigma regarding the procedure, especially now that we have banned those God-bothering dinosaurs from standing silently near abortion clinics praying and what have you. And third, because we have long since jettisoned the archaic principle that sexual intercourse is in some way related to having a child and that women (and men) who do not want a child would be best minded to refrain. Oddly – and this is truly mysterious – although we have got rid of that old dictum and ensured that everybody, everywhere, can get hold of contraceptive devices in myriad forms at any time of the day or night, this has not resulted in a reduction of unwanted pregnancies. Quite the reverse. Those silly old things, morals, seemed to have exerted a certain influence back in the day. Luckily, today we know it is a human right to behave without a vestige of morality. I should end with an apology to all the women readers who believe that men should not delve into the subject of abortions because it is something which doesn't concern them. It is, after all, a woman's body we are talking about, and she has a right to do whatever she wants with it. My only excuse is that as a columnist I very frequently write about things which have nothing to do with me directly, such as those rape-gang people. And at least the feminists urging decriminalisation know that I'm on their side.
Spectator
6 days ago
- Spectator
Ballymena got what it wanted
Thursday evening. All quiet in Ballymena so far, after three nights of wrath. On the curb of Waring Street – just off Larne Street, which rioters tore through on Tuesday and left burning and beaten – sit James and Casper, both 16. James is wearing a balaclava with a Rottweiler's face printed on the front. Casper wears a hoodie. Opposite the boys, a woman is handing out signs for people to put in their windows which read 'LOCALS LIVE HERE', and down the road, on the corner of Henry Street and Railway Street, a man is pointing his phone at a row of parked police jeeps, and will expectantly livestream this scene to thousands of people on TikTok over the coming hours, as violence is predicted, feared and hoped for, but does not come to pass. The rioting began on Monday 9 June. That morning, two 14-year-old boys appeared in court charged with the attempted rape of a teenage Ballymena girl. They spoke through a Romanian interpreter and word spread that they were Roma Gypsies. As a result, the Ballymenans decided that they wanted all the Roma out of their town immediately. That night, and for two nights after, they attacked Roma homes and the police who defended them. 'It's been mad,' says Casper. 'Petrol bombs going off everywhere. Explosions everywhere. It's honestly hard to explain what's going on anymore.' Most of the violence occurred on seven roads where many Roma lived, and to go there now is to see the United Kingdom as a failed state. Houses are alternately burnt out and boarded up. Windows are fortified with stacks of furniture. 'Roma rapists out' is graffitied on walls. Residents of all nationalities make visual displays of their fealty to the UK with the aim of being spared a petrol bomb through their letterbox. From pretty terraced houses fly Union Jacks and other flags: the red hand of Ulster; the parachute regiment insignia; an NHS logo. These flags are not usually here. The patriotism forced by terror. 'There's really nothing to be worried about if you're local,' says Casper. Everyone in Ballymena says they saw the trouble coming a mile off. In a retail park across from a trashed up Bridge Street, I speak to Neil, a big guy, ex-army. 'This,' he says, 'has been coming for years. This place is swamped with people. People of the Gypsy persuasion. Women couldn't walk the street without feeling intimidated and scared. Three, four, five, six guys, they hang about in groups and gangs. You could see a parent walking down the street with a young girl, and you can see what they're looking at, and it's not the parent, it's the little girls that they're after. And it's not right. People have had enough of them. They really have.' Katie works for the NHS and has a teenage daughter. We talk, and on the road next to us the tarmac is scabbed and deformed from a fire started by the rioters on one of the recent nights. 'Girls have to feel safe in this town again,' she says. 'But I don't want anything to happen to my daughter or her Romanian friends. It's just… There's a certain sort of foreign national… They are very dangerous. It's the way they've been brought up. You can understand why people are so cross. I knew this was going to happen.' I walk through Ballymena with a Filipino man called Leonard who works in a care home. He has two boys, 15 and nine, and is worried that locals will turn on his family. 'I didn't want to go out because of my skin,' he says. He is wearing a cap and sunglasses. 'MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE!' On Friday night I am on West Street in Portadown, 40 miles south of Ballymena, where the wrath has come. Police with dogs are running at us, and we retreat fast. People gathered here at 7 p.m., and at around 10 p.m. a kid turned up with what can only be described as a firework machine gun. He shot it straight at the line of officers. That got things going. Police are trying to block access to a footbridge which connects the western to the eastern part of the town, where illegal immigrants are apparently living in HMOs. Portadown burns, but in Ballymena many people are happy We escape the dogs to a new position in an alleyway between West Street and Union Street. Me and some children. Adults are watching – many have brought drinks and a few are pushing prams with babies – but it's little kids in balaclavas doing the rioting. In the cover of the alley an armoury emerges. The children rip up slabs of pavement and throw them at the ground to make smaller rocks. Twelve-year-olds prepare molotov cocktails and put them in their back pocket. The air stinks of petrol. The kids source more fireworks and share war stories about last night's riot. One child says he was hit by a rubber bullet: 'It's like a fucking dildo hit me at 70 miles an hour!' I wonder how much they care about immigration. And where are their parents? One kid charges at the police for some close-range action. He gets too near and the police grab him. 'Was it Ruben?! Where's Ruben??' say his friends. Away from the frontlines, boys and girls who have made themselves up for this evening of fun are flirting away. 'Did you see the boy with the big firework yesterday?' says a grinning teenage boy. Some high-ranking kid tells the dossers to focus: 'We're on the attack! Guys, come on! Move forward! Do something!' A child unveils another firework machine gun, but accidentally holds it backwards and empties the rockets into the observing crowd. Portadown burns, but in Ballymena many people are happy. I return to the town and cannot find Casper and James, which must be a good sign. There are still riot police around, and on Queen Street a woman is getting her living room window replaced, but the pubs are busy and jolly. At the Railway Tavern they play old loyalist songs on a karaoke machine: Free, free, I just want to be As free as the wind and the rain and the sea. Free, free, I just want to be Out where the rivers run free. Together again, We'll fight as young men, As our forefathers did in the great days of yore.
The Citizen
7 days ago
- The Citizen
Man in critical condition after being attacked by a pit bull
The man was attacked by the pit bull after collapsing. A 40-year-old man is in critical condition after being attacked by a pit bull in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, on Sunday. Arrive Alive reported the man was attacked by the pit bull after collapsing around 7 pm. An ambulance service responded swiftly to the scene. 'Paramedics provided advanced life support, stabilising the patient before transporting him to a nearby hospital for urgent medical care,' said Arrive Alive. 'The patient is currently listed in critical condition. ALSO READ: Bloemfontein incident shows pit bulls are lethal weapons Woman and a toddler attacked KwaZulu-Natal is not foreign to savage dog attacks. Almost a year ago, a 67-year-old woman and a toddler were attacked by a Rottweiler. 'IPSS Medical Rescue received a call to assist a lady and her grandchild after they had been attacked by a Rottweiler. On arrival of paramedics, the 67-year-old female and her three-year-old grandchild were found to have sustained critical injuries after being attacked by the dog. 'Both patients were stabilised on scene by IPSS Medical Rescue and transported to a nearby hospital under the care of an IPSS Medical Rescue advanced life Support paramedic,' said IPSS Medical Rescue spokesperson Samantha Meyrick at the time. NOW READ: Police condemn circulation of gruesome images following pitbull attack on little girl
