The Daily Telegraph an article in there by this women who quite honestly should have a law suit slapped on her for malicious intent to mislead the public as she states a child in Scotland was killed last Oct by a Stafford NOT TRUE no proof if it was a Stafford and the child was badly bitten not killed, I'm not saying that's ok because God it isnt but facts are facts.
But maybe there could be some truth in the breeding of to many Staffords as there seems to be trend at the moment and ads are everywhere. And the worry being will it peak and just to many around I'm guilty of breeding but I cant now and if and when I can I think it will have to be good enough reason.
I believe we may have to consider this in order to save the breed anyway as more selective breeding might come into play to preserve the attributes of the standard I know some of you are tutting but how many of you look at pedigrees and gasp, be honest.
And how many rescue's can we all rehome and with the prices going up and up the backstreet breeder will keep breeding, the new people will breed and we will still breeding got to be to many???

Yes, i agree!
we are breeding too many of any breed

theres loads around here,anybody who has a bitch seems to want to make a few quid out of her!!!

It is the same story with any marketable popular breed.  Too many are bred by the wrong people, poor quality and temeperament are the results.  Then what happens those who really love the breed breed even less because there are so many in rescue who need homes, but the ones who shouldn't be breeding sand are causing the problems take up the slack and breed even more to sate the market. :(

In my own breed I once had a puppy buyer blame good breeders for the ones that were sold through a big pet store, as they said if there were more well bred ones available then no one would be forced to buy from a pet shop.  A rather novel idea.  Mind you my bitch missed and I passed on all my bookings, and that person only had two pups, so now there are people hoping to be thrid time lucky waiting on another bitch to be mated by someon else in the breed????

I for one would like to see very strict licensing for breeding and alws against bad breeding - police enforcable, preferably.  It's really the only way I can see out of the overpopulation of any breed we're in at the moment.

I know some kennels have to be licensed now - but if I get it right, it's for those that breed more than 2 dogs, or have more than 3 litters a year (don't quote me on that).  Hardly discouraging the dodgy guys, is it?

Honestly though, I think some sort of serious fine for anyone who breeds their dogs without at least health testing both parents first for all necessary afflictions would be a step forward - it might show them that they really can't make money out of these poor dogs.  I'm not talking a couple hundred quid here - that would probably only make a little dent out of their litters profits, as most of the dogs bred aren't tested so don't have that to be paid for to start with.  I'm talking much more, but it seems like a vain hope at the mo.

I agree. I went to a charity dog show last summer and a group of guys arrived with about 6 SBT's. They had no idea of how to handle the dogs - at least three ran through their leads, as they were "just cheapies from the £1.00 shop" according to one of the owners. One or two of the dogs were a bit snappy, and growled so you can imagine the chaos everytime one of them broke free!!!

Staffie rescue are always inundated with dogs I believe the north west one has at least 300 on their books :( :(

According to a large article in today's Daily Telegraph, there are now more Staffies in Battersea than any other other breed (33 in the past 2 weeks; 1355 during 2003) - and that includes mongrels. So yes, I'd say far too many are being bred. Appararently also very many are having to be renamed before adoption, because so many come in with names like Adolf, Rommel, Bruiser, Tyson, Rambo, Venom ...

We always meet a lot of staffies on our walks, i didn't realise they were that popular. Just to veer of the subject our dog was named Tyson when we got him but luckily he didn't answer to it so we had no probs changing it.

In my area i have not seen a good quality staffie for years. There are so many idiots breeding these dogs. Have you noticed that every smack head you see seems to have one, i think it makes them feel tough having a staff on the end of the lead. It is such a shame.

hi Jeangenie

that article was not right about the numbers of sbt's in Battersea, she was told a figure that was high but not that high and she was also told that there are a lot of dogs that look like SBT. sbt crosses are also been classed as SBT not crosses.  so yes the number is high if you add the crosses as well (and a JRT x lab could look like a sbt, well any jrt crossed with anything a bit bigger could)

yes there are to many Stafford's being bred and going to the wrong type of people

thats why its so important to make sure you pups are going to the right sort of people, its easy when your going to shows to forget that there are lots of badly bred dogs out there, its sad to hear so many stories about people buying pups with the wrong sort of temperments or health problems, i was speaking to a man last week who bought a pup who grew up to look more like a lab than a staff, and had cost him a fortune in vets bills, yet he bought it with "papers" and it was what i would class as more than full price! the dog was lucky  its owners loved it regardless.  i must also add that when people see what they would class as a bad example of a stafford walking about, may actually be a cross !!