I think flat faced dogs should be banned

I also know how insurance works and only ever take it out for the first year of their life. That gives me time to check they really are fit and healthy and anything else comes out of my pocket. I've never made a claim for any of them so experience tells me that it works for me. Never yet had a bill I couldn't afford. Plus I keep a 15k credit card available solely for their use should it ever be necessary.

Excellent.

There are, however, many less fortunate people who have nowhere near £15k in savings, and whose dogs would have to suffer or be destroyed if they were sick or injured. As a dog lover, I would rather be sure that their dogs were protected from that.

Compulsory insurance is unlikely to happen though.

Several years ago my six year old spaniel cross suddenly developed mobility problems. He was put to sleep at home 24 days later. Extensive investigations identified an inoperable, brutal tumour along his spine. Two weeks later I found a small lump on my labradoodle’s shoulder. It was cancer. She was a very fit ten year old, had surgery and lived almost three happy years. Except she had mini seizures so needed mri scans.
The cost of these three totally unexpected events was about £15,000. Luckily my two were insured. I didn’t have to worry about sitting out payment I could focus on the dog. Insurance is nit cheap but that year of claims covered payments
I’ve never had that kind of trauma and expense before or since

FF if you were to spend £15k on a credit card how long would that take you to pay off and how enormous would the debt become? You can’t compare it with having insurance or a spare £15k in the bank.

Why are you so obsessed with my finances GSM ? surely it's up to me to decide how I pay for things. Just pay it as I see fit but I have healthy finances. I pay off my credit card in full every month. Whether people take out insurance or not is entirely up to them as individuals I just don't feel the need. Of course it will never be compulsory . In all my years as a dog owner I have never found the need for insurance and that's entirely my choice. None of my animals have ever gone without treatment as a result of my finances. I choose to pay as I go. I managed perfectly well financially when losing 3 Dobermanns to cancer in the space of 18 months. Not so well mentally/emotionally.
Now if you've finished interrogating my finances have a nice day.

Glad you have funds to pay a £15k credit card bill - so why mention the card? Clue must be in your username.

Apart from having pet insurance to meet the cost of any health care your dog may need, you also need to take into account that most pet insurance policies include third party cover which would cover you in the event of your dog injuring another person, for instance. If your dog was to injure someone - not necessarily biting them, it could be knocking them over or anything - and that person were to make a claim against you, it could turn out to be very costly indeed.

Blondiescot

Apart from having pet insurance to meet the cost of any health care your dog may need, you also need to take into account that most pet insurance policies include third party cover which would cover you in the event of your dog injuring another person, for instance. If your dog was to injure someone - not necessarily biting them, it could be knocking them over or anything - and that person were to make a claim against you, it could turn out to be very costly indeed.

I was just about to say this, too. I took out insurance when my usually well behaved spaniel took off one morning and ran towards the main road near a school at rush hour. I wasn’t concerned about health insurance so much as they were a hardy breed, unlike my whippets that, tough as they are, have a habit of running into walks and fences ( although I do tend to wrap mine in cotton wool and only let them off lead in secure fields or on the beach). My whole life flashed before me in that moment. Thankfully I managed to catch her before she reached the road. She had been in a field quite a distance from the school when she ran off.

Join the Dog’s Trust, you get public liability ins with your membership

Thank you Tizliz you saved me the bother.AS for Gsm it's called a back up. Now get your nose out of my finances because any more questions by you will be ignored. Go interrogate someone who gives a sh*t.

Even if you don't have health insurance, everybody with an animal should have some form of public liability insurance so that if your dog causes an accident, bites someone, etc, insurance can kick in.
Licensing of puppy breeders should be based on the breeding conditions of the parents. You only have to look at the conditions of the dogs who come into Many Tears Rescue Charity to realise that there is something very wrong with the system as it is. The Kennel Club Accredited Breeder system is better but I know for a fact that some accredited breeders do not always follow the rules and very little is spot checked.

I dont see a difficulty with phasing in a law that prevents the breeding and or buying of a certain breed.
Clearly existing animals should be left to live out the rest of their lives.

On the one hand we are introducing animals to the wild for the sake of diversity (amongst other reasons).
But on the other we are restricting diversity in breeds to the individual animals detriment.
As the so called intelligent beings, we should take charge of the situation in order to alleviate the suffering of any animal.