88 Kensington Garden Trees Damaged by Weapon Dogs

Thu, 24 Jun 2010

Nearly 90 old trees in Kensington Gardens have been damaged by weapon dogs, according to Tom Jarvis, Kensington Gardens park manager. A total of 88 trees have been damaged in a small section in the North of the park, seven of which have been damaged so severely that they will die as a result. A further 48 trees have had substantial damage inflicted on them – damage which is expected to shorten the lifespan of the trees.

It is believed that the owners of the weapon dogs – which are becoming increasingly common as pets among gangs looking to intimidate others – encourage the animals to hang from the branches of the trees or to bite the trees’ bark in order to strengthen their jaws.

Jarvis believes that this type of incident is common across London, but believes this case to be the most concentrated instance of weapon dog training, claiming it could significantly harm the way the park looks. So far just one woman has been caught and fined after her dog damaged a tree, with Jarvis of the opinion that most of the damage is inflicted by the dogs of people who break into the park at night.

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.