Man Petitions for Coat of Arms Featuring a Labrador, Is Told Labradors Are Not Heraldic

A petition for a grant of arms has sparked an unusual debate at the College of Arms after the applicant insisted on featuring his Labrador retriever as the primary charge, a request that heralds say pushes the boundaries of what constitutes a heraldic beast. 'We have dogs in heraldry,' explained Chester Herald, speaking on background. 'Talbots, greyhounds, bloodhounds — these are established charges with centuries of precedent. A Labrador, specifically, is not in the standard vocabulary.' The petitioner, Northampton accountant Richard Issuant, submitted a detailed blazon reading 'Or, a Labrador retriever sejant proper, collared Gules, holding in its mouth a tennis ball Vert.' He also requested that the Labrador be named in the blazon as 'Kevin,' which heralds noted has 'no precedent in the history of armorial description.' 'Charges are not named,' said Chester Herald. 'You do not blazon a lion rampant and then add parenthetically that the lion is called Steve. That is not how this works.' Issuant argued that Kevin possessed qualities at least equal to traditional heraldic hounds. 'A talbot is extinct,' he noted. 'Kevin is alive, loyal, and can retrieve a tennis ball from distances of up to forty metres. If that isn't worthy of heraldic recognition, I don't know what is.' A compromise has been proposed in which Kevin would be depicted as a 'hound sejant proper,' allowing artistic interpretation to suggest Labrador characteristics without explicitly naming the breed. Issuant has rejected this, calling it 'heraldic erasure.' Kevin, consulted via photograph, appeared indifferent. The petition remains under review. Chester Herald described it as 'the most time we have ever spent discussing a specific dog.'