Tightening UK Dog Laws

I will straightaway admit I am not a great dog lover.  In fact I grew up petrified of dogs due to a phobia my Mother had, which was as a result of her being attacked when she was a small child.  That said, I can now be more comfortable around a number of dog breeds.   I accept that due to my own phobia, opinions which I have held in the past on the subject of dangerous dogs, could have been a little unbalanced.  I would have often said that certain breeds should not be allowed as pets, and instead belong in the zoo!

There is the counter argument that out of control dogs are purely down to how a dog is treated.  Only this week a woman from Atherton in Greater Manchester received a suspended prison sentence for animal cruelty, after her four dogs who had been kept close together in her home, killed a fourteen year old girl.  The Crown Prosecution Service had ruled a month earlier that there had been insufficient evidence to pursue a charge of manslaughter.

Whilst the incident in Greater Manchester could arguably support the view about how well dogs are treated, an incident in Northern Ireland this year saw an apparently well behaved Alaskan Malamute dog that was owned by a teacher, suddenly turn on a five year old pupil causing serious facial injuries.  This was on a day towards the end of the summer term when the teacher brought the dog in for an end of term treat for the children.

Stories of people being attacked by dogs do keep coming.  Only last month, an elderly gentleman got attacked by a Rottweiler (not on a lead) whilst out walking in St Leonards-On-Sea, Sussex.  Whilst there generally may be some substance in the argument that it all depends on how the dog is treated, how many more savage dog attacks do we need to hear about?  IT IS COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!

There is legislation in the pipeline which will now make dog owners no longer immune from attacks which take place on their own property.  This is a matter in which Trade Unions representing postal, utility, and delivery staff have long campaigned for.  There has also been speculation that the intention of the planned legislation is to increase the maximum penalty for the owners of killer dogs to life imprisonment.  Will this go far enough?

I would personally argue for a new type of licensing system rather similar to the different categories of driving licence which are required for different sized vehicles.  Under the terms of such a licensing system, basic character checks would be sufficient to gain a licence for a person to own one dog, of a breed widely accepted to be a placid breed.  However to own more than one dog or a dog whose placidness is more debatable, the granting of a licence should require further tests to be satisfied before a higher category of licence is granted.  Such tests could in some circumstances require a demonstration of extensive dog handling skills.

I recognise that the cost of such a scheme could be prohibitive at this moment in time, and possibly another issue linked to this would be the costs that would need to be incurred by those people applying for such a higher grade dog ownership licence.  I recognise we are currently in an era of austerity, which will probably take us into the next decade.  However, when the public finances are in better shape, windows of opportunities will open for areas of spending that will presently not get a look in.  Should a case ever be successfully argued that a new dog licensing system is the way forward, THEN MAYBE NOW IS THE TIME TO ENGAGE IN THE DEBATE THAT LIES AHEAD!