To think the dangerous dogs act needs amending

[chippy47]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-14331673

As the mother points out, a person can be arrested for an offence in their own home so why not a dog? Mental.

ha, sweet.

my son's only 10 months, so not sure i can believably blame him yet. it's all me

lol mine get christmas presents too

Claw - just realised - got you mixed up with OP - therefore questions addressed to you (sorry!)

chippy47 - if you're still there: all Tchoot's questions re. 'what sort of amendments to DDA?' - those questions are for you! (Sorry also!)
Good night.

"most of the ones i have met are as silly as arseholes"

The Staffies in the rescue I help out at are the same, as was my late SBT X boy. :o

weimy, what a horrific situation. Thank god your dogs saved you.

Ds is animal mad, the dog is his best friend, he would choose his dog over any child!

I will stop now with all my talk of animal presents, im derailing the thread

Exactly, DBF

The act does state that it is the owner that will be prosecuted, but the dog can be impounded. Given that a dog died in police kennels a couple of years ago because they "forgot" about it, I wouldn't want any dog of mine in there

But the police really do need some training regarding the DDA, ime. I reported 3 "status" dogs (belonging to a well-known hard-man/ drug dealer/ criminal) running free around our area (actually, in my garden, ripping my rabbit hutch to bits with their teeth while my children watched, crying, luckily inside) Apparently there was nothing the police could do, and the dog warden merely drove up and back down the street and couldn't see them (er, no, because they were in my garden! Don't blame him though particularly for not wanting to take on these 3 uncontrolled large dogs single-handedly!) I actually printed out the DDA for the police, and highlighted areas (I hasten to add, i'm not usually this anal, but this was not the first time these dogs had terrorised the neighbourhood ) , but they still maintained the onus was on me to prove who owned the dogs. All I wanted was for them to warn the owner that if the dogs were not controlled properly further action would be taken (against them, the owners). The police helpfully suggested I "put something down for the dogs" - AND illegal to boot!!!! Surely police should have a reasonable understanding of the laws they are meant to, well, police??

Tchootnika, no worries. Now ive been outed as a celebrater of animals birthdays and buying Christmas presents, my original point is a bit flawed anyhow!

a copper told you to poison the dogs?

i hope you reported the bastard !!

poor wee rabbit, though :(

Tchootnika,*"Perhaps the DDA shoud include dog training and education for owners, before you are allowed to own a dog.

If only... if only ...

Training, education, licences... How very, very, very much I wish all of these were compulsory for dog owners!"*

I doubt very much, come to think of it that this would reach the irresponsible dog owners, dont you?

and i suspect it would be very difficult to enforce and police too and just not very practical?

I phrased it vaguely. Dda states that if the dog is on the owner's premises then it can apparently do whatever it wants and then law is powerless to act which seems incredible. Irrelevant of the breed. Any dog can be dangerous.

GlitterySkulls, it wsa the person manning the phone, but the policemen also suggested
-Barbed wire (again, - legal? I have children and dogs myself too!)
-Grabbing the dog by the collar and checking for a tag (I am a vet with 16 years experience, but when a pack of 3 dogs is on a mission, I really wasn't comfortable trying to grab one, even had I not been 7 months pregnant at the time!)
-shooting them with a dart gun (seriously!! Because all we small animal vets have dart guns at home in case a Bengali Tiger wanders in and needs a tooth pulled )

I was shocked, not only at their lack of understanding of the DDA and their role and implementation of it, but that they would give such unlawful and potentially dangerous advice to members of the public!!

The rabbits happily remained unharmed Even at 7 mths pregnant, my mop, my shouty voice and I were a force to be reckoned with and I shooed them away. However, they went on to corner my poor neighbour and his very old collie and refuse to let him up the road. He had to seek refuge in a neighbour's house until they went away. I've now built a 6ft high fence all round- expensive, but sadly necessary, since the police are apparently powerless against dogs running loose, even if you do find out who the owners are, and even if they could be perceived to be dangerous. But apparently a SBTx walking down the street is fair game. Gah.

I agree Claw3. We can say the same for murderers and rapists, burgalers and fraudsters... they know they are breaking the law but they do it anyway.

But the vast majority of us, as much as we'd like to shoot the ex or steal the neighbour's much coveted sports car don't. And so it is the same with dog owners. The vast majority of them are doing the same as I am tonight... sitting on the sofa with our family pets chilling out and knowing that we won't be in th Sun or on Crimewatch tomorrow because "German Shepherd lays on back upon sofa with legs in the air, snoring" is neither news nor a crime.

Perspective is important here, I think.

And sorry, GSD2, for taking the mick, but you are on the sofa, legs akimbo, snoring!

jooly i just don't know what to say to that... "advice" [snort]

glad the wee bunnies are ok though :)

Dogs, perhaps just a better written DDA and understanding of it, is the answer then, rather than radical changes to it?

As i said earlier, im not really familar with it, so im prepared to be educated.

Talking of German Shepherds, i was refused to be accepted as a foster career, because i had a GS, insane!

I think re-writing is necessary, particularly in view of the fact that an owner is presumed guilty unless he proves himself and his dog to be innocent, Claw.

As for your foster carer assessment, how bloody ridiculous! What next... will SS take my kids away because we have two GSD?!

My education will have to wait until another day im afraid. I have a kitten who has just got himself stuck under the dishwasher, well and truly stuck!

The joys of being a pet owner eh!

Oh, kittens do that! It's in the job description!

claw- I had a kitten that fell into the swing bin- took me aages to find her!!

I can beat that Jooly. I have an adult cat who's fallen into the swing bin and the fish tank cos he's stoopid more than once.

AND I have a GSD who decided to nose down the swing bin and do a bit of food recovery.

He got caught out when I realised it was all a bit quiet in the kitchen and went to investigate.

I found him wandering around wearing the swing bin lid as a collar!

BUSTED!

Haha, DBF!! Dumbdog did similar: he was raiding the cat litter tray on a regular basis, so I got one of those covered ones. Came home next evening to find him wandering about banging into walls with it on his head- shit and litter everywhere! The joys!!

'Talking of German Shepherds, i was refused to be accepted as a foster career, because i had a GS, insane!'

i am a staffie owning social worker, now working in child protection. however i used to work in fostering and assessed many foster carers. i have assessed carers with all kinds of dogs, including rotties, staffies etc.

i'm not sure why you would be turned down as a foster carer because of being a dog owner. there are instances where children cannot be placed with dog owners - e.g. if a child has allergies or a history of being abusive to animals.

if you were told that you were not being accepted as a foster carer because you owned a german shepherd then you need to challenge that.

Ah, but if you had seen your bin-raiding dogs as a source of artistic inspiration, rather than a bloody nuisance, you too could have had an exhibit at the Royal Academy...

Apparently the dog has a motor inside, which allows it to rummage realistically in the bin...

Must be art every day in our blooming house then.

Tried duct taping an old harness clip onto bin to make it lock - defeated in a week.
Bought bin with lockable lid - lasted a fortnight.

Now take the bin out of the door as I go out... and the blooming hound's started trying as well!

i think westies are horrible dogs generally

i used to live next door to one, a family with kids, and it bit my kids more than once. Horrible snappy little thing. Give me an alsation or a rottie any day of the week