To think there should be more controls on dogs and more banned breeds

[Merryclaire]

Just seen on the news that another young child has been killed by dogs - that must be at least 4 this year in the UK - there have been a number more that have thankfully not been fatal. Always seems to be (most often) a US bully or sometimes a husky. Why are there not more dog breeds being banned (especially the bully)? And why is there not more noise about dog ownership rules in general being tightened up?
For the record I have always liked dogs but these regular child attacks scare me.

For a start I would suggest much tighter regulation around breeding and selling dogs (with harsh penalties); licences with compulsory training modules and follow up checks; and stricter designations on where dogs can be off leads and when they must be on a lead.

Dog licences, as we used to have.

Licensing requirements for breeding would be a start. With a need for inspections and approvals. If you don't have a licence you can't legally own an adult entire dog.

All dogs microchipped with details of breeder recorded as well as owners.

Any problems with a dog attack and the breeder can be sanctioned as well as the owner. That gives the breeder incentive to only sell to suitable homes and to be careful what they breed.

Importing dogs from abroad needs to be much more difficult too. Bringing feral dogs in from Eastern Europe should not be an easy/cheap option when UK based charities won't re-home to you.

Dogs are far too easy to buy and far too numerous at the moment. So many dogs that are in unsuitable homes, untrained or badly socialised. Normally owned by decent kind people who just don't have the experience/lifestyle/space/time etc.

I would like to see more restrictions on dogs, on where they can go.

I'd be happy to have a licence back.

I think to an extent, the banned breeds are necessary - because in order to look after one, you need to have skills and experience that more than 99% of people don’t have and aren’t willing or able to acquire.

I think that other breeds should be owned under licence only and they would include dogs like a husky. There is a husky that habitually attacks other dogs round here.

Personally I have a small dog and my dh and him were walking along a path (on a short lead) - completely quietly disturbing nobody and suddenly out of the bushes a massive dog came charging and knocked my dh over and pinned my small dog to the ground on his back. Now. My dh is the size of an England rugby player and athletic - he was completely floored but managed to keep hold of the lead. The other dog was literally about to kill my dog and his owner appeared. The owner was a teenage boy and as he attempted to pull his dog off, he was very badly bitten - blood everywhere. The teen and the dog ran off with no comment. We never found out who this was. So this incident will just be repeated. This is why these kind of big dogs need a licence.

small dogs can also be a menace and compulsory training is needed for them, together with public education. Small dogs can very seriously injure or even kill a baby or little child. Many people are very silly, approaching a small on lead dog with their hands held out, without having asked.

overall the controls need to be a lot tighter and the costs need to be covered by owners.

Instead of banning dogs, ban cretinous humans who get them and can't be arsed to train them correctly.
Oh and ban any moron that posts a picture titled 'ooh how cute' or something similar of their small child hugging/climbing on/pulling at a dog. Dogs are not toys or lifestyle accessories.

How do you plan on monitoring all this?

Look forward to the campaigning you’ll do, OP.

Everyone involved in animal welfare believes there should be tighter controls on breeding.

There’s currently no government appetite or funding for this, though. It’s not a priority.

I genuinely believe we'd go a long way to reducing dog attacks if we stopped this pervasive fairy tale that they are mythical creatures that can cure all human ills without having any needs or wants of their own.

Along with it, we should stop feeding the shit on insta and the like, where dogs are portrayed as something they are not.

I've lost count of the times I've seen things like photos of how a dog and a child are good friends - when the dog's body language is screaming "get me away from here".

Or talk of how patient the dog is with various human behaviours when the dog has little choice but to try and put up with it.

Or how the dog is feeling guilty for chewing the sofa, when the reality is that dog is deeply anxious at being left alone and the fall out that comes when the human returns (to see the damage).

on and on and on, attributing human-like characteristics to a dog that is not a human.

The fall out is that we put dogs in situations they struggle to cope in and they expect them not to behave like dogs. Dogs need more people who want a dog for the sake of a dog and not as a walking toy. That treat the dog as a dog, look to meet that specific's dog's needs and not just throw it in a house, with children, and expect the dog will magically love those weird little humans and not use normal canine language to express themselves in situations they find uncomfortable.

But the reality is that humans, rarely care. They want their living toy and damn the consequences. Hence the popularity of breeds that shouldn't exist at all because their shape means they cannot, in any way, lead a healthy normal life.

Almost certainly, this dog, like almost all before who have attacked, will have been trying very hard to communicate how uncomfortbale they are - prior to this, in this home or another. That communication will have gone ignored until the point the dog gave up trying and instead acted. This poor child has now paid an awful price.

Bring back the dog licence and owners have to have insurance to get one. And make it expensive. All dogs microchipped by law.

No dogs in public not on a lead and those over a certain size should be muzzled.

Time to put people first.

It's not dogs it's the shitty owners .

We need to look at the owners in most cases.

we also need to stop letting children play with dogs and teach them to respect them. Your pet dog isn’t their pillow/climbing frame/hairdressing head.

no matter how “soft” a dog is they shouldn’t be left unsupervised near a child until that child is more than old enough to know how to behave.

This won't work , the majority of these attacks happen on sink estates and they are the last people to afford licences etc .
They can't be responsible for themselves never mind dogs .

Quoting because this is an excellent post. I completely agree.

Sadly it will take even more dog attacks/maulings and deaths before anything is done, although we hear about it fairly regularly. There should be major court cases against the offending dogs and their owners, which might have some influence. Just read of one, a man was riding a horse on the beach and a dog off lead ran at the horse nipping and barking, distressing the horse and causing it to throw the man, who is now in a wheelchair for life. The twat of a dog owner is now being sued for £5 million.
Owning an animal which can attack and kill humans really needs to be regulated and licensed, with compulsory training for animals and owners alike. I live in a rural area and am constantly sickened by the reports of dogs killing and mauling livestock. God knows why farmers can't just shoot them. All dogs should be kept on lead in all public areas, strictly enforced. If you want them off lead then do so on your own land which is securely fenced. Far too many idiotic owners about. No doubt many will say 'my little diddums wouldn't hurt a fly' but the owners of the killer dogs probably also thought that. They are animals, and as such are unpredictable, like to chase and kill other animals, they are not 'furbabies' or members of your family.

@newfluff Completely agree, well said.

Agree with all of this.

I sometimes feel that people should have to get some sort of "approved owner" licence before they're allowed to get a dog, and that licence should only be granted after they've completed a course of training. And even stricter requirements for breeders, to stamp out these backyard breeders who breed unhealthy dogs of uncertain temperament to anyone with enough money to buy one.

But it doesn't matter what laws are in place if there aren't the resources to enforce them, and it doesn't seem that there are.

I met loads of dogs on my walk this morning.
Collie
Jack Russell
2 Staffies
3 Labradors
About 6 Poo crosses
Lurcher
Bichon Frise
Bull Lurcher
Springer spaniel.

Guess which one went for my dog while the owner laughed and said “oh, he’s only playing!”

That’s right, one of the Poo crosses. Little fluffy teddy bear things that are ridiculously popular at the moment. Dog most likely to be untrained with clueless ineffectual owners round here.
I doubt that’s one of the (cross) breeds you want banned though, OP?

It is the dogs, not the owners, though. Saying it’s not the dogs is equivalent to “guns don’t kill people” – they’re a pretty huge contributory factor! Banning dogs would wipe out maulings, fatalities, the bloody dog shit everywhere, no need for the cost implications of tighter controls and legislation.

I've just seen that there have been previous "dog-related incidents" at the address where this poor child was attacked.

Why the fuck were these people allowed to have more dogs if they already had a history of not being able to control them? If they weren't allowed to have dogs, it's another failure of enforcement.

Imo, any dog bite to any child should be a safeguarding matter and investigated as such. No child should be in a house where there are dogs and a history of dog-related incidents.

That poor child.

Should perhaps say, I'm not anti-dog at all, quite the opposite. I love them and have spent more of my life owning dogs than not.

No. But there should be far more restrictions on breeding and ownership.

Maybe if owners researched and understood dogs and dog behaviour instead of choosing one based on looks or fashion or some other ridiculous reason, and treated and respected them as dogs, not 'fur babies', there would be less problems.

@Saucery when it comes to dog attacks that result in deaths, it seems to be largely certain breeds. However, I agree any dog can be out of control - I’ve been bitten by someone’s yappy small dog who just launched at me as I walked past, and its teenage owners just gawped at me and didn’t even apologise when I confronted them.
Someone on my street has just been attacked by a black labrador which resulted in a trip to hospital - yet the police haven’t done anything about it.
For all the people saying ‘where will the resources come from to police tighter controls?’, surely that should come from the cost of a licence on the owners.
And for everyone rolling their eyes, saying it’s a non issue, I’m sure you’d feel differently if your child or grandchild - or even your dog - was attacked by a bad owner’s dog.

In the time it took a 5 year old to eat a cupcake, I had to physically pull 2 dogs off of her who had come running over ‘just being friendly’ at a local park. Dog owners wonder why kids are so nervous around dogs but (too many of them) don’t put any effort into making dog interactions safe and enjoyable. I was dog phobic as a child and have had to work really hard on it not being an issue when I’m looking after kids but it’s a bit of an impossible task for children not to gain fears of their own when it’s so frequent.

No, it wasn’t a dog ‘attack’ but I’ve had enough and agree op.

I grew up with dogs big and small it's the handler that's the issue (and kids being petrified doesn't help)! Banning breeds doesn't help as any dog can be nasty, we had a King Charles spaniel I wouldn't trust with a baby and a rough collie that would have protected it's baby until the ends of the earth.

Maybe a system should be in place for people to report dangerous dogs and the police dog handlers can asses and take action. But if someone is on someone else's property without permission and is attacked no further action should be taken.

Is it any wonder that some children are petrified when a dog 4x the size of them is bounding up to them faster than they can get away? There should be tighter controls on dog ownership, too many people get dogs without wanting to put the effort in to training them correctly, exercising them enough, getting them vetinary care when needed and that leads to problems. It's not fair on anyone - it's not fair on the dog that will be put down because it has been raised to be dangerous, it's not fair on the people who might be hurt or killed by the dog and its not fair on the good owners who do train their dogs properly and care for them.

The thing is a good, responsible owner is not the problem, the problem is the lazy, irresponsible owners who have no control their dogs and think its OK to allow their dogs to approach people who don't want to be approached, or have visitors in their home when their dog isn't children but insist that their precious dog wouldn't hurt a fly. I refused to have my children around one dog because it bit its owner - which caused huge offence to the owner and my children's dad who thought I was being unfair. These sort of people should not have dogs.