Dangerous Dogs- a growing threat.
18 Feb 2010
The Sentinel carried an article today on the damage done in a Forsbrook Children’s play area by someone who used part of the equipment to exercise his bull terrier after bite marks were found on a rubber seat.
A few weeks ago the local newspaper in Macclesfield also reported damage done to trees in a local park by bull terriers biting on to branches.
Yesterday the Guardian’s major article in the Society section on the growing irresponsibility of dog owners in the capital. The number of dogs seized by police under the Dangerous Dogs Act has increased from 263 in 2007 to 719 in 2009. So far this year 1100 dogs have been confiscated- a four fold increase in three years.
The Metropolitan Police now has a special unit the Status Dog Unit last March and nationally there has been an increase in dog attacks with the majority of complaints directed at young men using dogs as weapons in open spaces.
The number of fatal attacks has also increased. Just before Christmas John Paul Massey's was killed by a pit bull terrier in Liverpool .His appalling death was the fifth death of a child in three years and the second on Merseyside. This followed the killing of five-year-old Ellie Lawrence in nearby St Helens on New Year's Day 2007.
I wrote to my local MP Charlotte Atkins 3 years ago citing examples of youths who use dogs as a status symbol. I had seen white youths strolling around Liverpool City Centre with a pit bull dog and earlier in 2006 I saw Asian youths during a festival in Hanley Park with a particularly ferocious dog. On that occasion Police Officers were only yards away and did not intervene although the youths were acting in an intimidatory fashion.
Before Christmas I saw a group of youths walking through Hanley Shopping Centre with two pit bull dogs and clearly the dogs which in police language are called "weapon dogs" were threatening. And only two weeks ago three youths swigging from can of ale were on a Hanley bound bus with a pitbull, which they were passing around like a rag doll.
Such animals are intended not just to impress, but to intimidate, and to injure.
There is also news from the RSPCA that dog fighting is on the increase especially amongst the Asian Community- there was a recent well-publicised case in the Birmingham area involving Asian gangs. In 2004, the RSPCA received 24 reports of illegal dogfights; in 2007, it was 358.
The consequences of the increase in the numbers of dangerous dogs can be seen in other, more alarming statistics. Last year, almost 6,000 people – up from 4,300 a decade ago – needed hospital treatment for injuries caused by dogs. The Sentinel over the last year has reported incidents with bull terriers in areas as wide as Leek, Stafford, Chell and Shelton in the later case involving a drug dealer.
Some authorities are responding to the growing problem
Harrow have proposed vetting and chipping all dogs owned by people waiting for social housing. In South London Wandsworth is piloting a programme that will see residents threatened with eviction if they fail to keep their dog responsible
And in Liverpool councillors following the killing of John Paul Massey councillor’s voted for an amnesty for illegal dogs, free micro chipping and tougher rules on muzzling.
They are also looking at a dog registration scheme.
Is it time to act in North Staffs?
What on earth is a bull
What on earth is a bull terrier doing in a childrens park, allowing the dog the impression this is were he comes to bite things. It's just crazy.
Another well thought out article Bill, with a very valid point well made, that needed addressing and dealing with.
As a parent, I think I'd like to know (like sarahs law) all of the dangerous dogs in my area, seems a silly idea but these animals can turn extremely violent and because of their build are not an easy dog to stop. I think it's my duty to my kids not to let me kids near certain areas.
There are no such things as
There are no such things as dangerous dogs, only bad owners. I myself have a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and she would not halm a fly, reason, she is well trained and looked after. In saying this, when she goes out, she is always musseled and on a lead. I dislike intently these idiots that give breeds of dogs a bad name, it is so unfair on others who keep them right. I like the Liverpool idea of free chipping and laws on musseling very much, but what about a £25 fee, a one off paymet to chip a dog and enter into an agreement of regisration to look after it.
Caring for the city and all within it.
I agree with you Warren,
I agree with you Warren, there are ONLY bad owners when it comes to dogs, and the laws need changing, I can't understand why in this day and age we cant have an effective dog licencing/registration system, where ALL dogs would have to be chipped by law, ALL dogs, whatever their breed, size, age, MUST be muzzled in a public place, any harm of damage caused by the dog is the responsibility of the dogs registered owner, there should be a heavy fine for any dog owner who doesn't clean up their dogs crap not only in the street but also in fields etc,
Dogs can be dangerous and large dogs can be killers, and owners need to be aware of this before they own one,
and YES I am a dog owner, he's only a small dog, and I always bag up his mess and bin it when I walk him even if it's in a field or a wood.
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The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.
Karl Marx
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As Owd Potter mentioned Dog
As Owd Potter mentioned Dog Shit I thought the following proposal in the People's Manifesto facilitated by Mark Thomas might find popularity
PEOPLE WHO ALLOW THEIR DOG TO SHIT ON THE PAVEMENT WITHOUT CLEANING IT UP SHOULD BE FORCED TO WEAR IT AS A MOUSTACHE.
I have been reading the manifesto and their some reasonable secondary- I hesitate to use the motion- that luminous dye should be added to dog food so that we can spot the the piles in the dark and with a proviso that a micro chip bleeper be added so that the blind are not discriminated
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"No one in this world, so far as I know,has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby". HL Mencken
www.billcawleyresearch.co.uk
Yes, can we call them
Yes, can we call them "dangerous dog-owners" please? I know it sounds pedantic but by saying "dangerous dogs" deflects from the real issue: the stupid, irresponsible people who acquire dogs with the express intention of fighting them, using them as a status symbol, keeping them purely as a "guard dog"...Perhaps if the penalties meated out for this kind of behaviour was harsher and enforced more often we'd suddenly see less "dangerous dogs"
Dangerous dogs? In Stoke and
Dangerous dogs? In Stoke and Hartshill it's getting harder to avoid treading in dog faeces. Where are the council wardens and on the spot fines? I'm tempted to get a Korean lodger, that'll sort the problem out.
BILL, love the the moustache
BILL, love the the moustache idea,
a LONG time ago on an estate far far away, there once lived a dog shit warrior, and this dog shit warrior (who for legal reasons will remain nameless) got SICK and tired of a family who lived a couple of doors up the street from ....him, this family had 3 dogs all 3 dogs were allowed to roam free, and they would shit in the street and in the...warriors yard and they would chase him when he rode his motorbike up the street,
one night, the warrior went out of his flat in the early hours armed with a bucket and some rubber gloves, he then gathered up ALL the dog shit he could find and put it into his mighty bucket,
when the bucket was almost full, he took said bucket and emptied it on the front doorstep of the owners of said dogs, and placed a sign in the "pile" with the words "HOW DO YOU F*****G LIKE IT" on the said sign,
and to this day it still makes me/HIM smile when he remembers the commotion he heard coming from a few doors up the street later that day,
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The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.
Karl Marx
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I can honisly say the dog
I can honisly say the dog shit situation don't seem as bad as when I was a kid growing up on Blurton. It was at least twice a week you got your pumps covered in the bloody stuff, sodding big mounds of the stuff bloody everywhere. One wrong move and you were up to the ankels in it. You use to see people trying to get it off on the kirbe or on the grass, dreadfull it was.
Caring for the city and all within it.
It's been getting worse where
It's been getting worse where I live for the last couple of months. And the worst offenders/ owners? Old people? Why? "Because we've always done it and we don't see why we should change". It's almost as if cleaning up after is PC gone mad. Defo going to advertise for a Korean lodger, then see how many dogs we have round our way!!!
To quote Jimmy Carr Korean
To quote Jimmy Carr Korean Food. It's the dog's bollocks
--
"No one in this world, so far as I know,has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby". HL Mencken
www.billcawleyresearch.co.uk
Fartybumpants- the olden's
Fartybumpants- the olden's are the worst for it, of that there is no doute. You get 'It in'er gon'a hurt' or 'It's only a bit o' dirt, wos't won't may doooo, pok it up with me legs the wey thay as't.' I tell the buggers I do. 'You would'nt like it in your mouth.'
Caring for the city and all within it.
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