Dogs being armed to the teeth…
Breed legislation isn’t working, No human beings were killed by pit bulls before 1991, but since then we’ve had one death after another, mostly caused by cross-breeds. Dangerous dogs are not born, dangerous dogs are made, through abuse and neglect, and they can be any breed.’
But pit bulls also have a more practical use. They are as deadly as any knife or gun, and with one crucial advantage: while carrying a gun brings a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a knife four years, anyone caught possessing an illegal dog faces a maximum prison sentence of six months, which is rarely imposed
They say that if a pit bull is fighting another dog you could hack off its leg and it would carry on fighting. Hence the injuries from a sustained dog attack will be far greater than from a gunshot wound from a low-velocity weapon.’
Kenneth (now Lord) Baker believes the 1997 amendment was a mistake. ‘The intention of the Dangerous Dogs Act was to eliminate breeds like pit bulls in this country,’ he says. ‘For the first five years it worked very well, but as soon as the Government gave in to animal charities the whole thing was doomed. There is no need for anyone to have these dogs, and to suggest that you can somehow educate the owners – well, I just don’t think that’s realistic if you look at who the owners are.’
It is hardly surprising, then, that current sentences hold no fear for the owners of such dogs. Gordon, a 22-year-old from Shepherd’s Bush, west London, is the proud owner of a cross-bred fighting dog that affords him the all-important ‘respect’ on the streets and makes him feel protected. ‘Nowadays, that’s just as good as having a knife,’ he says with a nod to his dog, Rocky. ‘The damage that could do to a person if it’s used in the right way, that could inflict more pain than a knife because it’s going to be crushing bones and piercing skin. If you were to own a dog and it killed someone, the sentences ain’t that big. I’ve thought of the consequences of being arrested but if you’ve got options it’s better to let the dog bite the person than your life being ended.’
Disturbing as his attitude may be, Gordon sums up the mentality of many status dog owners. ‘Ninety per cent of the problem is with the owners, not the dogs,’ McParland says. ‘Most of these kids genuinely love their dogs, but they don’t understand the dogs enough to be able to look after them properly. If someone carries a knife or a gun, you have to aim that gun at someone for it to be dangerous. Dogs don’t have to be aimed at anyone. Pit bulls can be well-socialised animals, just like any other breed, if they are well treated and trained correctly, but all too often they’re not.’
In the US, an alternative approach adopted in some states has produced such dramatic . Pioneered in Multnomah County, Oregon, the US-style legislation, which covers dangerous dogs of all breeds, led to a 72 per cent reduction in the number of repeat attacks by dogs within a year of its being introduced.
‘We decided that the answer was to target behaviour, rather than breeds,’ Mike Oswald, the head of Multnomah County Animal Services, says. ‘Our system has three categories of offence, ranging from low-level behaviour, when a dog menaces someone without causing injury, to the most serious offences when someone is attacked. If someone allows their dog to commit a minor offence, we classify the dog as potentially dangerous and the owner has to pay an annual premium for a dog licence. We might also require the owner to muzzle the dog when it is off their property or build a secure enclosure for it, and obviously in the most serious cases we can destroy the animal.
‘We found that the public were much more willing to report incidents as a result, and owners were more willing to co-operate. We went from a position where 25 per cent of dogs would be involved in a second incident after we had been made aware of them, to just seven per cent causing any more problems.’ Even though Multnomah, which includes Portland, a city of 550,000 people, has an expanding dog population, there has been no increase in the number of injuries caused by dogs since the programme began in 1986.
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