Emmerdale Star ‘Attack’ Highlights The Importance Of Dangerous Dogs Act Review
- Maria Penny – Associate & Personal Injury Solicitor
The Manchester Evening News reported today that Police are investigating an attempted attack on former Emmerdale star Roxanne Pallett using a Staffordshire bull terrier (http://tinyurl.com/6pxwbvr).
The review of legislation regarding dangerous dogs, currently enshrined in the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and 1997 as amended, has been long overdue and pressure is mounting to either repeal current legislation with new, or amend it to make it more effective.
It is hoped new law would seek to impose tighter restrictions on those in charge of dogs, regardless of breed, to ensure that if a dog is dangerous or has history steps can be taken to monitor the same and impose sanctions in the event further incidences occur. The same should also give the police and local authorities more powers to penalise those in breach to encourage responsible ownership.
One area overlooked in the current legislation is incidents on private property and the CWU is backing a call for change to protect postal workers and others who have to go on to private property in the course of their work.
The changes should aim to make owners and those in charge of dogs more accountable and it is thought local councils could monitor all complaints. The changes should apply to all anti-social dogs, should not be breed specific, and move away from simply putting a dangerous dog down thereby allowing sanctions to be imposed as against the owner/person in control.
Certain dogs are used as weapons or status symbols and this will often mean a type of dog is prejudged to be dangerous. An example is the Staffordshire bull terrier. Such dogs have a gentle nature but have become a status of the younger generation and are now generally feared and thought of as being dangerous. A complete shift in our culture and attitude towards dogs and dog ownership is needed but I remain pessimistic as to whether this will ever happen.
In most cases the way a dog is handled and raised is, in my opinion, the most important factor and I firmly believe any type of dog has the capacity to be dangerous and/or anti-social.
I am sure Ms Pallett found the whole incident very frightening but in this case, thankfully, she was not hurt. Others are not so lucky.
Tags: dog attack, dog bite compensation, injury compensation, personal injury, personal injury manchester, personal injury solicitor
Personal Injury | Ralli | 
January 12, 2012 2:23 pm
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