Barking mad

Published on Tuesday 14 February 2012 00:00

Only four weeks ago, Sheriff Richard Davidson challenged our politicians to decide “whether dogs or children come first” when sentencing the owner of three rottweilers which savaged a ten-year-old in Dundee in 2010.

Now, a Japanese Akita has mauled an 11-year-old in Inverurie (your report, 11 February), following three similar attacks by Akitas in the past two years. Neither breed is on the list of banned dogs.

In December, an American pitbull cross ran wild in a block of flats in Leith, leaving five people in hospital. Similar attacks are reported regularly from all over the UK.

Apart from Sheriff Davidson, it is left to Mrs Veronica Lynch (whose daughter was savaged to death in 1989 by two rottweilers) to campaign for controls on such dogs to be greatly strengthened. Christine Grahame MSP’s Control of Dogs Act is clearly unfit for purpose, just as the original Dangerous Dogs Act did not go nearly far enough.

Maybe, as the Akita Club secretary avers, “in the right hands the dogs are perfect”; but we all know that they all too often end up unmuzzled in the wrong hands.

There are so many clubs for these breeds that one wonders how many such potential killers there are – and why should anyone want, or be entitled, to own a dog weighing up to ten stone with jaws strong enough to bite through human bone.

John Birkett

Horseleys Park

St Andrews

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fourbyfour

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 01:17 PM

Oh come on ~Christine, no dogs are trustworthy and yes, they do have a "viciousness" gene. Common sense actually says that you should never leave a dog and a child alone together, the risk may be small but the consequences can be devastating.

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cajwbroomhill

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 12:49 PM

Remember the regulations allowing farmers to deal appropriately with sheep-worrrying dogs, which might be adaptable for mauling of people. Can anyone comment on that tentative suggestion?

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Christine

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 10:11 AM

While it is sad that these events have taken place one should not, as Mr Birkett, has done, respond with a knee-jerk reaction. There is, as most people are aware, no such thing as a 'viciousness' gene in dogs and common sense dictates that it is the way the dogs are raised that causes them to be the way they are - the parallel is there in our own species - if people raised their children properly jails would be a thing of the past. Restriction on our "entitlement" to own our chosen breeds is once more 'big brother' government becoming more and more powerful - we already have a nanny state and too many laws governing what we are allowed and not allowed to do - perhaps this is also more of a sign that we grown increasingly unable to govern our individual behaviour? or that we have become so disillusioned with politics that we no longer actively participate and this inactivity emboldens the power-mad in government to regularly dream up new regulations every time they see a potential infraction.

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