Nearly 20 years on since the Dangerous Dogs Act was introduced in response to the medias thirst for blood in it's frenzy, it seems we haven't learned by our failings and lack of common sense.

So now once more the media come back in full force thirsty for some more blood out of our canine friends which inevitably will lead to some more knee-jerk legislation. All of which is coming off the back of moral panic.

The problem as usual with our leaders and anyone who is in a position of influence is that when something goes wrong, everyone starts blaming the object.

It's a bit like blaming the knife for rising knife crime and then pushing for a knife ban, forcing people to cut up there steaks with spoons and at the same time expecting knife attacks to vanish.

Or how about statistics which show red cars are more likely to be involved in a fatal accident so they ban red cars, expecting fatal car accidents to drop.

Who would expect anything less in our new nannied state where absolutely anything that may cause harm must be legislated?

I personally feel like this was the time when the Government should quite simply have just admitted there failings at how stupid Breed Specific Legislation is (like other countries did) and recognised that ANY dog has the potential to be dangerous and so a wider view should have been considered.

So for 20 years, people have now been misinformed and fed incorrect information that the only dogs which are capable of serious danger are the ones on the breed ban list.

That's 20 years of ignorant idealism being fed into people. We now have a society that deems any dog with 'bull terrier' or 'bull' in it's title as a devil dog.

Of course for all this time people have been diverting irrelevant and undue attention to a dogs breed when an attack is committed instead of more other salient reasons.

It still seems like the Government want to carry on perpetuating these rediculous claims of dangerous breeds and now at the same time recognise that all dogs have the capability of being dangerous by introcuding more totalitarian policies that start making dog ownership unpleasant for everyone all because of the bad actions of a few.

In a state whereby anything that 'may' cause or harm or has the 'capability' to cause harm or even influence harm must be legislated or banned, is there much of a future left for dog ownership in the UK?

I mean if they finally realise that a dogs breed has nothing to do with determining how dangerous an individual dog is and actually realise any dog can be dangerous or has the capability to cause harm or be dangerous, is there any room for our canine companions in our nannied state in the future?

Is our society that fragile that we can't even take the 'risk' of letting people play fetch with their dogs?

Keeping a dog muzzled is equal to keeping people handcuffed just in case we 'may' punch someone or harm someone.
A dog explores the world with it's mouth like we do with our hands, how cruel would it be to muzzle them all when they have never done a thing wrong? Just because our pets can't speak up for themselves people feel like we can abuse their rights as living creatures.

Could it be the days are gone when an elderly person living on their own can own a dog for companionship because they can't afford their new compulsory dog tax (insurance)?

One more thing to add in the height of this new frenzy.

Anyone would think with the way dogs are being discussed now is that we have some sort of major crisis on our hands. We need to get real and put it into perspective.

100 bites per week is the latest figure which makes for around 5,200 bites per year.

5,200 bites per year in a country with 60 million people - wow what a major crisis we have on our hands! - On top of that how many of those bites were serious or fatal? When humans and animals co-exist with each other it has to be expected that occasionaly a confrontation will happen, it's nature. It's still extremely unlikely you are going to be harmed by a dog.

There is more chance of being attacked by a person than a dog.

How many dogs do you think have been euthanised by humans every single year?

Worst of all purely because of their looks (breed) and not their individual temperament? - you can liken that regime to the Nazi Genocide.

We're doing the very same thing to thousands of dogs each year and it's plain wrong - no wonder they are biting us! we bloody deserve it with the way this country is treating them.

Then everyone has the audacity to claim they are animal lovers, when the same people back this kind of discrimination towards these dogs.

UK - Out with common sense and in with the rediculous legislation!

Fantastic post, rep given. I totally agree, and would comment more but i'm half asleep.

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The dog who saved my life
Proud owner of Maya, the Rescued Alaskan Malamute

http://www.dog-breeds-plus.com
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Hello

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Nice Forum

I completely agree with you, although it seems the majority think dogs should be insured and mistake that with accepting a totalitarian government to dictate on it. I for one I agree on insuring for 1/3 party and I do, but will not take the naive approach and applaud a bunch morons for forcing me to do it.

The DDA made a banned breed an object of desire, then the media hyped their status, I get 10 year olds stopping me to ask where I got my dog, do they have any more, how hard is he? ().

Making dogs a luxury is not going to resolve anything either or affect the problems dog owners.
We are coming up to elections so a failing government is trying to appear as it is doing something to answer to a cry for the media, so they pass another tax that to the majority of the non-dog owing public seems to be a step to resolve the problem in an attempt to grab a few more votes. More shockingly some dog owners seem to agree and fail to see this proposal for what it is and seem not to realize that it will push their premium so high!

Some breeds are hard to insure as they are, to the ones that have dog insurance at £8 a month I can tell you I live in London and could not find anybody insuring my staffiex for less the £30-£45 a month when I actually rang the companies.
There will be a lot of people try to cash in a few hundreds for merely being startled by a running dog minding is own business and I for one will be scared of walking my dog in any park. That alone will push premiums, even the Dog trust will be unable to offer the cover they do now for ever for all breeds. Well, this will indeed resolve the problems of some breeds fading away and the many dubious crosses that are in rescue that nobody will want (well, will want even less then they do now as they will be hard to insure), so i guess they will achieve their purpose, as a dog lover is that how you want to go about resolving a rescue crisis?

Policing these proposals will be a nightmare as the ones who will not comply are the ones generally risky to approach in the first place, and if approached are they really going to pay a fine? The answer is no they won't.

This country has lost the "Country of Dog Lovers" tag already.

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Great post x

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agree with all thats been said great posts I too am worried about the rescue dogs I take in as it will be harder to place them now especially an older dog who would go to an older person for company. Pensioners have it had as it is without all this crap

Unfortunately, common sense seems to be a thing of the past in this press controlled country.
Why oh why do people believe whatever the press choose as their sensational story of the moment? Don't they realise that the press is there to make money, and to give the facts aren't exciting enough.
Even the government gets washed along on the tide of exaggerated and half truths that are created to sell papers .

I think the future of dogs in the UK is bleak becuse our laws our written predominately by the 90% non-dog owning majority, the only answer to which is a united push by dog owners for effective and fair regulation of their choice.

Unfortunately getting dog owners to unite behind anything is like trying to herd cats.