DDA failing us?

I notice that the owner of the dogs that killed Jade Anderson is not to be prosecuted. This is, I assume, because the dogs she owned were not dangerous breeds and the attack took place on private property.

Recently there was a debate on here regarding a staffie that attacked a cavalier - the owner of the staffie was photographed and widely circulated, the dog removed and pts. The owner was not prosecuted - because it was a dog-on-dog attack which does not fall under criminal law, the owner could have taken out a private/civil prosecution. No doubt he has acquired another staffie that will possibly suffer the same fate.


I am a staffie fan - my one is dog-reactive, as a consequence he is muzzled when off-lead and where there are a lot of dogs he is on a lead. He is not child-tested but seems to wag his tail when he seems them but I don't allow him near them and discourage children from coming up to him.

I belong to a species that has taken another species out of its natural environment to live in mine. With that comes huge responsibility. It is not my dog's responsibility to avoid dogs he doesn't like it is not my dog's responsibility to not bite children that he feels threatened by IT IS MY responsibility to keep him safe.

In both the cases above it is clear as the nose upon my face that these owners were not responsible and a 5 dogs paid with their lives as did a young girl. It shouldn't be the DDA it should surely be the DOA act Dangerous Owner's Act - if someone lives in a flat with 5 large dogs that surely is dangerous.

I'm sure this has been debated on here over and over again - but it just makes my blood boil that the state still seem to rely upon legislation that demonises the dog.

RANT over!

I disagree with the DDA too but I don't think any of the cases are as simple as the media make out. The staffie cavalier fight/attack has two sides to the story. Yes the staff finished it but there is more to it that meets the eye. People were very quick to brand it as a dog that had been taught/encouraged to fight but other accounts say that it was a dog rescued from a bad home by a very young inexperienced owner who did not let if off its lead to attack another dog, it was on a choke chain with was loose because it wasn't pulling and it backed out of it.

Who knows what happened in the case of Jade but I don't think the average pet owner knows enough about positive training methods and the importance of early socialisation and teaching bit inhibition. Rather than prosecuting and destroying dogs more attention should be paid to educating people on how to raise, train and mange their dogs.

I'm not sure how we can back out of BSL now though as I'm certain there would be a rush to get pit bulls etc by just the sort of people who shouldn't have them.

I disagree that we have taken dogs out of their natural environment. After 15,000 years of domestication this now is there normal environment and we owe it to them to learn how to communicate better with them and teach them how to act in all situations in a way that we think is apppropriate and if we don't have the skills to that then to educate ourselves and hire a modern behaviourist to help. I also don't believe muzzling is the answer as this often exacerbates the issues. Obviously there may be cases where it is nessecary.

i disagree that we have taken a species out of its natural environment, dogs are man made, to serve and be companions of man.

Yes its our responsibility to make sure our dogs are well behaved and socialised but sometimes its never that simple.

Hi recently I puta thread on here,about a lady going to work and leaving her2 dogs to wander the house,she had a burglar and when she came home found him in the cupboard,her dogs were nearly pts.

Except there was a petition,but when it did get to court the main thing was I f you have dogs,you must have a sign,showing that dogs are here,if you dont you are breaking the law,have tried to find out where this originated from,definately not the Dangerous Dog Act,but any way the dogs were returned to her and the young lad got a supervision order,but it only got to court,because the crown prosecutors felt this lady had committed a crime over a poxy sign,not anything about the original offence,burglary,that became a different case,The Law is an Ass sometimes crystalgirl

Yes you are right,the species we are dea;ing with now,is man made with all the issues that we have taught it,but some dogs are demonised by the press,because it sells copies,the only time I have seen stories about dogs who do courageous things are in Animal Charities News Letters crystalgirl

Wow? Is that really true or another media myth? I might check with weldon law who are a canine law specialist firm. Surely if that is the case then it must be more widely advertsied?

I had never thought about ending BSL and the rush to buy pit bulls- a terrible and sadly a quite likely scenario

My dog's reactivity is without warning - or if there is warning it is extremely subtle - he is muzzled because I couldn't bear him doing damage to another dog. Muzzling is the answer for us right now.

I agree with you "that its our responsibility to make sure our dogs are well behaved and socialised but sometimes its never that simple" I do strongly believe though that it is our responsibility to work with the baggage that our dogs carry - if they bite children, then they're kept away, if they're dog-reactive then we keep them away from damaging other dogs etc.

I've no clear idea why my dog is dog-reactive, all I know is that he is and I have to take steps to deal with that. No ifs, no buts. I wish he were different but he isn't

I don't think there would be a rush to buy Pitbulls if they ended Breed specific part of the DDA.

There are plenty of pitbulls in the world living normal lives in homes no trouble to anyone.
The BSL part of the DDA made pitbulls more desirable to the kid of people who should not be allowed to own a hamster never mind a dog.

This law made them more desirable to numpties.

If the information I heard from a very sensible source said that in the case of Jade she went out to buy a pie and went into her next door neighbors house while no one who lived in that house was at home to heat up her pie.
What law other than a very prohibitive one could prevent that from happening

never heard that before, are you sure that is the truth Is this just Wales then, ?


P S ...just had a glance at the control of dogs (Wales) act, and it does not mention the above, I wonder if the story got embroided a bit along the way?