"Dogs being used as weapons" - what can be done?

What do you think can be done about this problem, of 'idiots' owning dogs just for their 'aggressive' looks or actually using them to intimidate, or sometimes attack people.

You can see the vid here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7622051.stm

Do we need more laws on dog ownership - i.e. regulate WHO can own dogs not WHICH dogs people can own?

My husband and I having been on the receiving end (twice) of gangs using dogs as weapons, I would love to see some form of law or test which regulates who can own a dog.
Exactly the form it would take would need a lot of thinking and hammering out.

For instance: my first reaction would be to say no-one under 21 - but then, would that mean that no under 21 year old could walk their parents' dog?
that's a tough one, which is why I say it needs a lot of thinking on.

Watching that video was very scarey....not because of the dogs, but because of the owners. To draft any law to stop these young lads owning potentially lethal dogs would be very hard to do, but it is not only young "handlers" of potentially dangerous dogs we have to worry about, it is owners of any type of dog that is not under proper control when out and about. What the answer is, I just do not know. I thought that any dog that came under the "Dangerous Dog Act" had to be muzzled and kept on a lead at all times when taken out for exercise.....so why aren't these dogs just removed from their owners under the existing law when seen by the police?

It isn't just Liverpool, it is everywhere and it has been the same for years. It is very scary to think those dogs are out there but small dogs with poor recall and socialisation are just as scary.
The police are sort of powerless as the DDA is pretty vague...the whole issue of 'type'...
Peoplealso are not aware of the dogs they have, they buy pups from local people as 'staffi crosses' which are nothing of the sort, not are they properly aware of the law.

Answer??? A registration system for all dogs,if the dog isn't registered it can be seized. To be registered, the dogs must be registered at birth,with as much info about the parents as possible.

Hmmm....I suppose you have to start somewhere, but how would you start? Put all dogs owned on a register from a certain date as well as registering new litters? But what about all the dogs that would be just dumped by their owners, as I cannot see any system not having a large cost attached to it.

Dont get me wrong...I wouldn't be averse to paying any amount for my dogs if it meant that more responsible ownership was the end result, but there are many owners, as we all know, that keep dogs for the wrong reasons and what about the owners on a limited income (epecially in the current financial climate) who would not be able to afford any further costs for their animals.

It seems to me that in any senario that it is the dogs that will come off worst. Would we be willing to suffer that until a more robust system was up and running?

To be honest I don't think the video did much to support the story, all I could see were a few owners said to be scary looking but not looking so and dogs just being fairly normal dogs. So I'm a tad confused

The dogs should be removed and the owners banned from having anymore,wont happen of course.These numpties could be doing with some hefty fines too, hit where they hurt most,in the pocket,xxxxxxxx

This is not a new problem. Even Victorian villains had their dog `enforcers`. I don`t think you need a dog to intimidate people, and I think Harrassment or Intimidation (by whatever method) is already an criminal offence.
I think what we do need is more effective and better resourced policing.

I think if you have a criminal record for say drugs/ violence/gang activity, then you should be banned from owning a dog........... poss this could be reviewed if the person stayed out of trouble for five years or so... clearly it would need to be far more detailed than that though,

ah, but what`s to stop the live-in girlfriend owning one? It`s not the dog that makes the yob a criminal.