Friday 29 March 2013

Solving The Dangerous Dogs Problem

After yet another death by dog, the debate rears it ugly head again with the argument on one side being it's all the owners fault and those on the other blaming the breed of dog.
I come down somewhere in the middle, finding the fault lies somewhere between the two, irresponsible dog owners and the breed of dog.
It is undeniable that when these attacks happen, the same dog breeds overwhelmingly come up such as the pit bulls, staffs and rottweilers. I have yet to hear of a person being mauled to death by a Yorkie, Poodle or a Chihuahua which is not to say that these dogs don't attack people, just that when they do, they obviously don't inflict such damage as a Pit bull.
Then there are the irresponsible dog owners who keep these powerful animals in their homes and don't control them or in some cases, encourage their violent streak.
The obvious solution, to me anyway, is to find a way to have less of the type of breeds of dog that if it attacked could cause death and serious injury but doesn't stop people having dogs altogether.
One often mentioned solution is the reintroduction of a dog licence which i consider a good idea, not sure why it was ever scrapped but by bringing it back, we then have the chance to bring in a workable solution to the amount of dangerous dogs in our midst.
Using the car insurance and size and power of car as a template, charge the licence per breed of dog. A small dog such as a King Charles Spaniel would be considerably less to purchase a licence for than a Rottweiler which would see less powerful dogs in our parks and on our streets.
Any irresponsible owners would then be able to have their licence withdrawn and unable to own another dog.
Seems simple to me, if you want a big dog for security, intimidation or any of the other reasons that are put forward as justification, then you will have to pay handsomely for that privilege and if you then fail to control your dog, then that privilege is removed also.
Why is that so hard for the people making the decisions to understand that making halfway decisions about muzzles for some and not for others and what breed is dangerous and which isn't is not solving anything, just treat dogs as we treat cars, guns or anything that can cause death if misused and regulate them. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

some people say that if the only purpose of a thing is to kill then it should be eliminated... seems to me the only purpose of these dogs is to kill...

q

Lucy said...

They sure don't make good pets.