Dogs Trust Comments on Scottish Dangerous Dogs Law

Dogs Trust welcomes the Control of Dogs (Scotland) Bill which has now completed stage three of its passage through the Scottish parliament. The Bill, put forward by Christine Grahame MSP champions the principle of ‘deed not breed’, and provides local authorities with greater powers to impose penalties on irresponsible owners.

Dogs Trust has long campaigned for a fresh approach to the management of dangerous dogs in the UK, following the failure of the 1991 Dangerous Dogs Act to prevent dog attacks. Dogs Trust, as a member of the Dangerous Dogs Act Study Group (DDASG), along with a variety of other welfare organisations, the Kennel Club and the BVA, has supported Ms Grahame’s Bill since it was introduced as a Private Members Bill by Alex Neill MSP.

Dogs Trust believes that the issue of dangerous dogs is a social problem and that any solution must address the problem of dangerous owners. The Control of Dogs (Scotland) Bill highlights the responsibility of the owners to prevent dog attacks to protect the public and places less emphasis on the breed of dog. Dogs Trust does not consider Breed Specific Legislation (BSL) to be effective, and fully supported the amendment lodged by Patricia Ferguson MSP which removed the reference to a dogs’ ‘size and power’ when assessing whether or not the animal is out of control. The Bill does stop short of a complete repeal of BSL. BSL has not prevented dog attacks, nor has it eradicated the Pit Bull in the UK despite having devastating consequences for some breed-types.

Clarissa Baldwin, Dogs Trust CEO commented:

“Whilst Dogs Trust is extremely supportive of the Bills intention and considers this an excellent start to addressing a national problem, there is more to be done. Dogs Trust would like to see the next UK Government introducing the compulsory microchipping of dogs, taking action to address the worrying trend in bull-breed type dogs in urban areas, and implementing a cross-departmental approach to education on responsible dog ownership.”

K9 Magazinecomments:

It has been confirmed by the BVA (see comment here) that The Scottish Parliament is not able to change Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act (the part of the act that bans dog breeds) but they are hopeful that it can provide a template for The Government to consider a repeal of Section 1 without ‘political wrangling’.

K9 Magazine supports a full repeal of Section 1. If the law bans dog breeds, it endorses breed specific legislation. Breed specific legislation is a definitive concept, in other words – a country either does operate a BSL policy or it does not. It’s not possible to have a law that is ‘a bit BSL’ any more than it would be conceivable to be ‘a bit pregnant’. We either have BSL, or we don’t.

Whilst the UK maintains its ban on dog breeds, assuming them to be dangerous by virtue, exclusively, of what they happen to look like or who their parents were, we operate BSL. No law, absolutely none, can be claimed as a defeat for BSL UNTIL BSL is properly struck from our statute books, as it has been in The Netherlands.

The RSPCA revealed, the Governemnt has NO intention of doing this. This despite the fact that all major canine organisations have categorically stated their opposition to BSL.

Given this, K9 Magazine will NOT be taking part in the DEFRA public consultation on dangerous dogs as the Government has completely mislead people in to believing they will listen. They have refused to tell the public that the issue of BSL is NOT even up for debate, according to The RSPCA.

Help raise awareness about the BAD STUPID LAW that is breed specific legislation >>

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Tags:  Breed Specific Legislation, Dangerous Dogs, dog laws, dogs trust, trust comments