Ministers set for talks over increase in fatal dog attacks
Ministers at the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are calling for talks to discuss potential changes to the Dangerous Dogs Act, reports suggest.
The Mirror reports an increase in dog attacks has prompted “top level government talks” to try to stop the “national crisis”. Already this year, six people have been killed by dogs, double the amount than last year.
The increase in pet ownership during the pandemic has been blamed, with breeds being imported from overseas and left unsocialised in lockdown.
Defra said: “We have set up a Responsible Dog ownership scheme with the police, local authority representatives and animal welfare stakeholders to look at dog control issues.”
The RSPCA says the current law is not working, according to the newspaper, while the Communication Workers Union (CWU) says dogs injure 3,000 postal, collection, and delivery workers every year.
Dave Joyce, from the union, told The Mirror: “This is a national crisis. We have 90,000 members and every day I wake up thinking ‘is this the day I am going to get that call that one has been killed?’ We’ve come close.”
The CWU wants “sentences that fit the crime”, he said. “Courts can order prison sentences of up to five years for aggravated dog attacks leading to serious injuries, but the longest we’ve seen is four- and-a-half months, involving a postman who was nearly killed.”
A parliamentary debate on the Dangerous Dogs Act is due to take place on 6 June after a petition calling for the government to end breed-specific provisions in the legislation reached more than 100,000 signatures.
