A bark worse than its bite? An examination of the law relating to dangerous dogs - past, present and future.

With an area which is constantly given mass media attention, any change in the law relating to dangerous dogs will undoubtedly provoke heated public debate. As, under the current law, any breed of dog can be found to be dangerously out of control, any change in the law is likely to cause strong feeling amongst thousands of dog owners and anyone who has been, or fears being, the victim of a dog attack. The paper seeks to examine the current legislation on dangerous dogs and highlight the problems which have been caused by its application. The paper will then go on to explore the content and possible ramifications of the two proposed Bills which are currently before Parliament. It will be argued that the current Bills do not go far enough to address the problem of dangerous dogs and their regulation, as the measures contained in the Bills are mainly reactive with little thought to any proactive measures, to try and reduce the need for prosecution of these categories of offence. The paper will conclude by suggesting possible measures which could be considered by Parliament for inclusion in any future legislation to try and limit the number of dog attacks.