There are almost weekly reports of both adults
There are essentially two separate but related issues about aggressive dogs: there are the dogs that are trained to be aggressive, often for personal protection, or for status, or to guard the proceeds of crime; then there are the more ‘ordinary’ aggressive dogs that are seen so often in veterinary practices. The common factor is the dogs but the potential solutions are, I believe, quite different.
The dogs trained to be aggressive are, in most cases the result of the society in which their owners live. These are often areas of social deprivation, high unemployment, and frequent drug misuse. While most are in metropolitan areas, there are also pockets spread across the country. Because they are confined to specific areas many practices will never see such dogs whereas those at the heart of deprived areas see them on a daily basis. David Grant, Veterinary Director of the Harmsworth Animal Hospital in London, speaks eloquently of his daily diet of severely injured dogs. While the majority are Staffie crosses, usually feted as Pit Bull Terriers, the type of dog is quite irrelevant to the social issues.
The DDA makes the ownership, breeding from, or sale of a Pit Bull Terrier illegal. That is based on the premise that all Pit Bulls are aggressive, whereas my practice experience and that of many others is that such dogs are frequently perfectly nice dogs. The fact that the number of dog bites has increased hugely since 1991 shows how ineffective the DDA has been as a preventive law Furthermore, the costs to the police of enforcing the Act are huge. The Metropolitan Police alone spend £2.6 million a year on kennelling dogs, and half of them are registered and returned to their owners once they have been shown not to be aggressive.
The solution to these deliberately aggressive dogs lies in resolving the underlying social issues, not in dog law. The Home Office recently started a consultation on anti-social behaviour and deals specifically with such dogs. Laudable though that may be, unless the social issues are addressed I suspect no amount of law will change the situation significantly.
The ‘ordinary’ aggressive dog is probably the more frequent cause of injury and especially where children are involved. Over 6000 postmen a year are bitten by dogs while delivering mail, and some of the injuries have been life threatening. Almost all of those attacks on delivery persons and children occur on private land where the DDA doesn't apply. So, the first change required in the law is that it should cover everywhere. But if that is to be done then there has to be some protection for non-aggressive dogs that bite because of the situation in which they find themselves. A dog that bites a burglar or mugger should not be blamed for doing so.
Behaviourists accept that the majority of this group of aggressive dogs behaves as they do because of the manner in which it has been reared and trained. No law will change that, and so there are huge education issues for dog owners here. Veterinary practices are in a prime situation to help this process with puppy socialization classes and welfare organizations and breeders have their part to play as well.
But there will always be aggressive dogs and the law needs to be able to take action before the dog bites, as well as criminalizing the owner after the event. The Scottish Act introduces the concept of Dog Control Orders that allow a properly trained local authority officer to instruct an owner to keep their dog under control better. That might require, for instance, a muzzle and lead while on a walk, a dog-proof fence round a garden or advice from a qualified behaviourist. An Order has some chance of preventing bites and should be the primary teeth of any new law.
Clearly the devil is in some of the detail here. But what is clear is that something needs to be done and to be done soon if we are ever to reduce the incidence of dog bites.