The Kennel Club has today broadly welcomed a consultation issued by Alex Neil MSP seeking to introduce a ‘Control of Dogs Bill’, which would strengthen the Dangerous Dogs Act in Scotland. 

The Kennel Club has been advising Mr Neil MSP in drafting his Control of Dogs Bill, which is to be introduced as a Members Bill. If passed the Bill would introduce 3 changes to current legislation relating to dangerous dogs:.

• Instead of applying only to attacks that take place in public, the Bill would also make attacks on private property a criminal offence;
• The introduction of ‘control orders’ would apply to all types of dog that have acted dangerously without provocation;
• The microchipping of dogs that had transgressed, whose owners had been issued with a control order, would be compulsory.

Providing the appropriate defences are put into place, the Kennel Club believes that introducing streamlined ‘control orders’, for example to order irresponsible dog owners to keep their dogs subject to conditions including being kept on a lead and/or muzzled or in severe cases, disqualify irresponsible dog owners from owning animals, will better protect the public and thus the welfare of dogs.

However, the Kennel Club wanted the Bill to go further and fully reflect its position of ‘deed not breed’ by making significant changes to Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act which would have ultimately repealed it.

Although the Kennel Club understands that it would not be practical in the current political climate to remove the list of banned breeds from Section 1 of the current Act, we do believe that the amnesty in Liverpool following the tragic death of Ellie Lawrenson last year proved even further the need to re-open the Index of Exempted Dogs (IED) to owner led applications. This would allow responsible owners of illegal dogs to register their dogs (providing their dogs were deemed safe, and met the registration requirements), and for the police to focus their activities on non registered pit bull terrier type dogs e.g. those that are likely to be owned by irresponsible dog owners.

Said Caroline Kisko: “We very much welcome Alex Neil’s Members Bill as a step in the right direction to making dangerous dogs legislation more effective. However, it is a shame that the proposals contained in the Bill have not gone so far as to change the highly flawed Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act and recognise that certain types of dogs are not inherently dangerous or that the actions of dog owners and a dog’s training have more of an impact on dogs’ behaviour than breed”.

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