The Kennel Club does not welcome any pit bull amnesty, or any other breed specific knee-jerk response reminiscent of the rushed and ineffective Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. Rather, the Kennel Club calls on the Government to re-open the Index of Exempted Dogs and allow owners of pit bull types to apply to a Court for registration, without fear of prosecution, if they can prove to the Court that that dog would not constitute a danger to public safety. 

Rather than this involving the Police destroying their dogs based on breed alone, this would lead to a court judgment on the dog concerned that would take into account the dog’s history, the dog’s owner and the dog’s character. If indeed a dog was found to be aggressive then it would not be able to be registered on the Index of Exempted Dogs and would subsequently have to be humanely destroyed. If however, the dog in question was of a pit bull type but was well trained, had a loving owner and generally posed no threat to the public then it would be able to be registered on the Index.

The Kennel Club considers the amnesty currently being put forward by Merseyside Police Force and County Antrim to be poorly thought out and ineffective responses to a tragic situation, that will lead to the destruction of many well loved family pets and cause a great deal of distress to dog owners. While illegal dogs clearly are in this country they should be assessed and dealt with according to their temperament. In actual fact this would vary quite significantly from one pit bull type dog to another since a dog’s genetics (breed) has very little to do with its behaviour. Research shows that this is influenced most by the dog’s owner, the environment it lives in and the training it is given.

Displays of aggressive behaviour by any dog, regardless of breed are the responsibility of the dog’s owner. In the wrong hands, any breed of dog can be dangerous - the number of dog attacks by breeds other than those on the dangerous dogs list illustrates this. Similarly, any dog that has been trained by its owner appropriately and sufficiently should not be outlawed or destroyed based on its breed alone. The Kennel Club has further fears that dog owners could use such a dangerous dogs amnesty as a ‘dumping ground’ and that this could encourage grossly irresponsible dog ownership. Owners must be responsible for training their dogs properly; dumping them when they realise that this may be harder than they thought is not the solution and will not prevent dog attacks.

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Kennel Club Issue Statements, Press Centre 

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