Dogs don’t bite people
by Geraldine Roper
‘Dogs don’t bite people; people who own dangerous dogs let them bite people.’
Or do they…
Who is responsible when a dog attacks? The dog itself? Or the owner who lets the dog loose in a public place?
This issue has once again been raised after the recent attack on two-year-old Aotea Cox.
Aotea was mauled by a dog that had escaped from its backyard in Christchurch during August.
The usually friendly dog played with Aotea and her older siblings for a while before turning and attacking the little girl.
This attack has prompted the Government to reconsider the current legislation and Prime Minister Helen Clark even spoke out saying she is personally in favour of tougher dog laws.
The law was last changed after the brutal attack on Carolina Anderson, now 11, in 2003.
The Government introduced the label of ‘menacing’ on any dog which was predominantly one of four breeds of dog – the American pit bull terrier, Japanese tosa, dogo argentino and the Brazilian fila – commonly thought to be dangerous.
The law now requires any ‘menacing’ dog must be muzzled in public and micro-chipped.
In response to the attack on Aotea, the Government is considering adding more breeds to the present list.
You can see their logic as the type of dog that attacked little Aotea wasn’t on the list.
The obvious solution would be to put that breed on the list so next time one escapes from its backyard, it remembers to put its muzzle on.
Sarcasm aside, you have to wonder how long this list will have to get before the Government decides to do something pro-active about this situation.
It seems that the smarter solution would be to do something that might prevent further attacks from happening.
Currently, the dog control laws are not strictly enforced. People aren’t afraid of prosecution because it doesn’t happen very often.
Perhaps dog owners would make sure their dogs didn’t roam, and therefore potentially bite, if bigger penalties were in place – and consistently enforced.