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Should controls on domestic dogs be tightened?


The issue
On Tuesday, July 4, 2000, a two-year old boy was mauled to death by the family dog. The death, the fourth known fatal dog attack in Victoria's history, has led to a range of Government proposals including making it an offence for a dog or cat to trespass on private property; giving courts the power to seize dogs suspected of attacks; testing and licensing new dog owners and widening the dangerous dog category to include all attack trained and commercial guard dogs.
Though some have welcomed these proposals others consider them excessive, misdirected and impractical.

What they said ...
'... some breeds of notoriously savage dogs do not belong either in the home or on the streets'
Editorial, The Herald Sun, July 6, 2000

'... 66 per cent of all dog attacks occur within the confines of a home. Don't blame the dog or the breed. Dog owners lift your game and be responsible for your decisions'
Roger Hampson, chief executive, Victorian Canine Association

Echo Issue Outline 2000 / 26
Copyright © Echo Education Services
First published in The Echo news digest and newspaper sources index.

Issue outline by J M McInerney

Background
The Victorian Government is considering the following five proposals as a response to the recent dog attack fatality.

* Making it an offence for a dog or cat to trespass on private property.
* Giving courts the power to seize dogs suspected of attacks.
* Testing and licensing new dog and cat owners.
* Doubling penalties for dogs found wandering in public places to $100.
* Widening the dangerous dog category to include all attack-trained and commercial guard dogs.

An additional change has been proposed by the chief of the Lost Dogs Home, Dr Graeme Smith,

* that all doctors be required to report all dog attacks they treat.
Further, the Australian Veterinarian Association has proposed
* that Victoria Police establish dog attack squads to investigate all reported dog attacks.

Agriculture Minister Keith Hamilton has indicated that the government will also be considering these last two proposals.
It has been claimed that dog attacks in Victoria have more than doubled in the last ten years and that the proposed changes are needed to reverse the trend.

Internet links
The American Veterinary Medical Association has a subsection of its site which gives advice to dog owners and to the victims or potential victims of dog attacks. This information is ironically titled Don't worry they won't bite ... and can be found at http://www.avma.org/press/dogbite/dogbitebroc.asp

Another useful United States site is Dog Bite Law. This page has been established by Kenneth Phillips. Mr Phillips is a lawyer who offers legal advice on dog bite laws as they apply in the United States. He offers advice for dog bite victims, dog owners, parents and lawyers.
The site can be found at http://www.dogbitelaw.com/index.html#Dog Bite Victims

American Dog Owners Association Inc. is another useful site. In particular it has a clickable map of the United States which takes you to a summary of the dog laws applicable in each state. This map can be found at http://www.adoa.org/adoamap.htm

The City of Madison, Wisconsin has a useful section of its site offering advice on how to avoid dog attacks. The advice is offered by the Humane Society of the United States and is directed toward both potential victims and owners. It is very clear and thorough. It can be found at http://www.ci.madison.wi.us/health/dogbites.html

About.Com has a series of advice pages intended for walkers. One of these deals with how to avoid dog attacks. It is interesting because it suggests that with proper defensive strategies many attacks could be avoided. What this implies is that victim education as well as dog owner education may be necessary.
The advice article is titled How to avoid a dog attack. It can be found at
http://walking.about.com/recreation/walking/library/howto/htdogattack.htm?once=true&

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre has a number of pages offering public health advice. One of these pages deals with how to reduce the threat of dog attack. It gives United States statistics on the number of dog attacks on children per year and suggests that children should never be left alone with a dog. This advice page can be found at http://www.swmed.edu/home_pages/library/consumer/dogatak2.htm

On March 22, 2000, the Humane Society of Canada, launched National Dog Bite Awareness Week. One of the objectives of this campaign was to increase awareness at a government level of the problem of dog attacks.
The media release related to this campaign can be found at http://www.humanesociety.com/newsrel/newsrel.asp?thisrel=22052000&page=1

The Canadian National Dog Bite Awareness Week campaign had been first run in 1999 and the Humane Society of Canada has an excellent section of its site outlining the nature and extent of the dog attack problem in Canada. The same section of the site gives a series of sensible, easily read tips for children on avoiding dog attacks and also offers advice to parents and dog owners. The index to this section of the site can be found at http://www.humanesociety.com/dogbite.asp?page=intro

The Australian Veterinarian Association (AVA) has a media release calling on police to establish dog attack squads in the same way they do arson squads. It is titled Urgent need for an official Dog Attack Squad. It was posted on August 12, 1999. The article argues that such squads could ensure that reported attacks were promptly and thoroughly investigated and appropriate action against negligent owners taken.
The media release can be found at http://www.farmwide.com.au/nff/vetasscn/press/990812.htm

Arguments in favour of the proposed changes to regulations governing dog ownership
1. The dangerous dog category should be widened to include all attack-trained and commercial guard dogs.
Supporters of this proposal point to the growing number of dog attacks in Victoria and argue that there are some types of dogs which must be treated with extreme caution. This view was put in a Herald Sun editorial dated July 6, 2000. The editorial stated, '... some breeds of notoriously savage dogs do not belong either in the home or on the streets.'

2. Doctors should be required to report all cases of dog attacks they treat.
This proposal has been put by Dr Graeme Smith of the Lost Dogs Home. Dr Smith has argued that many dog attacks will remain unreported unless a system similar to the mandatory reporting of child abuse is introduced. According to this line of argument, only when comprehensive records of dog attacks are kept can dangerous dogs be properly identified and, if necessary, destroyed.

3. Victoria Police should establish dog attack squads to investigate all reported dog attacks.
The President of the Australian Veterinarians Association , Dr Garth McGilvray, has claimed that the need for such a body is obvious as the tally of deaths and serious injuries resulting from dog attacks continues to mount.
Dr McGilvray has stated, 'This is a serious community issue and it needs to be treated as such by all States. They have specialist squads to quickly and thorough investigate matters such as arson and it makes sense to have a similar system to properly investigate dog attacks.
'Too often in the past police have been assigned to check on a dog attack many days, or even weeks, after the event meaning that most witnesses and evidence is unreliable.
'Proper investigation by an expert body could also determine whether the victims of the attack had actually contributed to the situation, even if only inadvertently.'

4. It should be an offence for a dog or cat to trespass on private property.
It has been argued that if dog and cat owners are required to control their animals at all times and regulate their movements at all times then this should help to reduce the number of dog attacks.
It has further been suggested that the penalty for allowing a dog to stray should be more significant than the current $50. It has been proposed that the amount should be doubled to $100 as this would act as a more powerful incentive to dog owners to control their animals.
It has been claimed that such penalties would encourage dog owners to ensure that their fences are secure and if necessary that their dogs are tied up or penned.

5. New dog and cat owners should be tested and licensed.
Under the plan cat and dog owners would be required to take a test checking their knowledge of pet care, including safety, obedience training and feeding.
Dr Hugh Wirth, the national president of the RSPCA has claimed that even some perfectly innocent behaviour typical of children can provoke a dog attack. Dr Wirth has argued that owners need to be aware of safe behaviour around dogs and that they need to be able to make their children aware of what safe behaviour is.
Dr Wirth has also argued that as part of the test dog owners would have to be aware of the temperament and characteristics of different breeds of dog. Dr Wirth has claimed that owners need to be aware that some breeds are developed for hunting or as guard dogs and are not appropriate pets for children.

Arguments against the proposed changes to regulations governing dog ownership
1. The dangerous dog category should not be widened to include all attack-trained and commercial guard dogs.
Critics of attempts to label a particular breed or type of dog as dangerous claim that such moves are only ever based on generalisations and assumptions. According to this line of argument, while one animal of a particular breed may have acted dangerously, this does not prove that all animals of this type or breed will be dangerous.
The Chief executive of the Canine Breeders Association, Mr Roger Hampson, has claimed that classifying guard dogs as dangerous was too sweeping and would contribute to unfair prejudice against breeds such as german shepherds.
Those who hold this view argue that a dog's behaviour is largely shaped by its treatment and education and that any type of dog can prove dangerous if it has been mishandled.

2. Doctors should not be required to report all cases of dog attacks they treat.
The Australian Medical Association(AMA)has opposed suggestions that doctors should be required to report all instances of dog-bite which they treat.
Dr Michael Sedgley, the AMA's Victorian president, has warned that mandatory reporting might prevent parents whose dog had bitten their child from seeking treatment for the child because they were afraid they might be charged or that the dog would be destroyed.

3. Victoria Police should establish dog attack squads to investigate all reported dog attacks.
Critics of proposals to establish special dog attack squads claim that dog attacks, especially serious ones, are already investigated as part of regular policing. They claim that the establishment of a special squad for the purpose is excessive and unnecessary and claim that there is no comparison between arson and serious dog attack in terms of the regularity with which each occur and the amount of damage usually done.
It is argued that police resources are already thinly enough spread and that the establishment of special dog attack squads is simply not justified in terms of the amount of property damage and loss of life they would be likely to prevent.
Critics of the proposal note that only four Victorians have been killed by dog attacks since 1978 and that the death in 1978 was the first in the history of the state.

4. Laws governing the movement of dogs and cats do not need to be further tightened
According to this line of argument, it is already an offence for a dog to be wandering without its owner and this offence is already punishable by a $50 fine.
It is further noted that recent Victorian pet laws already attempt to regulate the movement of cats, with all cats needing to be registered and desexed unless a special additional registration is paid. Cats are also to be kept in through the evening.
It has been argued that additional restrictions requiring they be on their owners' property at all times simply would not be practical.
It has been argued that if regulations become to difficult to adhere to and if penalties for non-compliance become too great then many dog and cat owners might attempt to avoid their responsibility by failing to have their animals registered in the first place.

5. Compulsory testing and licensing of new dog owners is impractical
The Canine Breeders Association CBA) has claimed that the compulsory testing and licensing of new dog owners would be far too expensive to be practical. The CBA's chief executive, Mr Roger Hampson, has claimed, 'In theory testing sounds good. In practice it would be cost prohibitive.'
The Mayor of the City of Greater Shepparton, Chris Hazelman, has also expressed concerns. Mayor Hazelman has stated, 'I am not opposed to it but implementation would be difficult because of the number of animals.'
It has further been suggested that if the cost is to be borne largely or exclusively by the prospective dog owner many would simply avoid the difficulty of the testing and the expense by acquiring a dog without being licensed to do so.

Further implications
An advisory committee has been set up to make recommendations to the Victorian Government on what additional penalties and regulations might be required to reduce the number of dog attacks. The committee will report in august and it is expected that the Government will make a decision soon after.
Though a number of the suggested changes to dog laws appear quite difficult to implement, Victoria has a long history of enacting pro-active public health and safety legislation. The state has introduced the compulsory wearing of seat-belts in cars, safety helmets when riding bikes and already has quite stringent pet laws. A tightening of these laws might well be undertaken by the government.
It is difficult to estimate what would be the level of compliance with the new laws. When any government takes action which makes a popular activity, such as pet ownership, significantly more difficult, one popular response is simply to disobey the law. Thus if the testing and licensing of dog owners became law, along with tighter restrictions on animals' movements, one possible response might be that many dog owners would simply try to avoid the impact of these laws, perhaps by failing to register their animals.
Measures such as the compulsory reporting of dog attacks and the formation of dog attack squads might have more impact because if accepted by the government they would automatically be implemented by the bodies responsible.


Newspaper items used in the preparation of this outline
Sources
The Age
5/7/00 page 3 news item, 'Toddler dies after attack by family dog'
6/7/00 page 7 news item by Sophie Douez, 'Mauling prompts warning on dogs'
6/7/00 page 7 list of directions for 'Dealing with dogs'

The Herald Sun
6/7/00 page 3 news item by Philip Cullen, 'Parents mourn "happy angel"'
6/7/00 page 3 analysis, 'First cousin to the wolf likes to be leader/Dangerous dogs'
6/7/00 page 3 news item, 'Dogs killed four'
6/7/00 page 3 news item by Peter Mickelburough and Neil Wilson, 'Pet owner tests'
6/7/00 page 18 editorial, 'Man's best friend?'
6/7/00 page 19 analysis by Matthew Pinkney, 'Friend or enemy?'
7/7/00 page 16 letter from Roger Hampson, chief executive, Victorian Canine Association Inc.
7/7/00 page 25 news item by Neil Wilson, 'Breeders hit dog reforms'
7/7/00 page 25 news item, 'Dog Blitz opposed'
9/7/00 page 25 news item by Bruce Butler, 'Dogs tried to eat me alive'