So, Leads Are The Answer, Eh?

Yes, it’s the perennial cry of the comment-column and letter-page denizens of all local newspaper stories about dog attacks. If only we have laws demanding all dogs were leashed in public, all would be well.

Well…

A pensioner has told of his horror after being dragged to the floor by a dog while trying to save his puppy from its jaws. Barry Craig, 67, of Diana Close, Alverstoke was walking his five-month-old pedigree puppy at Queens Parade shops, off Privett Road, when another dog, which he believes was a Staffordshire bull terrier cross, attacked.

They were both on leads. Little good it did.

A police spokesperson said that as the other dog was on a lead, no further action will be taken by police.

If it had launched itself at a police dog, I wonder if they’d have taken the same view?

Mr Craig is unhappy that the other owner could do little to stop the attack. He said: ‘What’s the point of having a dog on a lead if you can’t control it?’

Well, indeed…

Meanwhile, in Chesterfield:

A woman was knocked out when she fell from a panic-stricken horse being attacked by a dog, Chesterfield magistrates heard.

What sort of dog? Ah. Well…

. Elizabeth Christian was riding along a bridlepath at Broadmeadows, South Normanton on June 16 when the horse panicked as a Staffordshire bull terrier-labrador cross, ignored calls from its owner and snapped at the horse…The horse suffered puncture wounds and bites. Clarke, 36, told police the 18-month-old rescue dog had slipped its lead.

/facepalm

Here, police weren't so reluctant to put the case before a magistrate, for which they should be praised, though it did little good:

JPs decided not to have the dog destroyed, but ordered it must be kept muzzled and on a lead in public areas for two years…The dog control order was applied to both Clarke and his wife, Terri-Marie Clarke, after Mr Bloore said the couple had separated since the incident and the dog lived with her.

Unless she’s built like Fatima Whitbred, how is she any more likely to be able to control it?

And what do these incidents both have in common? Powerful dogs with unsuitable temperaments and incompetent owners, on leads that proved totally ineffective as a result.

So slapping total blanket legislation on all dog owners is unlikely to be the answer. But I’ll bet it’s the one that’s eventually put in place!