In the wake of the latest tragedy, in which a pack of dogs killed a schoolgirl, it is surely time to bring back some control over the ownership of dogs in Britain.
If I want to drive, I need a driving licence. If I regularly break the rules the state can take away my licence and keep me off the road. If I want to own a gun I need a shotgun or firearms certificate. It means the state can again intervene if I breach the rules on safety or security.
If I plan to keep cattle, sheep, pigs, goats or more than 50 poultry I also have to register, tell the state and receive a holding number. And if I want to watch television, sell alcohol or operate a business in a number of sectors, from driving a bus to running an abattoir, there are licensing authorities who will want to know all about it.
As a dog owner, however, I can give houseroom to a pretty well unlimited number of canines and, unless I mistreat them and come to the attention of the RSPCA, no-one can stop me. Until the dogs hurt someone, that is.
My two dogs happen to be docile and laid-back whippets. They could, however, be of any legal breed, and would still need no licence. Surely that can no longer be right?
It wasn't always like this. As a lifelong dog owner I remember going to the Post Office to buy a dog licence every year until 1987 for the pets I owned back then. I do not ever remember having to show that licence to anyone. Before it was abolished the dog licence cost 37p. Even as far back as 1987 that wasn't much money. Maybe in pre-decimalisation days, when a dog licence cost seven shillings and sixpence, it meant something to those who had to fork out. By the time it was scrapped, however, more than three quarters of dog owners weren't bothering to pay, no-one was checking up on them and the meagre sums collected did not even cover the cost of administration and paperwork.
In 1987, of course, few in Britain had heard of the American pit bull or its derivatives. Although dogs were status symbols for some and 'weapons' for others, dog attacks seemed less common in those days. The Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991, brought in as a result of a number of high-profile cases and amended in 1997, was still some years off.
Last week four dogs – two bull mastiffs and two Staffordshire bull terriers – attacked and killed 14-year-old Jade Anderson in a house in Wigan.
Neither of those breeds is banned by the Dangerous Dogs Act. Yet all four dogs still had to be shot by police officers called to the scene. A fifth dog in the house was captured and taken away. A BBC report of the incident said: "Friends paid tribute to the 'quiet' and 'timid' teenager, who is thought to have visited the shops and returned to the house with a meat pie when she was attacked."
Anyone who has ever witnessed a dog fight or seen an aggressive, snarling dog twisting and straining at the end of its lead will be able to imagine the scene. Anyone who has ever tried to separate, with bare hands, two dogs fighting will know they can become writhing, adrenalin-pumped monsters with vice-like jaws. What that girl went through is too horrible to contemplate.
This was, thankfully, a fairly isolated incident. But not that isolated.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs estimates about 210,000 people are attacked by dogs in England every year. Five children and one adult have been killed by dogs on private property since 2007.
And dogs are not only responsible for attacks. Incessant barking is one of the primary causes of neighbour complaints. Dog owners' failure to pick up after their pets is one of the biggest concerns expressed in many a local opinion poll. Stray dogs cause accidents, valuable dogs are targeted by criminals. Dogs are often in the news.
The problem for any Government which wants to deal with issues involving dogs is that no-one knows how many there are, where they live or who owns them. Apart from records kept by the Kennel Club, which pre-supposes everyone registers their pedigree dog, we don't even know how many of which breed are out there.
A new dog licence, with a fee set at a sensible level, added to the compulsory microchipping due to come into force in 2016, and a computerised database to keep track of dogs and their owners is vital. It would enable police officers unhappy about dangerous dogs to demand to see licences and scan suspect dogs to trace owners. It won't stop another tragedy – even licensed dogs can kill – but it might dissuade the feckless from owning a dog if they have the cost and trouble of a licence to buy and it would help officers to enforce the laws that already exist. Surely it is time to act?
