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Three dogs seized in police operation
‘Street is running an illegal pitbull kennel’
AN illegal kennel may be breeding dangerous dogs near Hampstead Heath, detectives warned, after three alleged pitbull-types were seized in a single morning in one Gospel Oak street.
A routine operation to arrest a man who had failed to return on bail for a burglary offence turned Lissenden Gardens into a circus on Friday when four police dog-handlers were required to seize what Met experts claim are two pitbull-type dogs from his flat.
But two more dog-handlers joined in when they spotted a third alleged pitbull being walked in Lissenden Gardens by a teenage boy.
Detective Sergeant Richard Greenwood of Camden’s burglary squad led the operation.
He said: “You wouldn’t normally expect to come across one dangerous dog type, let alone three.
“We know that local kids use them as weapons. It seems likely that someone in those two or three streets is running an illegal pit-bull kennel.
“If they are, and someone in Lissenden Gardens lets us know, we will take action.”
The Dangerous Dogs Act allows police to seize animals that experts believe are pitbulls or pitbull-types.
The dogs are held in Met kennels after seizure until a magistrate rules they break the law – in which case the dog is destroyed – or the owner agrees that the dog can be neutered, chipped, and entered on the dangerous dogs register.
The confiscations are often highly emotional incidents, but have become more common as the craze for Staffordshire terrier crosses has swept north London, with a six-fold increase in seizures reported across London in the past two years.
On a recent operation in Camden, Sergeant Ian McParland, the Met’s expert on the dogs, called them “the new knife on the streets”.
Professional dog-trainer Dima Yeremenko spends hours watching and walking dogs on Hampstead Heath.
He said on Tuesday: “I am starting to bump into them [pitbull crosses] all too often, and I am sure they belong to people living on the outskirts of the Heath – you see them at weekends, not during the week.
“Most of the dogs that are put up for adoption or abandoned around here are pitbull, staffie types.”
On Tuesday, residents in Lissenden Gardens said they had noticed an increase in bull terriers – but blamed it on the street being used as a cut-through to the Heath from Kentish Town.
Sy Farah, who lives in the area, said: “These kids have them as status symbols but they’re not from around here. I can’t say whether they are dangerous dogs but there is definitely dog fighting on the Heath.” |
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