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Police in warning over ‘vicious’ dogs
Fears ‘backstreet’ cross-breeding by gangs will mean more pitbull-type pets on our streets
“BACKSTREET” cross-breeding of pitbull-type dogs will lead to a crisis on Camden estates unless the authorities act now, the Met’s leading dog expert told residents at the Town Hall on Thursday.
“If we don’t intervene now we will end up with line-bred dogs bred purely for viciousness,” Sergeant Ian McPartland told the Camden Community Police Consultative Group. “Gangs are starting to use dogs for intimidation, for robbery and much else. Camden is seventh in the league tables in the Met for 999 calls to dog-related incidents.”
His team in the Met’s status dog unit seized 719 dogs across London last year, up from 46 in 2006, Sgt McPartland said, adding that the council should “look at demoted tenancies” as a way of tackling antisocial dog ownership on estates, where some of the worst problems were reported.
The council was forced into a u-turn when it attempted to tackle the problem of bad dog behaviour in 2007.
A backlash from owners, led by the Kennel Club, prompted a rethink of proposals to introduce penalties for a range of dog-related offences including walking pets off the lead and the walking of multiple dogs at one time.
The “dog control orders” which followed amounted to heavily watered down regulations.
Conservative councillor Keith Sedgwick said: “There is a prevalence of this problem on estates. Why is it that leaseholders or tenants of housing associations are required to gain permission to have a dog where (council) tenants are not?”
The council housing department’s head of antisocial behaviour, Tom Preest, said it would be unfair to impose additional tenancy conditions but stressed that a policy of educating and informing dog owners was getting results.
Forty owners had been referred to the “dog hub”, an independent advisory body set up in the wake of the dog control order controversy, for training and re-education, Mr Preest said.
Only two penalty notices had been issued by the council since the dog control orders were introduced, he acknowledged, and evidence of misdemeanours was hard to obtain. But Mr Preest added: “As yet we have not progressed to the use of antisocial behaviour legislation. Should we get the evidence we would have no qualms in progressing it.”
Kiki Kendricks with Jack Russell terriers Betty and Ruby |
‘Danger to passengers’ Betty and Ruby are kicked off bus
REACHING not much higher than your ankles, Jack Russell terriers Betty and Ruby are much-loved fluffy, friendly faces in South End Green.
But their many admirers do not, it seems, include a driver of the No 24 bus who called the police when the pair’s owners decided to take them for a ride.
Kiki Kendricks takes the dogs on the bus every day, but was told on Friday night, as she caught the 24 home north from Charing Cross Road, that her two palm-sized pets are no longer welcome on the double decker as they “posed a danger to other passengers”.
Ms Kendricks, who lives in Mackeson Road, was left stranded at 10pm in the West End – after the driver turned guard dog and growled at her to get off.
She said: “I catch the 24 bus from Hampstead to central London and back again every day and have done for five years with my little dogs Betty and Ruby.
“I was on my way home from work with my husband and the two tiny, fluffy Jack Russells and got on the bus as always. I am a regular and many drivers recognise me. But this driver responded with a growl and ordered me to ‘Get off the bus. No dogs’. I tried to explain that we have travelled this route every day, for years and that my dogs were pets and that they are always well behaved. But the driver wouldn’t listen, he just kept interrupting and saying ‘You can’t have two dogs’, and kept telling us to ‘Get off the bus. It’s the driver‘s discretion’.”
She added: “I was and remain both totally shocked and amazed about this driver’s lack of common sense, and courtesy. He behaved like a dictator – don’t customers count anymore? Making such a fuss and calling the police over two of the cutest dogs in London, was just plain stupid.”
A spokeswoman for bus company London General said: “We apologise for any distress this may have caused to the passenger. We are currently looking into exactly what happened but our drivers are asked to use their discretion.”
DAN CARRIER |
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Your comments:
24 Bus; not a surprise... I had cause to complain 2 years ago when physically threatened by a 24 driver after telling him he was supposed to have stopped at the bus stop I was waiting at!
D. Prothero
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