Dangerous Dogs

I was the custodian of a dog once, it was a cross. In fact it was very cross. Half a Border Collie with something else! From Colwyn Bay R.S.P.C.A (Bryn Eilian) which is now an animal rescue centre I believe. It did what dogs are meant to do, he barked, he ran around, he shat everywhere. He chased cars and he worried sheep. I was a teenager and I teased him, so much so that one day he bit me under the eye. I had to go and have a tetanus injection and I put up a fight about that. One day there was a furore on the estate as the appropriately named 'Willy' was reverse pushing his own willy into a Boxer Dog Bitch down the road and the only advice that was given was 'throw a bucket of water over them'. Having tried to pull them apart I realised that if someone could market a glue as strong as two dogs coupling they would be a millionaire. Now I accept responsibility for being an unsuitable owner. He was taken for walks and he was given food and water. We weren't however 'Dog People' and I think you have to be a dog person to keep dogs. In those days you had to have a licence and we trooped off to the square in Rhuthun to buy a licence from the Post Office. Nobody came out to see whether your adobe was a suitable abode to keep a dog that had been mistreated as a puppy. You just paid your 37 and 1/2 pence. It was an offence, punishable by a fine of £10.00 to keep a dog without a licence or to fail to produce a licence when asked by a policeman. They didn't have tasers in those days. Willy was not a dangerous dog, he was a nuisance dog. We weren't told when we went to get him that he had been mistreated as a puppy. How else do you explain the chasing of sheep and the running after cars especially the Postman's van. We took him back to the same place after eight months much to the relief of the postman and everybody on the estate and all the sheep in the fields. I was very upset. I can understand how dogs get to you because on a good day, he was great fun and a good companion. I am approaching this topic with my usual light touch but in the last week there have been two deadly attacks, one on a 52 year old man and another on a 3 year old boy. Whilst the Great British Pubic have been mesmerised by the picture of a Syrian Boy who survived one of Hilary Benn's Bombing missions, at least he is still alive. Two people are dead because of dangerous dogs or rather dangerous owners. Is it now time to bring back a Dog Owner's Licence with a cost commensurate with the passage of time. In those days if your dog was caught causing injury or suffering to livestock, then you were fined £200.00. What about a Dog Licence that costs £200.00 and a licence that is diligently enforced? I have just read that you still need a Dog Licence in Northern Ireland and that costs £12.50. That amount of money is not going to stop somebody mistreating their dog and turning it into a dangerous dog.  From £200.00 upwards it might make some reconsider and at that price they would be given gold lined pooping bags for fearsome Fido. Just a thought! Let the barrage of abuse begin.