19/03/2010 Back to the drawing board

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Shortly after the government seemed likely to bring about legislation to force all dog owners to insure their pets, the idea has been discounted. Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary said that it was not going to be turned into policy as it would be unfair to the majority of responsible dog owners. The suggestion for England and Wales was as part of a consultation on the effect that dangerous dogs are having on other animals and people. The Control of Dogs Bill would give councils the right to impose restrictions on owners if they did not control their dogs. here are currently more than 100 attacks on people a week resulting in hospital treatment. The idea was put forward as a way of paying towards the compensation payable to victims.

It was felt that owners of dangerous dogs would refuse to pay and that it would not cover dangerous dogs as they were already banned as pets. Hilary Benn said “We can rule out compulsory insurance for all dogs. The idea of compulsory insurance was something that was raised with us because of the horrific injuries some very dangerous dogs can cause. We don’t want to penalise the vast majority of responsible dog owners because they’re just as concerned as everybody else about that small minority who mistreat dogs, get them involved in dog fighting or use dogs as weapons.

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