Pet owners convicted of dangerous dogs offences will face harsher punishments under new sentencing guidelines in England and Wales.
This is the charming view as seen by a guide dog but it's not always so picturesque. Tony Brown Griffin's guide dog has been attacked by other dogs three times in the last year. She's now resorted to attaching a video camera to Hetty’s collar to capture any attack.
Please, can you get it away?
Tony, who's blind, says her family was left traumatised by last year's attack by a Staffordshire Bull Terrier.
It just went from being asleep to flying across five metres of pavement locking onto her face and I then had to try and beat it to get it off her, that left her with wounds to her face and it was extremely distressing for all of us.
Under the new guidelines, attacks on assistance dogs such as guide dogs will become an offense for the first time as well as attacks on private property, and the maximum sentence where someone is killed by a dangerous dog will increase from 2 to 14 years.
What this says is anybody that sets their dog on anybody else or, or, or even guide dogs, that won't be tolerated. I think that sends an important message to anyone in criminal gangs or who's, who just is using their dog in an anti-social behaviour way, that you could find yourself in prison.
Tony says toughest sentences for irresponsible owners are badly needed.
These attacks do not need to happen. There is no reason to not have proper control of your dog and if you've got a dog that is a risk or has got bad behaviour, then do something about it, at the very least put a muzzle on it.
The new sentencing guidelines will come into force in July and it can be expected that dogs and dog owners alike will welcome them as well as providing pause for thought on regulating dangerous dogs.
