Gail wants tougher action taken over island’s bad dogs

12:00pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 in Local News By Jacqueline McMillan

Campaign – councillor Gail Barton in Kismet Park with her dog Honey Campaign – councillor Gail Barton in Kismet Park with her dog Honey

A COUNCILLOR is calling for tougher action against dangerous dogs and their owners after a series of attacks on Canvey .

Canvey Independent councillor Gail Barton says she has been inundated with complaints and letters of concern from residents whose pets have been attacked by vicious dogs in the area.

The attacking animals have been allowed to roam off their leads.

Mrs Barton is calling for Castle Point Council to employ a community dog warden to patrol hotspots on the island, such as Canvey Heights Country Park, Thorney Bay Beach and on the seafront near the Labworth Cafe, where attacks have been known to have taken place.

She is also requesting more signs to be put up in parks urging owners with unruly dogs to keep them on a lead or muzzled.

Mrs Barton said: “Not a day goes by when I am not alerted to a problem dog somewhere on Canvey. It is becoming such a big problem.

“I was contacted by one woman whose dog was attacked so many times it shakes every time it passes another dog. It is just not acceptable.

“Having seen the pictures and heard residents’ experiences, personally I am frightened to walk my dog in the park when it’s busy at the moment.

“Irresponsible dog owners need to be held accountable and I think it’s about time we got tougher.”

However, the council said employing a community warden and increasing signs was not a priority.

Trudie Bragg, head of environment, said: “The council has no plans to employ a community dog warden to deal with dangerous dogs.

“The council already has an arrangement in place for the collection and kennelling of stray dogs and council staff regularly visit our parks and open spaces, as well as patrolling our streets.

“If they were to observe an incident they would report it to the Police who have powers to deal with dangerous dogs. The council does not feel it necessary to erect signs at this time, in response to unfortunate, but thankfully isolated, incidents where dogs have not been kept under control.

“The council will, of course, keep the matter under review.”

The Echo recently reported how a pet owner broke his hand and lost several teeth after fighting off a dog who attacked his Sheltie puppy, Skye, in Western Esplanade.

Michael Hennassey, 71, was left in a bloodied mess and had to be rushed to hospital after wrestling with the dog to try and get his puppy free.

Neighbours Mary Burns, 68, and Jan Arney, 72, of Norton Avenue, Canvey, were also left distressed and injured after a pair of dogs attacked and killed Mrs Burns’s Siamese cat before turning and biting Mrs Arney earlier this month.

Comments(13)

DEBT*COLLECTOR says...
12:42pm Sun 23 Sep 12

Put the owners down, not the dogs !

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Sean4u says...
4:33pm Sun 23 Sep 12

"dangerous dogs" "unruly dogs" - good luck with implementing that litmus test.

I'd like to see owners licenced to keep cats and dogs on their own premises but otherwise transport them in secure containers. We should be able to report strays and repeated failures to securely accommodate animals result in license revocation. Keeping a large animal in a small house should be treated as animal cruelty. If owners wish to empty their animals elsewhere, they should take them to land owned by businesses who provide such a facility.

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southendnan says...
4:48pm Sun 23 Sep 12

No such thing as a dangerous dog, only dangerous owners who fail to train their dogs properly and to muzzle their dog in public places if they have any doubt about the dogs temprament. A dog, like a child, only knows what it is taught. The problem dogs, again like children, are the ones which arn't taught or taught incorrectly. The problem still lies with the owners.
Remove dogs from these owners care, give a life long ban on dog keeping, retrain the suitable dogs & place with a responsible owner.

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APR says...
5:12pm Sun 23 Sep 12

To be honest, there's not much more that can be said about these dogs and their owners, which hasn't already been said. Over and over again.

Children and pets will still be killed or mutilated.
Threads on here will still end up with abusive posts.

Nothing will ever change.

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Nebs says...
1:20am Mon 24 Sep 12

southendnan wrote:
No such thing as a dangerous dog, only dangerous owners who fail to train their dogs properly and to muzzle their dog in public places if they have any doubt about the dogs temprament. A dog, like a child, only knows what it is taught. The problem dogs, again like children, are the ones which arn't taught or taught incorrectly. The problem still lies with the owners.
Remove dogs from these owners care, give a life long ban on dog keeping, retrain the suitable dogs & place with a responsible owner.
Your analogy with children is a good one. Unfortunately you draw the wrong conclusion. You teach children to do the right things, but sometimes they do things that they are not supposed to do. You teach dogs to do the right things, but sometimes they do things that they are not supposed to do. So even a trained dog can be dangerous as, like children, they can sometimes act in an unpredictable way.

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Illinois10 says...
7:18am Mon 24 Sep 12

If you train a dog how to behave then the threshold of any possible 'attack' is greatly lowered as they will know how to behave in certain environments and situations. If the person doesn't understand the messages a dog is giving whether that be "please back off" or "I'm scared, please stop" then they run the risk of the dog barking or worse biting as a last resort, but this won't happen if the dog has been socialised and trained. Maybe potential new and sometimes current owners should take a test to see if they are competant enough to own a dog.

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soul man says...
8:56am Mon 24 Sep 12

train a dog or even a child and you will get the best out of them, ignore or mistreat them and you get a wild beast, its simple care of something you care for, or not in some folks case, blame the owner, not the animal

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JuliaM says...
10:30am Mon 24 Sep 12

"If they were to observe an incident they would report it to the Police who have powers to deal with dangerous dogs."

If they can be bothered to do so. Most often, they can't.

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Brunning999 says...
11:11am Mon 24 Sep 12

Carry a pot of pepper and throw it at their face.

CS gas has no effect on dogs .

Last resort if all else fails and the dog attacks pull their legs apart until you here a snap sound, it worked for me in Ireland when I was in The Mob.

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Brunning999 says...
11:13am Mon 24 Sep 12

Carry a pot of pepper and throw it at their face.

CS gas has no effect on dogs .

Last resort if all else fails and the dog attacks pull their legs apart until you here a snap sound, it worked for me in Ireland when I was in The Mob.

Sorry forgot to say you do need to kill the dog instantly and not cause any suffering.

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Curbishly says...
12:15pm Mon 24 Sep 12

People who have big, hard dogs do so because of an personality defect. They are inadequates who have to have a status symbol to make up for a lack of charisma, or indeed character.

It's a pity a dog has to put up with having a moron for an owner.

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APR says...
5:53pm Mon 24 Sep 12

Brunning999 wrote:
Carry a pot of pepper and throw it at their face.

CS gas has no effect on dogs .

Last resort if all else fails and the dog attacks pull their legs apart until you here a snap sound, it worked for me in Ireland when I was in The Mob.

Sorry forgot to say you do need to kill the dog instantly and not cause any suffering.
Ever tried that on a German Shepard when it's going for you ?

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APR says...
5:55pm Mon 24 Sep 12

Saying that, I consider any dog not on a lead which goes for me, to be fair game.

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