Gareth Johnson MP supports Newsshopper Campaign on dangerous dogs in Parliament

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gareth Johnson MP supports Newsshopper Campaign on dangerous dogs in Parliament

Gareth Johnson MP for Dartford yesterday raised the issue of dangerous dogs in a debate in Parliament. 

 In England in 2010, there were over 6,000 hospital admissions resulting from being bitten or struck by a dog (excludes people treated in minor injury units (MIU) or accident and emergency (A&E) departments, without being admitted as an inpatient).  The numbers of dog attacks and strikes requiring admission to hospital has been rising significantly, from 2,915 in 1997-98 to 6,118 in 2010/11 – a rise of 210%. The 2010/11 figures are a 5% increase over 2009/10.· In 2009, dog attacks on people in England cost the Health Service £3.3 million.

There are an estimated of 6,000 dog attacks on postmen / women, parcel force and telecoms staff each year.  Numbers of stray dogs are rising by 5 per cent per year and some re-homing centres report that they can no longer take in dogs from people who can no longer look after them.   The costs to local authorities and welfare organisations in dealing with over 100,000 stray dogs a year is around £57.5 million.

Gareth said:

“In the vast majority of cases it is the owner and not the dog at fault.  With proper handling and training most dogs will not attack a human unprovoked. 

However, with the number of attacks on the rise I welcome the campaign being run by the News Shopper on this issue and hope that it will highlight this serious issue.  It is wrong to train a dog to be aggressive or to neglect it so that it becomes a danger. 

I am supportive of any campaign that promotes responsible dog ownership and I commend the News Shopper on its work trying to tackle this serious form of anti-social behaviour.”

ENDS

For further information please contact Gareth Johnson on 02027 219 7047 or at [email protected]

To read the debate in full : http://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2012-05-23a.99.1&s=speaker%3A24803#g100.0