Information about dangerous dogs

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.029655

I note you seek access to the following information:

****NEW REQUEST****
For the Financial Year 2019-20, for records under offence code 008/21 (allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control and injure a person) that resulted in an injury level of serious or fatal, please provide the number of dogs that matched each of the descriptions above (pet/companion, guard dog, status symbol, resident dog).

****PREVIOUS REQUEST*****
I refer to Freedom of Information Request Reference No: 01.FOI.19.012413

Regarding scene management for serious and fatal dog attacks, the document reads:

“It is important to ascertain the role of the dog, especially if the incident has occurred at the family home. Is the dog a valued member of the family group, referred to as a pet or companion dog? Alternatively, the dog may be a guard dog or status symbol, or it may be what is referred to as a “resident dog”, spending the vast majority of its life shut away from, and isolated from the family group, with very little mental or physical stimulation or socialisation.”

For each Financial Year from 2016-17 to 2021-22 please can you provide the total number of cases of serious and fatal dog attacks you investigated and the number of dogs that matched each of the descriptions above (pet/companion, guard dog, status symbol, resident dog)? I have provided a table below for ease.

FY 2016-17 FY 2017-18 FY 2018-19 FY 2019-20 FY 2020-21 FY 2021-22

Number of cases of serious and fatal dog attacks investigated
Number of dogs involved described as ‘pet’ or ‘companion’
Number of dogs involved described as ‘guard dog’
Number of dogs involved described as ‘status symbol’
Number of dogs involved described as ‘resident dog’

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

For the Financial Year 2019-20, for records under offence code 008/21 (allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control and injure a person) that resulted in an injury level of serious or fatal, 57 offences were recorded.

Of these, 39 fit the description of pet or companion dog, 1 could be considered a ‘resident dog’, and the rest (17) were cases where either the dog was not located or no determination could be made from the information recorded.

Please note, these specific terms did not appear anywhere within the details pages of the 57 CRIS reports that were reviewed. These categories and the numbers attributed to them are therefore subjective.

Complications do arise with this as, unless explicitly recorded, when the dog has an owner it would be difficult to classify the dog as anything other than a ‘pet’ or ‘companion’. Even ‘status’ dogs are essentially pets.

Please also note, when reviewing the CRIS reports, those marked as ‘pet/companion’ were someone’s pet, and not necessarily the victim’s own pet. In addition, please note that the dog classified as a resident dog was through my own assessment of the recorded information and how it was described, and it was not recorded as such formally.