Sir Gavin Williamson has joined forces with Blue Cross, a charity dedicated to animal welfare, to call for responsible dog ownership.
Sir Gavin met with Blue Cross in Parliament to discuss their suggestions for improving dog control.
Blue Cross has launched a campaign to push for further legislation to prevent dog attacks and improve dog control. They have suggested reforming current dog control legislation, as well as the creation of a centralised database to record information on dog bites, levels of severity, and circumstances of incidents. The charity would also like to see Blue Cross Responsible Dog Ownership Courses mandatory for all owners who commit a low-level dog offence, with the aim to bring down numbers of repeat offences and improve public safety.
Sir Gavin said: “It is particularly important to me that we tackle responsible dog ownership, as in Staffordshire alone there were 4,410 NHS-reported dog incidents from 2019 to 2023. A major cause behind dog aggression is a lack of control and training. This is the responsibility of every dog owner, and as a dog owner myself, I’m happy to support measures that will guide owners on this.”
Becky Thwaites, Head of Public Affairs at Blue Cross, said: “We invited MPs along to hear about how we believe that through collaboration and support we can, together, improve responsible dog ownership with emphasis being made on dog owners rather than demonising any particular breed.”
