Stricter Penalties for Owners of Dangerous Dogs in the U.K.

Across the Channel, a dog owner who trains his or her animal to attack and causes someone’s death now faces a sentence of up to fourteen years in prison, under new guidelines published on March 17, 2015. The Sentencing Council for England and Wales, which works to promote greater consistency in sentencing across the United Kingdom, has published proposals to address the sentencing of offenders convicted of crimes committed with the aid of dogs. These proposals aim to better align with changes to the Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991, whose entry into force occurred last year, and to provide judges and magistrates with up-to-date guidance on tailoring their sentences to the specific circumstances of each case. In line with the stricter legislation, these proposals call for an increase in the maximum penalties (up to fourteen years in prison for the owner of a dog that kills a person), and new offenses are added to include damage to private property and attacks on assistance dogs. Thus, if a guide dog is killed or injured, different levels of harm and liability are defined to account for both the dog’s injuries and the impact on the person it assists, who is deprived of the use of their trained animal. Similarly, the proposed guidelines now cover incidents that occur in private settings as well as in public places . For example, they apply in cases where a mail carrier is attacked by a dog in a yard or when a guest is injured at a host’s home. While the guidelines cover crimes committed by those who use their dogs as weapons, they also encompass incidents or accidents. Thus, a responsible owner whose dog escapes their supervision and injures someone on the street despite their efforts to restrain it will be prosecuted, but their culpability—and therefore their sentence—will be mitigated compared to a deliberate crime. The law has increased the maximum sentence for owners of dangerous dogs that injure a person from two to five years in prison. The guidelines follow this increase in the statutory maximum, with a sentencing range extending up to four years’ imprisonment, even allowing courts to exceed this limit in exceptional cases. In addition to updating penalties according to the severity of the offense, the new guidelines aim to ensure that courts use the full range of penalties at their disposal, for example, to award compensation to victims or to prohibit irresponsible owners who endanger the lives of others from keeping dogs. They will be open for a public consultation until June 9.