Over the last few months I’ve seen quite a few posts on social media which indicate dog attacks are getting worse in local areas. I thought I’d try to investigate whether its true, or just rumour.
To investigate further I’ve logged the following freedom of information request with Eastleigh Borough Council.
Dear Eastleigh Borough Council,
I have assumed attacks are broken down by category, ie, human dog bite, another dog attacked.
Could you please provide;
The number of dog attacks broken down monthly and by category over the past 5 years.
The number of dangerous dog reports broken down monthly and by category over the past 5 years.
The number of nuisance dog reports broken down monthly and by category over the past 5 years.
A count of occurrences for each reported dog which has attacked.
For avoidance of doubt, I am making these requests under the Freedom of Information Act. I await your response within 20 working days.
Eastleigh Borough Council responded to my freedom of information request. They didn’t quite read it properly and only responded with the count of dangerous dog’s only. But that count is interesting in that it shows… nothing! There is zero trend of increase in dangerous dogs that I can see!
So there you have it - dangerous dogs, or dog attacks are not on the increase across the borough.
I’ve just asked further questions
Many thanks for your response, this partially answers my query.
Questions:
How are nuisance dogs reported (eg, excessive barking, uncontrolled, etc).
Assuming they are reported separately to dangerous dogs, can you provide the number of nuisance dog reports broken down monthly and by category over the past 5 years.
In the past 5 years, how many recurrences have there been of the same subject?
Per year, how many fines have been issued for the past 5 years for dangerous dogs, or nuisance dogs?
