By Chris Williamson-
Britain must learn all the lessons that need to e learnt from the number of children to be killed by dogs in Britain in the past few years. The fact that the brutal killing of children by dangerous dogs has followed a pattern of the dog being allowed to be in a position where it could commit the atrocity.
In the past two decades, the number of fatal dog attacks in the UK has increased dramatically. Between 2001 and 2021 there were an average of 3.3 fatalities per year – with no year reaching above 6. In 2022, 10 people were killed, including 4 children. Optimistic assumptions that 2022 or indeed 2025 was an outlier is proven wrong. There have already been 4 fatalities 5 fatalities to date (one more occurred in the time it took to write this article).
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According to research, dog attacks on humans are also on the rise, increasing from 16 000 in 2018, to 22 000 in 2022, and hospitalisations have almost doubled from 4699 in 2007 to 8819 in 2021/22. These hospitalisations make for difficult reading. 70% of injuries on children are to the head; nearly 1/3rd require an overnight stay. In Liverpool there are 4-7 dog bites a week, with most injuries to the face. One doctor recounts dealing with a “near-decapitation”. The MET is currently dealing with one dangerous dog incident per day.
Despite an both the human and dog populations of the UK over the past four decades, fatalities have remained consistently low until two years ago.
In 2021, 2 of the 4 UK fatalities were from a breed known as the American Bully XL. In 2022, 6 out of 10 were American Bullies. In 2023, so far all fatalities appear to have been American Bullies. In other words, without American Bullies, the dog fatalities list would reduce to 4 for 2022 (within the usual consistent range we’ve seen for the past 4 decades), and perhaps none at all for 2023 thus far.
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The type of dog responsible for the latest killing of the baby has not yet been established, but one certainty is that a dog and a child should for no reason be colliding in a deadly scene. Why do the attacks keep happening? Because the authourities are not addressing the root cause of the problem, and eradicating the trigger. The type of dog, the owner, and any other rules surrounding dog ownership and their interaction with children may be useful consideration an official assessment. It should be very concerning that even if it is relatively infrequent for dogs to kill a child, the fact it still still consistently occurs is one for politicians and the government to examine. The pain of child birth and the accompanying feeling of child bonding it produces, as well as the poor lives of young children being put at this risk is one the Uk government must think hard about. No responsible government should allow kids to be at risk from dogs which ought to have responsible owners, but for some reasons don’t have them. Or certain breeds of dogs must simply be banned or at least forbidden from being anywhere near the vicinity of children.
Some smart law needs to be put together if it already isn’t there; preventing this kind of calamity caused by dogs to become a part of society’s fabric in matters like this one. a full public inquiry ought to happen each time a child is killed in this way by a dog, and accountability fully achieved. There must be lessons learnt, otherwise it becomes almost pointless. Most dogs will behave according to the way they are trained and treated by their owner. Dogs need to be loved, fed, and taking out on walks at regular intervals. If treated well, dogs are more loyal than human beings. They will stick to the rules of training and respond to the training provided to them.
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