Animal Control Officer: Any breed of dog can be dangerous

Whilst come countries have produced a “dangerous dogs” list and have even gone as far as to have a ban on certain breeds of dogs following a spate of dog attacks, one local animal control officer is suggesting that focus should not be placed on certain types of dogs, since “any breed of dog can be dangerous”.

These sentiments came recently from Peter Belgrave, Acting Animal Control Officer, with the Ministry of Health’s Animal Control Centre.

“Basically, I would say any dog that you have has the potential (to be dangerous) if it is not socialised, if it is not trained, if you do not understand its innate characteristics from early.

You could find yourself in difficulty,” Belgrave indicated.

“I have had very small dogs with some very serious aggression, that as long as you put the food in the pan, you couldn’t touch that dog bowl when the dog was there. Then of course, you can find that a dog that has a food aggression in its early life, can develop other types of aggression later down,” he further explained.

“There is also something called frustration aggression and that basically is, as long as you don’t walk a dog, a dog is on a chain 24/7, of course when you release it off the chain or you take it out of the kennel, it’s not going to want to go back in. And therefore, when you try to put it back, it can appear to be aggressive,” he added.

“So it’s how you treat and how you train your dog, covertly or deliberately, that sometimes results in some of these problems that we have with dogs,” Belgrave maintained.

He meanwhile acknowledged that there are certain breeds, which some perceive to be naturally aggressive.

“We have had a stigma over the years, where pit bulls are seen as being aggressive dogs. We cannot deny the history, that they were used in earlier times in dog fighting and that stigma still seems to exist amongst many persons,” he noted.

“But for those persons who have owned a pit bull, they will tell you that a pit bull is one of the most loyal and loving dogs there is. So you would find both sides of the coin, some people who would tell you that pit bulls are aggressive and
they need to be banned and others who have owned them, who would tell you they are loyal,” Belgrave concluded. (RSM)