Rejected petition Repeal the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and replace it with up-to-date legislation.

The 1991 law banning the pit bull terrier, tosa, Dogo Argentino and Fila Brasileiro is now 25 years old. The RSPCA are against it, it is not fit for purpose, and doesn't even state how to identify a pit bull! It should be replaced with a law targeting irresponsible owners, not individual breeds.

More details

The DDA 1991 bans four types of dogs based on the myth that they are inherently dangerous. This is not the case. Also, the vagueness of the current law means almost any UK dog could be seized and put to sleep.

Dog attacks have tripled since 1991(source: NHS), and most have been blamed on dogs that are not 'illegal'. Rather than putting down friendly dogs like Francis the pitbull, replace the DDA with a new law placing responsibility for a dog's behaviour on the owner, as suggested by the RSPCA.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131936
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/156928

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 31 July 2016
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.