Return of the Devil Dogs

They're back in the news again. Despite the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, an assortment of foul hounds are ignoring old Tory legislation. First a baby is mauled to death by pub guard dogs -- not pub pets, despite their human-sounding names -- then all kinds of local stories have been linked together to create the appearance of a national trend. Give it a day or two and this 'crisis' will be forgotten.

The initial tragedy took place in the Rocket pub. Coincidentally, that boozer is on an old boyhood bus route of mine. The one time I ever drank in there (1988?), it struck me as somewhere to find some guard dog inside the meat pies, as there was nothing worth guarding in the pub itself. Yet I 'd better be careful: talk of worthless pubs soon translates into talk of worthless people, like this Guardian feature that uses chav-baiting to make a point about a particular type of dog owner. Why not just learn to control these beasts, without mixing up humans and animals in our attitudes?