Home Secretary John Reid is considering a national dangerous-dog amnesty - similar to the one now running in Merseyside, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal.

Mr Reid said he will process the Merseyside amnesty as a "matter of urgency" after "passions, fears and concerns" sparked by the pit bull killing of five-year-old Ellie Lawrenson on New Year's Day.

And, if the scheme proves a success, it could be rolled out across all police forces nationwide. But aides of Mr Reid said he also needed to ensure police forces have the resources available to handle the expected influx of potentially lethal animals.

A Home Office official said: "The Secretary of State is fully aware that this is an important and urgent issue. Consultations are continuing with other departments and agencies."

The action comes as the Telegraph & Argus continues to lobby the Government to toughen up dangerous-dog laws in our Curb the Danger Dogs campaign.

A similar amnesty was held by Bradford Council's dog warden service after the Dangerous Dogs Act was introduced in 1991 as a result of an attack by a pitbull terrier on six-year-old Bradford girl Rukhsana Khan which shocked the nation.

The amnesty allowed owners who fear their dog might be illegal under the legislation to hand them in with no questions asked. It was introduced to stop owners abandoning their dogs on the streets and putting the public at risk. As yet it is unclear what would happen after the dogs were handed in to the police under a new amnesty.

Today Miss Khan, now 21, pictured, said the suggestion for an amnesty must be welcomed.

She said: "This could stop the number of attacks and that can only be good. If people understand what is going on they could take their dogs there. It could be the answer but would people want to? If muzzles were worn in front of children it would not be so much of a problem."

Terry Singh, the Council's dog warden manager, said a national amnesty would ensure that potentially dangerous dogs were handed over safely.

He said the amnesty in Bradford in 1991 was restricted to pitbull types but now it would cover all dogs. He said: "If anybody has concerns their dog is dangerous they can come to us for advice."

Our Curb the Danger Dogs campaign wants:

  • compulsory registration for all dogs to be introduced, rather than the current system which limits it to certain breeds
  • all dogs to be micro-chipped to allow ownership to be traced
  • mandatory life bans from dog ownership to be introduced for anyone convicted of having a dangerous dog
  • a record of control orders to be kept on every dog's registration
  • a specific offence of allowing a dog to stray to be added to the Act
HOW YOU CAN SIGN OUR PETITION

You can back our Curb the Danger Dogs Campaign by signing our petition, which will be sub-mitted to the Home Secretary, John Reid.

We want to collect as many signatures as possible in the next month to show Mr Reid the strength of feeling in the district about the inadequacies of the Dangerous Dogs Act and to put pres-sure on him to better protect the public against dog attacks by acting on the changes to the law we have outlined on the petition.

You can support our campaign simply by adding your own name on the petition online at our publication's website www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk. Or you can print out the petition and ask family, friends and colleagues to sign as well. The more signatures we receive, the stronger our message.

But whatever you can do will add weight to our campaign and help to make it clear to Mr Reid the strength of public feeling regarding the desperate need to change the current law.

Remember, you need to return copies of the petition to the T&A (the address is at the foot of the form) by Thursday, October 12.

We will then submit all the forms we receive to the Home Office.

  • Click here to sign the petition on-line

  • Or click here to download a copy of the petition to print out

  • Start or join a debate on this issue in our online forum - Click here