Once again a child has been savaged by a dog in Bradford, and could be scarred for life. How many more times does this have to happen before society rethinks its attitude towards dogs and, particularly, towards those owners of potentially dangerous animals who behave with such irresponsibility as to let them out unattended?

Six-year-old Allan Sproat was apparently attacked by a Bull Mastiff, which had the power to shake him like a rag doll. It is the latest of several attacks on children by dogs in Bradford during the past few months. Now the new chairman of the Council's housing and environment protection committee, Councillor Jim O'Neill, has ordered an area-by-area blitz on strays.

Ideally, every dog found out on the streets unattended should be rounded up and its owner heavily fined for letting it roam. However, given the size of Bradford Metropolitan District and the limited resources at the disposal of the Dog Warden Service, that is unlikely to happen.

It is surely time to consider whether certain breeds of dog are acceptable as household pets. The last Government introduced the Dangerous Dogs Act in something of a rush and unfortunately botched it. The result has been dogs held "in custody" for many months until courts could decide what breed they were, and the well-intended Act has been discredited.

It is surely time for new, better-thought-out measures to be introduced to offer more protection to people, and particularly youngsters like Allan Sproat who should be able to play in the streets without fear of attack from an uncontrolled potential killer.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.