top of page

A Better Solution

At Don't Ban Me - Licence Me, we believe that the key to reducing dog bites and fatalities is through responsible dog ownership.

This means licensing all dogs, regardless of breed, and providing education to owners on how to properly care for and train their pets.

With a focus on responsible ownership, breeding and education, we can create safer communities for both humans and dogs.

Research around dog licensing models

Compelling research around dog licensing was submitted to parliament by Amity Shroads and Kat Gusarova.

​

The report found:

​

  • Substantial evidence exists that utilising visual identification as a way to determine breed, then using breed as a predictor for dog behaviour, is problematic.

  • Accurate identification of breed was able to be made in only 18% of 256 fatal bites. Of those 18%, 20 different breeds were represented. Therefore, it is not reliable to utilise the news media as a source of information regarding breed identification.

  • Three years after enacting a dog licensing model, the city of Calgary reported the lowest amount of dog bites in 25 years; 137 in 2009. For comparison, the year of 1985 had 621 dog bites reported.

untitled-22.jpg

Research around responsible dog ownership

Government commissioned research that was published in 2021 focused on dog attacks and responsible dog ownership.

​

The recommendations from the report include:

​

  • Dog behavioural training similar to speed awareness courses as part of sentencing/contingent order/community protection notice (CPN) enforcement regime which would be compulsory in the event of a destruction order or contingent order being imposed by the courts. The training is designed to support dog owners to understand their responsibilities and develop best practice in dog control.

  • Improved recording of dog attack data and incident characteristics.

  • Introduce statutory enforcement duty.

  • New legal requirements on dog ownership which require all people about to own a dog to have a ‘clean’ record, i.e. there is no evidence of complaints regarding dog ownership against them.

bottom of page