With the recent ban in XL Bullies in the UK, many police forces have been cracking down on tackling canine-related offences including dog attacks.
Tragic stories of children being mauled by dogs and people being left with sometimes life-changing injuries following a dog attacks seem to be increasingly permeating news headlines.
Most recently, an Akita dog was shot dead by armed police after it attacked two people and then ran loose on the streets of York.
Similarly, a woman was injured in an attack by an XL Bully in Eccles in June 2024. The dog was also shot dead by Greater Manchester Police and officers and members of the public were unable to “regain control” of it.
Dog attacks can be tragic incidents all the way around, from owners who fail to appropriately control their pet to victims who often suffer horror injuries as a result. It begs the question then, what can be done to curb the number of attacks?
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How We Conducted Our Research Into Dog Attacks
Legal Expert conducted an investigation into the number of dog attacks across the UK’s biggest police force areas.
We also delved into how many people have been charged for dog attack offences and of those who were not, what (if any) were the consequences?
A series of Freedom of Information Requests were submitted to the 10 largest police forces in the UK asking for the number of dog attack offences in the last three years as well as the breed of dogs involved, the severity of injuries incurred and police action taken.
Shockingly, results revealed that a minuscule number of people are actually charged with dog attack offences compared to the number of attacks recorded by police.
“Evidential Difficulties” was most commonly cited as being the leading hindrance to any further police action.
See the findings for your area below.
Statistics On Dog Attacks In The UK
South Yorkshire Dog Attack Statistics
The number of dog attacks has soared in South Yorkshire over the last three years but police have revealed that only 65 people have been charged with an offence since 2021.
Our investigation revealed that 2,416 dog attacks have been recorded by South Yorkshire Police since 2021, with figures rising year on year.
The number of attacks have skyrocketed from 638 between 2021/22 to 994 between 2023/24 – that’s a leap of 56%.
These are instances where owners or people in charge of a dog have allowed it to be ‘dangerously out of control’ and where the dog has injured a person or guide dog.
Information obtained via Freedom of Information Requests revealed that just 65 people (3%) have been charged or summonsed for such offences by South Yorkshire Police in the last three years, with some others given a caution.
In a third (34%) of cases across the county, police cited ‘evidential difficulties’ as the reason no further police action was taken following a dangerously out-of-control dog incident.
Other reasons include, that ‘formal action is not in the public interest’ or ‘a community resolution’ was reached.
Generally, if a dog bites a person it will be presumed to have been ‘dangerously out of control.’ However, even if the dog does not bite, but gives the person grounds to feel that the dog may injure them, the law still applies.
A court could also decide that your dog is dangerously out of control if: it injures someone’s animal or the owner of the animal thinks they could be injured if they tried to stop your dog attacking their animal.
South Yorkshire Police revealed that in 34% of dog attack cases, there was a lack of evidence which prevented further police action.
In some cases, the crime was confirmed but the victim either declines or is unable to identify the offender. In other instances, the suspect is identified but the victim does not support (or withdraws support from) police action.
There are also times when the victim does support police action but evidential difficulties prevent further police action, in which case the incident may be referred to the Crown Prosecution Service. But in South Yorkshire this happened in just 8% of cases in the last three years.
Since 2021, 29% of dog attack incidents in South Yorkshire were followed by a ‘community resolution’ which is usually an informal agreement between parties involved in low level offences.
Out of the 2,416 incidents in the last three years, police issued 25 conditional adult cautions, 3 simple adult cautions and one penalty notice for disorder.
