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Hood, Christopher; Lodge, Martin --- "Pavlovian Innovation, Pet Solutions and Economizing on Rationality? Politicians and Dangerous Dogs" [2005] ELECD 363; in Black, Julia; Lodge, Martin; Thatcher, Mark (eds), "Regulatory Innovation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2005)

Book Title: Regulatory Innovation

Editor(s): Black, Julia; Lodge, Martin; Thatcher, Mark

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845422844

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Pavlovian Innovation, Pet Solutions and Economizing on Rationality? Politicians and Dangerous Dogs

Author(s): Hood, Christopher; Lodge, Martin

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

7. Pavlovian innovation, pet solutions
and economizing on rationality?
Politicians and dangerous dogs
Christopher Hood and Martin Lodge

INTRODUCTION

On 29 May 1991, six-year-old Ruckhsana Khan suffered severe chest and head
injuries as a result of an unprovoked attack in a public place by an American pit
bull terrier (called `Dog'), which had broken loose from its 21-year-old and preg-
nant `dog walker'. The attack took place in Manningham, a run-down area of
Bradford in the North of England, and it came on the heels of similar dog attacks
in Bolton and Lincoln. The result was intense media interest and concern with
dog attack dangers (for example, the now-defunct tabloid newspaper Today
carried about 40 articles on dangerous dog risks in the subsequent month) and
demands for prompt and decisive action from the responsible Home Secretary,
Kenneth Baker (see Hood et al. 2001, p. 91). The minister's first response was to
stress the difficulty of crafting effective legislation to deal with the problem, but
that response led to vicious media criticism and as a result, legislation intended to
curb dangerous dog attacks was rapidly drafted and passed through all its legisla-
tive stages with cross-party support and strong backing in opinion polls. The Act
(the much discussed Dangerous Dogs Act of 1991) made it a criminal offence to
have any dog dangerously out of control in a public place and introduced addi-
tional controls that were targeted at the American pit bull ...