James, just to further interupt the flow of this thread, I would like to point out I am not "middle class" and would kindly ask you to stop making judgements of people you do not know. You are provoking others into arguing with you over an issue that is not relevent to this thread. If you would like to continue this else where then please do but please refrain from making personal hits on people based on factless, pointless and empty opinions. Back on track... I agree with brendan and also a much earlier comment of re-introducing the dog licence. Stronger monitoring and even controls of who actually owns what type of dog and where the dog resides, i.e. in an area where either many kids are or indeed a large number of other dogs could help prevent others getting hurt.