Council offers amnesty to owners of pit bull terriers

PIT bull terriers have already been handed in and destroyed ahead of Northern Ireland’s first amnesty.

Owners of the outlawed breed in Ballymena, County Antrim, have been given the whole of January to hand in the dogs without fear of prosecution.

The town council’s dog warden, Nigel Devine, said: “Two pit bulls have been presented to us already. One was left at our landfill site early in December and the other was just handed in to us at the council.”

Both animals were put down, although the warden stressed that neither appeared vicious. He also expressed his concern at the difference in the legislation around the Dangerous Dogs Act which bans the ownership of pit bull terriers.

“In England, if the dog is not a danger to the public, a magistrate can allow the owner to keep it, but that doesn’t apply in Northern Ireland,” he said. “I’m asking ‘why are we being treated differently?’”

The idea for an amnesty followed an horrific pit bull attack on a family in November. Sean and Deirdre Doherty and their two children escaped serious injury in Randalstown Forest park.

Mr Devine claimed pit bulls were being bred by paramilitaries.

“It’s about criminality — obviously there’s dog fighting going on, especially around border towns,” he added. “If you ban anything, there becomes a lucrative market for it. It’s all macho image – the only reason these people have these dogs is because they are banned. You see these people out walking their dogs, saying ‘Look at me and my pit bull’, but half of them are mongrels.”

The warden also said that some anxious owners had been in touch after pups they believed were legal —breeds such as Staffordshire bull terriers — grew bigger and bigger.

Mr Devine predicted the amnesty would not yield many outlawed animals, although he urged anyone harbouring one to seize the opportunity rather than face fines of up to €3,000 or a two-year jail sentence if they are tried and convicted.