Crass ignorance and delusion - Controlling dangerous dogs

ONE of the ugly developments made possible by social media was seen in action yesterday. 

A public-spirited and entirely laudable effort by Meath councillor Alan Tobin to make people aware of the threat posed by some breeds of powerful, aggressive dogs has provoked a huge and irrational response on Facebook.

Mr Tobin started this storm by asking his local council to erect signs giving details of the breeds controlled under legislation. The online reaction was utterly disproportionate and dangerously ignorant. Mr Tobin’s post of the council poster was shared over 56,000 times and attracted some 110,000 comments, the great majority of which are negative. Many were abusive.