Practice Groups

Dangerous Dog Act Cases

9 KBW members have a particularly strong record when it comes to defending people charged with Dangerous Dogs Act offences, either in cases where a dog is alleged to be of a banned breed (such as an XL Bully or a Pit Bull Terrier) or because a dog has allegedly been involved in a bite incident or otherwise dangerously out of control. Members are well connected with expert witnesses in the field and with sanctuaries and rehoming organisations, which have led to dogs being spared from destruction, even in cases where they have breached existing contingent destruction orders.

Case Examples

COURT OF APPEAL CASES

R (Coulthard and ors) v SSEFRA: Samuel March acted pro-bono as junior counsel in a widely reported judicial review seeking to overturn the ban on XL Bully dogs. Samuel was instructed by Tuckers solicitors and was led by Cathy McGahey KC in both the Administrative Court and then the Court of Appeal. The case established that the SoS had breached her public sector equality duty when bringing in the ban.

HIGH COURT CASES

Fitzgerald v CPS [2024] EWHC 869 (Admin): Samuel March successfully stated a case to the High Court, quashing a DDO imposed by the Magistrates’ Court and upheld by the Crown Court. Samuel satisfied the High Court that the decision of the court below was so unreasonable that no reasonable person could have come to it. The case raised points of wider application concerning the approach to be taken to undisputed expert evidence in Dangerous Dogs Act cases.

CROWN COURT CASES

R v C: Samuel March represented a defendant who was acquitted, following a jury trial, of three aggravated Dangerous Dogs Act offences. The defendant was the owner of a dog that had jumped up on and allegedly nipped three officers, causing light scratches. Samuel pursued an unprecedented point of law, and persuaded the judge to direct the jury that an “injury” “must be more than transient and trifling”.

R v J: Samuel March represented a defendant who was acquitted, following a jury trial, of an aggravated Dangerous Dogs Act offence. The Defendant’s dog had bitten a postman on his driveway. The Defendant gave evidence that a gas engineer had left the front door ajar, and that when J ran out to intervene, the postman had foolishly grabbed him and used him as a human shield, which had prevented him from grabbing his own dog. The case involved a lengthy legal argument on causation and new intervening acts in Dangerous Dogs Act cases.

R v M: Samuel March represented an award-winning security dog handler who was acquitted, following a jury trial, of two aggravated Dangerous Dogs Act offences. The case turned on whether her dog had bitten the complainants, or whether they might have been injured by their own XL Bully whilst separating a dog fight, caused by their own failure to keep their dog under control. The case involved evidence from a forensic dentist.

MAGISTRATES COURT CASES

R v X 2026 Harriet Snookes defended in a matter brought under the Dangerous Dogs Act, where the dog in question had severely attacked and injured two people, both of whom required extensive hospital treatment. During the expert assessment of the dog whilst in police custody, the dog then tried to bite the defence expert. Despite the police and Crown Prosecution Service seeking an automatic destruction of the dog, Harriet was able to convince the Magistrates that the dog was able to come home under a Contingent Destruction Order.

RSPCA v C: Samuel March represented a vulnerable man acquitted of causing unnecessary suffering to a horse. Following the service of the defence evidence, the RSPCA reviewed the case and agreed to offer no evidence.

R v H: Samuel March persuaded the court to impose a community order and no DDO in the sad case of a vulnerable lady who lost control of a recently adopted (and fraudulently mis-sold) Doberman whilst taking her dead guinea pig to be cremated. Despite two people having been injured, Samuel was able to evidence to the court the tragedy of errors and unfortunate circumstances that preceded the incident. (See The Times, 04 September 2023, Dog-attack owner lost control of animal at guinea pig funeral)

News