Dogs (Amendment) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011

Attacks on persons N.I.

7   For Article 29 of the Dogs Order (attacks on persons and worrying livestock) substitute—

“Attacks on persons

29— (1) Any person who sets a dog on any other person is guilty of an offence or, if the dog injures the person attacked, an aggravated offence under this paragraph.

(2)  If a dog attacks any person, then—

(a) the keeper of the dog; and

(b) if it is in the charge of a person other than its keeper, that person,

is guilty of an offence or, if the dog injures the person attacked, an aggravated offence under this paragraph.

(3) A person guilty of an offence under paragraph (1) or (2) other than an aggravated offence is liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to both.

(4) A person guilty of an aggravated offence under paragraph (1) or (2) is liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or to both;

(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to a fine or to both.

(5) This Article does not apply to a dog while being used—

(a) for police purposes;

(b) for such other purposes as the Department may by order specify.

(6) A person is not guilty of an offence under this Article if at the material time—

(a) the person set on or attacked is trespassing on land; and

(b) the dog is—

(i) kept by, or in the charge of, the occupier of that land; or

(ii) in the charge of a person authorised by the occupier to remove that person from that land.

(7) The keeper of a dog shall not be convicted of an offence under paragraph (2) if he shows that at the material time the dog was in the charge of some other person whom he reasonably believed to be a fit and proper person to be in charge of the dog.”.