One hurdle to clear for dog-attack law
Published:Wednesday | November 18, 2020 | 12:21 AM
The Senate will now examine a bill that was passed in the House of Representatives on Tuesday proposing to hold dog owners criminally liable for animal attacks.
Seventeen amendments were made to the bill when members of the Lower House sat in committee.
In piloting the bill through the committee stage, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck said that under the proposed law, convicts would be fined for the offences as set out in the law.
Where they fail to pay the fine, they would be imprisoned.
The bill proposes fines ranging from $500,000 to $3 million, or imprisonment from six months to 15 years.
Among the amendments in the new bill was a change in the definition of ‘attack’ to delete the words “creates a reasonable apprehension of injury”. The phrase was replaced with “could reasonably be expected to result in injury had the person attacked or a third party (not being an owner of the dog) not acted to prevent the injury”.
There was also the deletion of the redefinition of ‘injury’ to make it clear that this meant harm to an individual, including death, disease, or any impairment of physical or mental condition. Injuries to livestock and to domestic pets are also covered.
On Sunday, a pack of dogs mauled a five-year-old, leaving him with bites all over his body. Mickele Allen, who will need extensive plastic surgery, has been transferred to the Bustamante Hospital for Children in Kingston.