Roshan Ram­char­i­tar

The Dog Con­trol Act 2013, as amend­ed by the Dog Con­trol (Amend­ment) Act 2014, has been par­tial­ly pro­claimed and in force since June 2, 2014.The Act seeks to pro­vide for the con­trol of dogs and to reg­u­late the man­ner in which cer­tain breeds of dogs are kept by their own­ers or keep­ers. It re­peals the Dan­ger­ous Dogs Act 2000.

The Act cat­e­goris­es dogs in­to 2 class­es. Six breeds are spec­i­fied as dan­ger­ous or class A dogs: the Amer­i­can Pit Bull Ter­ri­er, the Amer­i­can Stafford­shire Ter­ri­er, the Amer­i­can Bul­ly, the Do­go Ar­genti­no, the Japan­ese Tosa and the Fi­la Brasileiro. All oth­er dogs are clas­si­fied as Class B.

The sec­tions of the Act that have been pro­claimed and are cur­rent­ly in force are: Sec­tions 1 to 5, 5A, 8, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19 to 26, 26A, 28 and 30. They pro­vide, among oth­er things, that:

�2 Every per­son who owns or keeps a dog shall pro­vide it with ad­e­quate and ap­pro­pri­ate care, food, wa­ter, shel­ter, ex­er­cise, at­ten­tion and vet­eri­nary care as may be re­quired to meet the needs of the dog.

�2 No dog is al­lowed to en­ter a pub­lic space where a no­tice is dis­played pro­hibit­ing en­try to dogs un­less the dog is an as­sis­tance dog, or is be­ing used to se­cure the lo­ca­tion or by a per­son in the ser­vice of the State.

�2 Class A dogs shall be kept in the en­closed premis­es of its own­er or keep­er.

�2 It is an of­fence for any own­er or keep­er of a class A dog to aban­don that dog. A per­son who aban­dons their dog is li­able to a fine of fifty thou­sand dol­lars and to im­pris­on­ment for two years.

�2 The own­er or keep­er of a class A dog can be found li­able in civ­il pro­ceed­ings for any death, in­jury or dam­age caused by that dog.

�2 A per­son who owns a class A dog must dis­play a no­tice in a promi­nent place on his prop­er­ty warn­ing of a dan­ger­ous dog.

�2 The own­er or keep­er of any oth­er type of dog which has been dan­ger­ous­ly out of con­trol on at least one oc­ca­sion must al­so dis­play a no­tice in a promi­nent place warn­ing of a dan­ger­ous dog.

�2 The own­er or keep­er of a class A dog is li­able to: A fine of one hun­dred thou­sand dol­lars and to five years im­pris­on­ment if their dog un­rea­son­ably in­jures some­one; and a fine of two hun­dred thou­sand dol­lars and to ten years im­pris­on­ment if their dog un­rea­son­ably kills some­one.

�2 It is a crim­i­nal of­fence for a per­son to in­cite their dog to cause griev­ous bod­i­ly harm or death to an­oth­er per­son.

�2 The own­er or keep­er of a class A dog who is un­able to ful­fill the re­quire­ments of the Act may in­form the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment of such and the Min­istry will take pos­ses­sion of the dog.

�2 The Min­is­ter may de­clare any oth­er type of dog to be sub­ject to the same re­stric­tions as a Class A dog.

The Act al­so pro­vides re­quire­ments for reg­is­tra­tion, li­cens­ing, se­cur­ing of premis­es, and ob­tain­ing poli­cies of in­sur­ance for Class A dogs. These sec­tions and their sup­port­ing Reg­u­la­tions are not yet pro­claimed and are there­fore not in force at this time.