2022/25009 - number of dog attacks last six months
REQUEST
1) How many dangerous dogs were seized from their owners in the last six months (from September 1, 2021, to February 28, 2022) by Gwent Police? Can you specify what streets/areas those dogs were seized from?
2) How many dog-attacks on (a) other dogs, (b) livestock, (c) children/young people under the age of 18 and (d) adults over 18, were reported to Gwent Police in the last six months (from September 1, 2021, to February 28, 2022)?
3) How many dogs were destroyed by Gwent Police following an incident in the last six months (from September 1, 2021, to February 28, 2022)?
RESPONSE
1) How many dangerous dogs were seized from their owners in the last six months (from September 1, 2021, to February 28, 2022) by Gwent Police? Can you specify what streets/areas those dogs were seized from?
To capture this information, we have conducted a keyword search of 'dangerous dog', 'dog seized', 'seized dog' and 'seize dog', on our systems for the dates given. We have then manually checked each record to capture if the dog has been seized which has given us a result of two incidents where the police have seized under the dangerous dog’s act.
Due to the low number of incidents where dogs have been seized by the police, it is not possible to provide any further details, as this could potentially identify victims/offenders along with other information already available in the public domain.
Section 40(2) Personal Information
The exemption applicable to the information you have requested for this question can be found at Section 40(2) Personal Information, of the Act and this refusal notice is issued under Section 17.
Gwent Police is withholding the information you have requested on the basis that the exemption contained in s 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act applies in that the information you have requested is personal data of third parties and the disclosure of the data would breach one of the principles contained in the Data Protection Act. The relevant principle is the first principle which states that:
Personal data shall be processed fairly and lawfully and in particular shall not be processed unless –
(a) at least one of the conditions in Schedule 2 is met and
(b) in the case of sensitive personal data, at least one of the conditions in Schedule 3 is met
It is only necessary to consider (a) in respect of the information requested. The relevant condition in Schedule 2 is condition 6 which states that:
"The processing is necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by the data controller or by the third party or parties to whom the data are disclosed, except where the processing is unwarranted in any particular case by reason of prejudice to the rights and freedoms or legitimate interests of the data subject"
2) How many dog-attacks on (a) other dogs, (b) livestock, (c) children/young people under the age of 18 and (d) adults over 18, were reported to Gwent Police in the last six months (from September 1, 2021, to February 28, 2022)?
The below table is a breakdown of the victims that were attacked by a dog between the 1st of September 2021 and the 28th of February 2022. Please note the information captured is based on a keyword search of ‘dangerous dog’, 'dog attack', 'dogs attack', 'attacked by dog' and 'attacked by a dog'.
3) How many dogs were destroyed by Gwent Police following an incident in the last six months (from September 1, 2021, to February 28, 2022)?
To capture this information a keyword search of ‘dog destroyed’, ‘dogs destroyed’ and ‘destroyed dog’ has been searched on our systems for the dates given. However, the keyword search returned no results.