Animals Attacked in Eridge - Time for Dog Licences?

After a horse was attacked and three sheep killed over night at Sham Farm in Eridge, there's been a warning to watch out for dangerous dogs.

The attack happened over night with no witnesses, however  the vet that tended to the injured horse attributed the bite wound to a large dog.  With no specific dog in the frame no-one knows if the culprit is a loose dog, a stray or if the attack was purposefully perpetrated.  There's also been the suggestion of it being a poacher's dog (but surely when committing crime under cover of darkness, stealth is key and a would-be poacher would be somewhat foolish to take along an uncontrollable sheep-chasing dog?)

This news has come in the same week that the RSPCA has called for a re-introduction of dog licences.  Abolished in 1987 when the fee was 37.5p for a year, the RSPCA's report has suggested an annual fee of £20 - £30 would raise £104.7 million annually.  According to David Bowles, RSPCA Director of Communications,  "a dog licence would raise money which could be targeted into improving enforcement of laws at a local level, improve the welfare of dogs, and reverse the use of certain breeds of dogs as a status symbol or weapon."

But as one local resident put it, "so the good dog owners like you and me go and pay their £20 while the other sort don't bother.  How are they going to enforce it, just get a dog warden to give them a warning and tell them to go and get one which they won't do anyway?"

Is paying £21.50 really going to change a violent dog owner's  or unscrupulous breeder's attitude? What do you think?