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   The text of this Internet version of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1989
(c. 30) has been prepared to reflect the text as it received the
Royal Assent.
   The authoritative version is the Queen's Printer copy published by
The Stationary Office Limited as the Dangerous Dogs Act 1989 (c.30),
ISBN 0105430897.

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   1.--(1) Where a magistrate's court makes an order under section 2 of the
[1871 c.56] Dogs Act 1871 directing a dog to be destroyed it may also--

      (a) appoint a person to undertake its destruction and require any person
having custody of the dog to deliver it up for that purpose; and

      (b) if it thinks fit, make an order disqualifying the owner for having
custody of the dog for such period as is specified in the order.

   (2) An appeal shall lie to the Crown Court against any order under section 2
of that Act or under subsection (1) above; and, unless the owner of a dog
which is ordered to be delivered up and destroyed gives notice to the court that made the order that he does not intend to appeal against it, the dog shall not be
destroyed pursuant to the order--

      (a) until the end of the period within which notice of appeal to the Crown
Court against the order can be given; and

      (b) if notice of appeal is given within that period, until the appeal is
determined or withdrawn.

   (3) Any person who fails to comply with an order under section (2) of the
said Act of 1871 to keep a dog under proper control or to deliver a dog up
for destruction as required by an order under subsection (1)(a) above is
guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding
level 3 on the standard scale and the court may, in addition, make an order
disqualifying him from having custody of a dog for such period as is specified
in the order.

   (4) A person who is disqualified for having custody of a dog by virtue of an
order made under subsection (1)(b) or (3) above may, at any time after the
end of the period of one year beginning with the date of the order, apply to
the court that made it (or any magistrates' court acting for the same petty
sessions area as that court) for a direction terminating the disqualification.

   (5) On application under subsection (4) above the court may--

      (a) having regard to the applicant's character, his conduct since the
disqualification was imposed and any other circumstances of the case,
grant or refuse the application; and

      (b) order the applicant to pay all or any part of the costs of the application;

and where an application in respect of an order is refused no further application
in respect of that order shall be entertained if made before the end of the period
of one year beginning with the date of the refusal.

   (6) Any person who has custody of a dog in contravention of an order made
under subsection (1)(b) or (3) above is guilty of an offence and liable on
summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

   (7) This section shall apply to Scotland subject to the following adaptations--

      (a) in subsection for the words "magistrates' court" there shall be
substituted the words "court of summary jurisdiction"

      (b) in subsection (2)--
               (i) for the words "shall lie to the Crown Court" there shall be
substituted the words "may be made to the High Court within a period
of 7 days commencing with the date of the order"
               (ii) for paragraph (a) there shall be substituted

                          "(a) until the end of the said period of 7 days; and"

      (c) in subsection (4) the words "(or any magistrates' court acting for the
      same petty sessions area as that court)" shall be omitted.

   2.--(1) This Act may be cited as the Dangerous Dogs Act 1989.

   (2) In section 5 of the [1871 c. 56] Dogs Act 1871 for the definition of
"court of summary jurisdiction" there shall be substituted--

             ""court of summary jurisdiction" as regards Scotland has the same
meaning as in section 462 of the[1975 c. 21] Criminal Procedure (Scotland)
Act 1975"

   (3) The following provisions (which are superseded by this Act or otherwise
spent) are hereby repealed--

      (a) in the Dogs Act 1871, in section 2, the words from "and any person
failing to comply" onwards, section 4 and in section 6 the words "in the
eighteenth section of the Metropolitan Streets Act 1876, or"

      (b) the [1938 c. 21] Dogs (Amendment) Act 1938.

   (4) This Act shall come into force at the end of the period of one month
beginning with the day on which it is passed and does not effect the said Acts
of 1871 and 1938 in any relation to any complaint made before the coming
into force of this Act.

   (5) This Act does not extend to Northern Ireland.