Ms Nanci Creedon:

Quite often, a change in dog’s behaviour is usually down to a medical issue. If someone comes to me and says that their dog has always been XYZ, he is five, this has changed and there is no obvious cause, the first check is to the vet to make sure there is nothing going on with the dog medically. When we talk about dogs biting out of the blue or that a dog has never bitten before but suddenly went savage or badly mauled a child, we need those data. I need to be able to answer that question and I cannot because we do not have the data. We do not have that information. We can quite easily get it by asking the right questions and gathering that information from the witnesses and the victim potentially. I can then give the Deputy a good answer to that and we could learn from that answer.