Lest We Forget: The Dangerous Dogs Act was rushed through Parliament and passed as law in 1991. Thousands of dog owners were left in sheer panic trying to bring their pets within the restrictions of the law in order to save them before the deadline expired. This time of year eighteen years ago, there was just four weeks left to comply and mass confusion over the wording and application of a law ordinary pet owners mainly did not understand and still don't today. This time of year eighteen years ago, the lights went out; BSL had arrived and Mark Amston lost his beloved dog and then took his own life the following day, he was just twenty years old:

News-1991 following the introduction of the Dangerous Dogs Act:

Tragic Suicide After Pet Dog Is Destroyed:

Mark Amston, aged 20 years, committed suicide in 1991 the day after he had his own dog, a pit bull terrier, destroyed, he had failed to get the compulsory insurance.The pit bull terrier ‘Sandy’ had been brought as a six week old puppy in March 1991 before the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 was introduced.

The death of Mark Amston was investigated by Coroner Mr Dewi Pritchard Jones, the inquest heard that dog owner Mark had been worried as he had failed to get the compulsory insurance for his dog under the restrictions introduced in 1991, the coroner Mr Jones said that Mr Amston’s position changed from having a family pet to being the owner of something which in the eyes of the law was dangerous and had to be controlled, Mark Amston had his dog put down and the following day he hanged himself. The Coroner said:

 “In this case it was a family pet that had to be put down, not a fierce animal. There was no evidence that this dog was fierce. I think the lesson from this death is that legislation should be based on reason and not on panic.”

Mrs Christine Amston, Mark’s mother said that the dog had been brought as a puppy before the new regulations came into force and that the family had no idea her son had been planning to have the dog put down or, after he had, that he was planning to take his own life.

Mark’s Amston’s seventeen year old sister found him hanging from an attic doorway at the top of the stairs the day after Sandy the dog was destroyed.

Coroner Mr Jones said that the death of Mark Amston, aged 20, from Caernarfon, was “a consequence of legislation rushed out and not properly thought out”.

He also said that it was obvious that the Government had been pushed into an action by a press campaign which had highlighted dog biting incidents, however trivial and “all of a sudden this family pet became a dangerous weapon, you might say, subject to controls and compulsory insurance, as if one were in possession of a lethal weapon”.

Mr Jones said that Mr Amston had left a note and it showed that he was closely attached to the dog and had decided to die with him. The note had simply read:

 “Goodbye; me and Sandy will be together for ever.

Me and Sandy will never be parted again.”

Information on the Dangerous Dogs Act - HERE