Science, rather than politics, is needed for progress

doi:10.1136/bmj.39143.012558.1F

BMJ 2007;334:489 (10 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39143.012558.1F

Letters

Dog bites

Science, rather than politics, is needed for progress

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

It is a shame that in the UK, in contrast to some other Europeancountries, it is increasingly difficult for owners fully toincorporate their dogs into their lives, as "No dogs allowed"seems to have become the norm. As a result people do not understandnormal canine behaviour and we must seek to educate them accordingly.In addition to the Blue Dog programme mentioned by Besser,¹the Canine Commandments by Kendal Shepherd (who is also developingan educational package compatible with requirements within thenational curriculum in personal, social and health educationfor older children) is being supported by the Association forthe Study of Animal Behaviour.²

Further research and funding for such initiatives is needed.At present there is a dearth of knowledge concerning the circumstancesof most attacks, simply because we don't ask the right questions.With this in mind, I propose an initial scoping meeting to . . . [Full text of this article]

Daniel S Mills

University of Lincoln, Lincoln LN2 2LG

dmills@lincoln.ac.uk