On May 15, 2005, my little dog Sophi was killed in a totally unprovoked attack by a pit bull that was trained to fight. I tried to get a muzzle law started here, not because I blame the breed, far from it, I blame the owner who trained this dog to be a fighter. Unfortunately, these dogs do pack a horrific bite, however not all of them are trained to be fighters. I too have a pit bull/German shepherd cross that is a total softy. He shares our home with a chihuahua, a dalmatian, a cat and my three-year-old daughter. He even shared the house with Sophi when she was alive.

However, if he did have to bite it would definitely be a bite that would hurt, maim or kill. So I believe that muzzling (humanely, as there are muzzles and then there are muzzles) him while out and about is the safest thing, not because I think he's a dangerous dog but because I know that he has the pit bull bite and that can be a very dangerous thing.

I stress that I believe it is the irresponsible owners who make these dogs fighting machines, however, truth be told, a pit bull bite can in no way be compared to a poodle or a dachshund bite and this is why I support muzzling. An online poll by The Times back in 2005, when Sophi and other pets' stories were made public, showed that 97 per cent agreed with muzzling and various MPs expressed an interest in taking up the matter in Parliament but, although one specific MP pretended to be very interested publicly, in reality this never came through probably because he was only interested in the hype that was generated by Sophi's death.

The tragedy of Sophi's death was a direct result of a dangerous owner; a muzzling law would have prevented her death and the deaths of many other much-loved pets.