On Friday morning, while out on my habitual walk, I was bitten by a dog: a big, black mastiff. It was in the company of its owners and its leash was being held by the female. The male was walking beside them.

As I walked past them, making no attempt to touch the dog, it suddenly barked and lunged at me, and being too strong for the woman dragged her a step or two towards me. It bit my hand, digging one fang fairly deeply into the palm and its sharp teeth making scratches on the back of my wrist, all of which drew blood. Fortunately no wrist veins were pierced.

Had a child been walking past instead of me, it could easily have been grabbed by the throat. At no time did the owners apologise, let alone try to help me. Indeed, all they wanted to do was get away from me as fast as they could before I could recover from the shock.

In decades spent abroad, I have never been bitten by a dog even though I was in close proximity to them. Since my return to Malta, this is the second time. I deduce from this that dogs on these islands are not properly trained by their owners, who fail miserably in some cases to shoulder the responsibilities of owning one. Neither are the owners, accompanied by their canine friends, obliged to attend a dogs’ school for all to be trained in proper dog handling and behaviour towards other people.

The government has recently introduced legislation with regard to permissible canine swimming and walking areas. I think it is much more important for the authorities to introduce legislation to force dog owners to muzzle their dogs while outdoors. It is a dangerous practice to allow the animals their full biting capacity.

The law should also stipulate that any dog seen outdoors without a muzzle would be impounded by specialist dog catchers. When microchipping is fully operational, the owners, who could easily be traced if the dog were caught roaming about unaccompanied, should be appropriately fined for their recklessness and made to pay an extra charge to have it back.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.