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Please note that this information is correct as at 22 January 2025 and may be subject to change.
As with all publications of information by Essex Police, please note caveats may apply regarding the accuracy of data.
Dangerous Dog Incidents and Seizures of Dangerous Dogs 2019 to 2024
January 2019 to December 2024
Provides the following statistics relating to dangerous dog incidents, allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control offences, dogs seized and dogs destroyed:
Published Items - Dangerous Dogs | Essex Police
Notes
- Dangerous dog incident figures are available from January 2019 onwards. They are derived from investigations recorded on the STORM incident recording system and the Athena crime recording system. These are more comprehensive than offences recorded under the 008/21 Allowing a Dog to be Dangerously out of Control offence code.
- The incidents include dog-on-human attacks, dog-on-dog attacks and the fear or apprehension of being injured by a dog incidents.
- Dog breed information is only available for seized or destroyed dogs. Dog breed information is not available for the dogs believed to have been involved in dangerous dog incidents.
Numbers of Dangerous Dog Incidents - January 2019 to May 2024
Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 up to 31/05 |
Incidents | 729 | 945 | 1090 | 1356 | 1,452 | 800 |
Numbers of offences recorded under Home Office code 008/21 - April 2015 to June 2024
Year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
Number of Offences | 387 | 601 | 637 | 627 | 598 | 667 | 740 | 848 | 883 | 883 |
Numbers of Seized Dogs - January 2019 to June 2024
Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 up to 27/06 |
Seized Dogs | 66 | 95 | 91 | 105 | 177 | 144 |
Numbers of Seized Dogs by Recorded Breed - January 2019 to June 2024
Recorded Breed | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 up to 27/06 | Total |
Akita | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 8 |
Alano bulldog | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Alapaha blue blood bulldog | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Alphara | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Amedial | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Anatolian Sheph | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
American Bulldog (ABD) | 1 | 11 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 1 | 49 |
Beagle | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
Bichon Frise | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Boerboel | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Boxer | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 |
Bulldog | 0 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
Cane Corso | 1 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 27 |
Caucasian Shepherd | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Cavapoo | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Chow Chow | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Cockerpoo | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Collie | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
Dachshund | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
Doberman | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 11 |
Dog de Bordeaux | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 9 |
Dutch Herder | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
English Bulldog | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
English bull terrier | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
French bulldog | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 11 |
German Shep | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 13 |
Greyhound | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
GSD | 4 | 6 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 32 |
Huskey | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 11 |
Jack Russell | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
JRT | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
Labradoodle | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Labrador | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Lurcher | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 7 |
Malamute | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
Malinois | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 16 |
Mastiff | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 27 |
Patterdale | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
Pitbull | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 8 | 20 |
PBT | 10 | 10 | 11 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 35 |
Pocket Bully | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 |
Presa Canario | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
Pug | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Ridgeback | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Rotti | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 9 |
Rottweiler | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
SBT | 18 | 9 | 15 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 55 |
Shar-pei | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 |
Shih tzu | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Spaniel | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Sproker | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Staffy | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 9 | 30 |
Vizler | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Weimaraner | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
X Breed | 9 | 15 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 56 |
XL Bully | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 29 | 74 | 111 |
Yorkshire Terrier | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
Numbers of Seized Dogs that were Destroyed - January 2019 to June 2024
Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 up to 27/06 |
Dogs Destroyed | 34 | 33 | 52 | 55 | 89 | 54 |
Numbers of Seized Dogs that were Destroyed by Recorded Breed - January 2023 to June 2024
Recorded Breed | 2023 | 2024 up to 27/06 | Total |
ABD | 6 | 0 | 6 |
Akita | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Alphara | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Amedial | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Boerboel | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Cane Corso | 4 | 1 | 5 |
Chow Chow | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Cockerpoo | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Doberman | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Dog de Bordeaux | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Dutch Herder | 1 | 0 | 1 |
English Bulldog | 3 | 2 | 5 |
French Bulldog | 1 | 2 | 3 |
German Shep | 5 | 2 | 7 |
Huskey | 1 | 0 | 1 |
JRT | 0 | 2 | 2 |
Malamute | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Mali | 4 | 0 | 4 |
Mastiff | 6 | 3 | 9 |
Patterdale | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Pitbull | 4 | 2 | 6 |
Pocket Bully | 3 | 2 | 5 |
Presa | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Pug | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Rotti | 7 | 0 | 7 |
Shar-pei | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Shih tzu | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Spaniel | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Staffy | 8 | 3 | 11 |
X Breed | 5 | 0 | 5 |
XL Bully | 13 | 33 | 46 |
Yorkshire Terrier | 2 | 1 | 3 |
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.