Dogs are not the problem, people who own dogs are the problem - Vladimir McTavish

A few years ago, I was running down Comely Bank Avenue wearing a head torch and a luminous jacket. I could not have been more visible in broad daylight.

An exceedingly dozy dog-walker, who was texting on her phone while dawdling at the foot of the street was also holding an invisible lead attached to a dog which at the time was on Comely Bank Road which is in another postcode. I didn’t see the lead, tripped over it and fell into traffic. She didn’t even notice as she was still texting. I say she was texting, I’m guessing it’s possible she was on Tinder, in which case I feel eternally sorry for any poor bloke who might have ended up on a date with her. I can picture the poor guy tripping over her dog lead and plunging to his death off the Dean Bridge while his date was on Queensferry Road face-timing her mum or ordering a takeaway on Deliveroo.

Anyway, the reason I mention this is because of the furore about dangerous dogs, like American bully XLs, following the attack on a young girl last week. Suella Braverman wants the breed to be banned. Which is hardly surprising. Her plan B is doubtless to fly them off to Rwanda

The problem is not dogs, it’s dog owners. Lots of the people who own dogs like American bully XLs do so to use those dogs as weapons, but that should not demonise the breed itself. Let’s also not forget that humans routinely carry out acts of insane cruelty on dogs. Just last week, a guy in Glasgow was convicted of killing a chihuahua by striking it on the head with a hatchet.

Dogs are not the problem. People who own dogs are the problem. Having said that, I can think of one aggressive attack dog which I would like to see banned. Her name is Suella Braverman.