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© Dominic Lipinski/PA A pitbull. The HSCIC data showed a 6.5% year-on-year increase in the number of people requiring inpatient treatment for injuries inflicted by dogs.
Hospital admissions for injuries caused by dogs have risen by 76% in England over the past 10 years, according to official statistics.

The news has reignited the debate over whether enough is being done to tackle irresponsible owners and to protect the public.

In the 12 months from March 2014 to February this year, there were 7,227 admissions for dog bites or attacks, 6.5% up on the previous 12 months and compared with 4,110 in the equivalent period a decade ago, according to hospital episode statistics published on Thursday.

A number of high-profile deaths attributable to dogs - there have been at least 21 fatalities, including 13 children or babies, over the last 10 years - have led to a toughening up of the law, increasing the liability of owners and the potential punishments they face.

But the Dogs Trust, the UK's largest dog welfare charity, said more needed to be done to prevent tragedies happening in the first place.

Trevor Cooper, the charity's law specialist, said: "Dogs Trust remains frustrated that legislation focusing on issues around dangerous dogs and dog attacks remains ineffective at preventing these incidents happening in the first place.

"Dogs Trust is focused on preventive measures that keep children and adults safe around dogs."

Children aged under 10 were most likely to be admitted to hospital after being attacked by a dog, with 1,159 requiring inpatient treatment, equivalent to 17.6 per 100,000.

Females were more likely to be admitted than males, except among the under-10s. Children suffered more injuries to their heads than other age groups where the main injuries were to the hands and wrists. About half of all admissions required plastic surgery.

High-profile cases such as that of 11 month-old Ava-Jayne Corless, who died in February last year after being mauled by a pit bull terrier-type dog as she slept in Blackburn, have led to a raft of measures aimed at tackling dangerous dogs.

In May last year, the maximum sentence in England and Wales under the Dangerous Dogs Act (DDA) for allowing a dog to fatally attack someone increased from two years to 14 years, with the maximum term when injury is inflicted raised from two years to five.

The DDA was also changed to permit prosecutions for dog attacks on private property.

Also last year, laws were introduced to enable police, council officials and social housing landlords to issue community protection notices, or "dogbos", to force the owners of nuisance animals to take steps to control their behaviour.

In theory the latter measures should help prevent attacks. But the Dogs Trust said there was little evidence of the dogbo being widely utilised so far. The charity's head of public affairs said: "From what we are hearing, it's not being used or it's not being used properly."

Veterinary charity the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) also said prevention was key.

A spokeswoman said: "Careful socialisation and training of puppies when young is vital to ensure well-rounded and confident adult dogs, rather than those displaying problem behaviours and aggression in later life. Ensuring pet owners fully understand their pet's needs is crucial.

"It is also important that young children are aware of how to behave safely around pets, and to ensure they are never left unattended with dogs."

There were wide regional variations in hospital admissions for dog bites or attacks, with the highest rate in Merseyside (27 per 100,000 people) and the lowest in Kent and Medway (7.3 per 100,000), although these figures may reflect regional variations in dog ownership, according to the government's Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC).

The rate of admissions for dog bites was between two and three times as high for the most deprived areas (1,251 admissions, 24.4 per 100,000 population) as for the least deprived areas (448 admissions, 8.5 per 100,000).

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) pointed to the changes to the law made last year, adding: "Any dog can become dangerous if it is brought up in the wrong environment and we are working with vets, animal welfare and owner groups to promote dog welfare and responsible ownership.

"Changes to the DDA introduced last year have enabled the police and local councils to take stronger action and we are working closely with them on enforcement issues such as giving warning notices to owners if their dogs are not under proper control in a public place or on private property."

Recent deaths caused by dogs have included:

Jade Anderson, 14 - Jade suffered horrific injuries "from head to toe" after being attacked by two bull mastiffs and two Staffordshire bull terriers while alone at a friend's house in Wigan, Greater Manchester, in March 2013.

No prosecution could be brought under the DDA at the time because the dogs were not banned breeds and were not out of control in a public place.

Clifford Clarke, 79 - Clarke was attacked in his garden in Clubmoor, Liverpool by his next-door neighbour's Presa Canario crossbreed dog, which had not been fed for 45 hours, in May 2013.

Sentencing Clarke's neighbours - Hayley Sulley, 30, and Della Woods, 29 - to a year each in jail, Judge Mark Brown said Clarke' was "literally eaten alive".

Lexi Branson, 4 - Lexi was mauled by her family's pet bulldog at her mother's flat in Mountsorrel, Leicestershire in November 2013.

Her mother, Jodi Hudson, was forced to stab the rescue dog, which had been with the family for just two months, with a kitchen knife in an attempt to save her daughter and halt the sustained attack.

Emma Bennett, 27 - Bennett was pregnant when attacked by the family's two pitbull-type dogs at her home in Leeds in December 2013. She suffered severe injuries to her face and head.

Her partner, Lee Horner, 34, was given a community order and told to do 280 hours of unpaid work after admitting that he owned dogs prohibited by the DDA.

Eliza-Mae Mullane, 6 days - Eliza was killed when she was snatched from her pram by her family's pet dog at their home in Pontyberem, near Llanelli in south Wales in February last year and suffered serious head injuries.

The family had two dogs - a husky-like Alaskan malamute and a terrier - but it was not disclosed which was responsible. Neither had caused any problems previously and a coroner judged the death to be an accident.