THE “root cause” of dog attacks are “irresponsible” owners as well as the “dangerous” animals themselves, a Senedd member from Gwent has warned.

The community of Penyrheol, in Caerphilly, was rocked by a third high-profile dog attack in less than two years last weekend, when a five-month-old baby was injured.

That incident follows fatal dog attacks on 10-year-old Jack Lis and 83-year-old Shirley Patrick in the same neighbourhood, in October 2021 and December 2022, respectively.

Peredur Owen Griffiths told the Senedd there needed to be a “pan-Wales approach” to tackling the issue of dangerous dogs, which must be “applied consistently throughout our country”.

Regarding the recent attack on the baby, Mr Griffiths said “my thoughts and prayers, and, I'm sure, the thoughts and prayers of everybody here, go out to that family at this difficult time”.

He added: “Only two days before this incident, Plaid Cymru councillor Steve Skivens hosted a meeting in Penyrheol to discuss the need to tackle the wave of serious dog attacks in the community.”

“During the meeting, it emerged from the police that there is an initiative that's taking place in the North Wales Police area to tackle dangerous dogs and irresponsible dog ownership, which is often the root cause of problems,” Mr Griffiths said. “This initiative has yet to be applied throughout Wales.”

Senedd trefnydd Lesley Griffiths said the parliament’s “thoughts are with the family of the five-month-old baby” after the “shocking” incident in Penyrheol.

“Clearly, there seems to be some sort of cluster, unfortunately, around the Caerphilly area,” she said.

Ms Griffiths said “a lot of the legislation around dangerous dogs is UK Government legislation” and she had tried to speak with UK ministers “about what we can do at a legislative level to try and improve that”.

“A lot of it isn't fit for purpose,” she added.

Regarding the scheme in North Wales, Ms Griffiths said it was “really important” that police forces “learn from each other around what we can do”.

“While there are lots of benefits to dog ownership… if we have irresponsible dog ownership, that's where we see these types of incidents,” she said. “So, it is something I keep under review, and I'd be very happy to make a statement, perhaps a bit more down the line, when we've got some further information.”