Dempsey (dog)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dempsey (c. 1986 - 2003) was a female American Pit Bull Terrier who was the subject of a high-profile challenge to the British Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. She was owned by Dianne Fanneran and lived in London.

While being walked one evening in April 1992, muzzled and kept on a lead in accordance with the law, she began acting sick and her muzzle was removed, allegedly to allow her to vomit.

Two passing police officers noted the unmuzzled dog, and charged the caretaker under the Dangerous Dogs Act. Three months later, at Ealing Magistrates' Court, Dempsey was ordered to be euthanised for failing to be muzzled in a public place.

Appeals took three years before the Crown Court, the High Court and the House of Lords, during which time the media began sensationalising the story, leading activist Brigitte Bardot to offer the dog sanctuary at her home in France, to avoid British law.

The case was dismissed in November 1995 on a legal technicality, since that Dempsey's owner — who had not been involved in, nor originally told about, the unmuzzling incident, had not been informed about prior to the convening of the first hearing.

Dempsey was reprieved, and died at the age of 17 in 2003.^{[citation needed]}