You asked
From the period of 1 January 2012 – 31 December 2017, I would like to know:
The total number of investigations and convictions under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, pertaining to dog fighting (i.e. causing a fight to take place, receiving money for a fight, publicising a fight, keeping or training an animal for the purposes of using it to fight, or any other related behaviour prohibited by the Animal Welfare Act).
Of these numbers, I would also like to know the gender breakdown of those being investigated and convicted due to some connection with dog fighting, and the breeds of dog involved.
We said
Thank you for your request relating to investigations and convictions under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
We do not hold the information you have requested as these offences are not included in the notifiable offence list which form the police recorded crime data we publish. Data on non-notifiable offences (those dealt with exclusively by the Magistrate’s Court) are primarily held by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). They are also primarily responsible for data on convictions and so may be better placed to answer your query. Their email address is statistics.enquiries@justice.gsi.gov.uk.
Offences where the owner or person in charge allowing a dog to be dangerously out of control in any place in England or Wales (whether or not a public place) injuring any person or assistance dog are included within ‘assault with injury’ in police recorded crime data. However, we cannot separately identify these offences.
We regret we are unable to assist you further. If you would like any crime related information in the future, feel free to contact CrimeStatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help.