I HAVE never been able to understand why, when faced with a massive variety of dogs, people choose the snarling, potentially dangerous varieties.

And what then annoys me is the way in which their owners argue vigorously about how soft the dogs really are, and how they wouldn't hurt a fly.

How do they really ever know?

Even more infuriating, to prove a point, they allow these "pets" to wander without leads, or in the presence of children.

Their baffling preference for potentially dangerous dog breeds should never be forced on passers by.

And in recent cases both on the royal stage and closer to home, innocent strangers have paid the all too serious price.