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Abstract We present a first criminological insight into the Act (2007:1150) on the supervision of dogs and cats in terms of reporting and prosecution statistics, against the background of statistics on authority decisions based on this law, appeals of authority decisions and statistics from Folksam and the central dog register of the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The number of prosecutions under the Supervision Act in the district courts is 30-46 prosecutions per year between 2004 and 2021. Women account for 65% of dog ownership and for 42% of offenses against the Supervision Act. The proportion of reports received that led to a decision by the County Administrative Boards varied from zero to approx. 30% in 2020 and 2021. Of the 13 persons who died due to dog-related injuries 1998-2021 seven were women, in the age groups 45 and older, while of 6 180 patients who required inpatient care for dog-related injuries 2001-2021 made up 648 children of 0-4 years old. Introduction of the current Supervision Act in 2008 resulted in an increased load on administrative courts, while criminal cases in the district courts have been at about the same level as before. Transfer of responsibility for the Supervision Act from the Swedish Police Authority to the County Administrative Boards in 2018 increased the workload of the administrative courts even more. The criminal cases that are settled in the district courts no longer deal with first-time incidents where bite-prone dogs have caused property or personal damage or considerable inconvenience, but recurrences where society already had intervened through authority decisions, reflecting ineffectiveness of authority decisions based on the law. Not to criminalize Section 1 of the Supervision Act and transfer of responsibility for the law from the Swedish Police Authority to the County Admi- ESSAY nistrative boards have reduced the burden on the Police Authority and the district courts at the expense of an increased burden on the County Administrative boards and the administrative courts. The question is what, from a socio-economic perspective, is the best solution to approach the problem of dangerous dogs.

The aim of this article is to show difficulties arising when courts judge the negligence of dog owners in absence of precise legislation and typical precedents. We analyze the elements of a crime in two cases where children were objects of canine aggression, and show how the courts constructed the issue of dog owners’ negligence. In Case 1 the Court of Appeal found that a foster parent was not negligent when leaving a boy with specific needs alone with a heavily built dog that then repeatedly bit the boy to death despite the owners attempt to pull away the dog. The court also ignored the signs of substandard animal husbandry including previous severe incidents where the dog owner also was injured. In Case 2, the Court of Appeal instead found that the breed of the dog also matter, and that not even adult presence is enough to protect a child from dog attack. Because both the child and the dog could behave unpredictably, continuous observation and supervision was required. In both cases, measures to prevent the incident were available and would have been easy to carry out.

Simple Summary: The use of research animals is regulated within the EU through Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes, as well as through national legislations and guidelines. However, the ethical review process, which all animal research must undergo, has been heavily criticized. This pilot study has analyzed the ethical review process in Sweden, focusing on how well legislative demands are fulfilled by researchers and animal ethics committees. After developing a score sheet, 18 documents (including both applications and decisions) were thoroughly reviewed, and the requests in the application form were compared to legal demands. The results revealed a number of issues concerning how HBA (harm–benefit analysis) was conducted by the committees, application, and review of the 3Rs (Replace, Reduce, Refine), as well as how humane end-points, severity assessment, and the "upper limit" of suffering were implemented and assessed. The study further indicates disconcerting discrepancies between the Swedish application forms for project evaluation, national legislation, and the directive as well as a lack of transparency throughout the review process. These findings risk compliance with the directive, animal welfare, research validity, and public trust. Therefore, a number of suggestions for improvements are provided, and the need for further research is emphasized. The use of animals in research entails a range of societal and ethical issues, and there is widespread consensus that animals are to be kept safe from unnecessary suffering. Therefore, harm done to animals in the name of research has to be carefully regulated and undergo ethical review for approval. Since 2013, this has been enforced within the European Union through Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes. However, critics argue that the directive and its implementation by member states do not properly consider all aspects of animal welfare, which risks causing unnecessary animal suffering and decreased public trust in the system. In this pilot study, the ethical review process in Sweden was investigated to determine whether or not the system is in fact flawed, and if so, what may be the underlying cause of this. Through in-depth analysis of 18 applications and decisions of ethical reviews, we found that there are recurring problems within the ethical review process in Sweden. Discrepancies between demands set by legislation and the structure of the application form lead to submitted information being incomplete by design. In turn, this prevents the Animal Ethics Committees from being able to fulfill their task of performing a harm–benefit analysis and ensuring Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement (the 3Rs). Results further showed that a significant number of applications failed to meet legal requirements regarding content. Similarly, no Animal Ethics Committee decision contained any account of evaluation of the 3Rs and a majority failed to include harm–benefit analysis as required by law. Hence, the welfare may be at risk, as well as the fulfilling of the legal requirement of only approving "necessary suffering". We argue that the results show an unacceptably low level of compliance in the investigated applications with the legal requirement of performing both a harm–benefit analysis and applying the 3Rs within the decision-making process, and that by implication, public insight through transparency is not achieved in these cases. In order to improve the ethical review, the process needs to be restructured, and the legal demands put on both the applicants and the Animal Ethics Committees as such need to be made clear. We further propose a number of improvements, including a revision of the application form. We also encourage future research to further investigate and address issues unearthed by this pilot study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]