NEW laws mean ant-isocial dog owners can now be fined up to £20,000.

Frankly, we are unimpressed.

A potential fine of up to £20,000 is no more meaningful than a potential fine of £200,000 or £2m without clear motivation among officials to come down hard on the guilty.

One of the stories we tell today is that of the Mills family from Gorse Hill who suffered a dog attack in August.

As Mr Mills told us: “My wife got attacked, as well as my dog, and my daughter was there at the time, but the police have never come back and updated us.

“You can bring in all the fines in the world, but things will go awry if they are not enforced.”

No reasonable person can possibly disagree with this assessment.

The average dog owner is a decent, responsible human being who exercises immense diligence in training and socialising their animal, be it a miniature breed or a much larger and stronger one.

Unfortunately, a small minority of owners are anything but diligent human beings or even half-decent human beings.

Unsurprisingly, these feral people have feral dogs.

The only way of dealing with the problem, and protecting the innocent from harm, is to make the guilty suffer such harsh penalties that they dare not offend again – and other potential offenders are deterred.

Without proper application by the judiciary, the new laws will become as much of a laughing stock among their intended targets as ASBOs.