Kristi Grayston the president of the Bermuda All Breed Club has told The Royal Gazette that not all dog clubs were contacted about Government's ban on certain breeds of dogs.

Ms Grayston was responding to an article in The Royal Gazette on Saturday, which stated that the SPCA chairman Andrew Maderios and dog lovers had hit out at Government's announcement that it planned to ban dangerous breeds of dogs from today.

"Neither the Bermuda Kennel Club nor the Bermuda All Breed Club were contacted regarding the meeting," said Ms Gayston.

"No clubs were in agreement with this policy."

She said the Dog Committee Report from 2001 was requested by Government, for all concerned parties to put forth their best suggestions.

"A great deal of time and thought went into this report and I find it hard to believe that it was so easily dismissed," said Ms Grayston.

On page 14 of the report, the committee had recommended that the Government "should not ban specific breeds, but should punish the owners, not the breed of dog".

She added: "Any dog can be vicious and the fault lies normally with the owner and not the breed."

In an earlier article, Environment Minister Dennis Lister had announced that from today Monday, his Ministry would no longer issue breeding licences or import permits for dogs that it deemed potentially dangerous, including Pit Bulls, Staffordshire Terriers, several of the Mastiff breeds, Australian Dingoes and Akitas, or crossbreeds.

The Minister had also said that although no fatal incident had yet occurred in Bermuda, tragic incidents had happened overseas and therefore Bermuda was taking action.

However, he had claimed he had met with representatives of the Island's dog clubs and they were happy and supportive of the policy changes coming into effect.

But Dr. Madeiros said, there was a need for better communication among the dog community before the Government considered dog policies.