From midnight tonight, it will become an offence - punishable by up to 30 years in prison - to walk a dog in a public place. The Home Secretary said it was a well-known tactic of predators to use a puppy as a pretence for abducting children for the purposes of the vilest forms of sexual gratification. Better to keep all dog-walkers off the streets than risk a repeat of what happened to Sarah and Maddie