Health and Environment Minister Trevor Moniz has no plans to take pit bulls off the prohibited breeds list, despite a recommendation from dog experts to do just that.

The Canine Advisory Committee advised his predecessor Sylvan Richards to take the majority of breeds off the banned list and place them on a managed restricted list — and Mr Richards publicly described that as a “very good policy” which would “take care of a lot of the issues we have right now”.

But a spokeswoman for Mr Moniz told The Royal Gazette yesterday: “I can advise you that the Minister will leave the current policy in place right now and that there is no short-term plan to remove pit bulls from the list.”

Opposition leader and former Environment Minister Marc Bean, who sparked controversy in 2012 when he told a radio station he was willing to take pit bulls off the banned list, yesterday urged the Minister to take a good look at the recommendation.

“It’s not a political issue, where I am going to criticise the Government for whatever decisions they make,” he said. “But to make their lives easier, I think it would be important to look at the recommendations and seek to implement them and, if need be, have public consultation around them.

“If not, you are going to be facing the same issues time and time again. The numbers show that there are actually more unlicensed pit bulls ... than licensed. That has occurred since the ban was put in place [in 2001].

“The ban has proven to be counterproductive in its original intent. That’s why it’s important to take a serious look at it and not just focus on the pit bill. We have other breeds considered by many to be dangerous. It’s [about finding] a balance.”

Mr Moniz has yet to meet with the Canine Advisory Committee and has not been given a formal, written recommendation to consider.

But Mr Richards said in December that he informed his successor of the outcome of a seven-month review conducted by the committee and encouraged him to “continue with that”.

We called Mr Richards for comment yesterday but the call got cut off and he didn’t respond to a further voicemail message.

Glenn Doers, chairman of the Canine Advisory Committee, said: “I can confirm that the Minister has not, to date, received anything from us on a recommendation because we have not had a meeting to date. We are waiting for the Minister to contact us for a meeting.”

Mr Richards and the Premier are both believed to have asked Mr Moniz to meet with the committee. But it is understood the Minister has put the issue of dangerous dogs on the back burner until May, due to his workload.

A source said the committee would like to meet sooner. “At the end of the day, the volunteer committee has spent a lot of time working on this project. It came up with a solution and got the former Minister to agree verbally — to do a 360 degree turn.

“The committee wasn’t able to submit its report because the Minister changed. In the meantime, we are still killing dogs. The thing about it is, dogs aren’t the problem. People are the problem. We had a solution that worked for everyone.”

The committee recommended to Mr Richards that America pit bull terriers, American bulldogs, American Staffordshire terriers, Argentine mastiffs, Boerboels, Brazillian mastiffs, Cane Corsos, Presa Canarios, Neapolitan mastiffs and Tosa Inus be taken off the banned list.

Under the proposal, they would have been placed on a managed restricted list, with strict conditions in place for owners. The only breeds to remain banned would have been wolf and wolf hybrids.

Mr Moniz took over from Mr Richards on the same day campaigners handed over a 2,000 signature petition to Government calling for a revision of breed specific legislation to control dangerous dogs.

The petition was sparked by Hershey, a suspected pit bull puppy who was put down by dog wardens. Hershey’s owner Gina Davis revealed this week that she and her son recently had two more suspected pit bulls seized and destroyed by the Department of Environmental Protection. Ms Davis said the Minister’s decision to keep pit bulls on the list was “too bad”.

During the past six months there have been 96 pit bull type dogs seized, the results of surrender, straying or warrant. Government said in a statement that all were humanely destroyed.

Kristin Divine, from dog advocacy group Our Misunderstood, said: “It does not come as a big surprise that the American pit bull terrier is going to remain on the prohibited breed list at the moment.

“I believe the initial shift away from an overall banning of certain breeds would prove more complex than the current system is. It would mean the creation of appropriate dog ownership guidelines and management protocol, which could contain guidelines of who can own certain breeds, closely monitored and approved breeders, and the recording and tracking of all dogs on Island.

“Obviously, this would require further investigation and research into what alternatives have proven successful in other places. Though the current legislation to euthanise all dogs of certain breeds may appear simpler, it does not seem to be doing much to eliminate the overwhelming population of unlicensed, illegal dogs on our Island as illegal breeding continues regularly.

“Would an alternative method be able to target the issues the ban was meant for? Possibly, and definitely in a more humane way than putting down entire sets of breeds.

“What might prove most beneficial though is first identifying the ultimate goal Government is trying to achieve. Is it solely controlling and decreasing the number of dogs of specific breeds or are we working towards public safety and view the elimination of certain breeds [as] the only way forward?”