BWW not sure I follow your arguments.
Understandable as their are a few loose threads in my post, perhaps written more from a flippant point, but with a serious undertone. Perhaps not the place to go too deep, but those pondering the OP's query might see the connections.
As someone who has been a member of a LAF for 5 years;
As a former farm manager you would know this and yet you are shunting the argument against irresponsible dog ownership onto the CLA and their actions in respect to rights of way. I would argue your connection is very tenuous .
This link is not as tenuous as you might think and IMO has significant historic and current connections to the motives that have and might affect the development of our access network.
As a former LAF member I know how difficult it is to keep the minds of a mixed group on the interests of walking and access, when their has been a 'dog' incident, and the landowners are milking this public opinion to full effect.
"Oh you walkers don't know the damage a dog can to livestock" is a sneer towards the my stance for access not to be linked to public misbehaviour.
Yet I have to meet that person who has, spent several days doing close to major surgery on injured animals, spent months nursing a flock of pedigree sheep back to full productivity and then been reminded of their injuries every year for more than a decade as I sheered my ewes and followed the scars across their bodies.
Neighborhood ownership of dogs kept, to give property owners reassurance in the hours of their absence, was the cause of the incident I referred too. 3 Alsatians on the loose at night time.
Also a friend of mine was accused of having allowed his aged Alsatian and terrier to roam and kill three sheep. His family suffered the loss of their pets, the insurance loss and the villages condemnation for 5years until it became known that farmers own dogs had killed his sheep and the farmer had sneaked into the village and opened the gate to my friend back yard.
So that he had a valid claim on his insurance for the loss of the sheep.