eazybee
Contact the RSPCA and ask for advice, and also the Police.
Dog licences should be brought back.
Dog licences were, as far as I remember, issued at the post office to anyone who asked for the form, which you filled in and handed over to the clerk.
They were a way of registering dogs over the age of three months, so their owners could be held accountable if the dog did any harm to people or animals.
Now the registering of dogs is done using microchips.
There was no check made as to whether the dog's owner could control the animal or not, so bringing in dog licences again will not solve any problem.
The basic problem here is that anyone who can afford to do so can buy any breed of dog he or she wants.
There is no system in place to check whether those owning any domestic animal are fit to do so and prepared to feed, house, train and exercise the animal correctly.
Nor do there seem to be any form of control with the breeding of animals regarded as pets. No breed of dog is naturally vicious, although some are more aggressive naturally than others, because they and their anciestors have been train for a specific aggressive purpose.
Then there are animals that have some mental defects which may be caused by inbreeding, or have developed due to ill treatment, Such animals should not be used for breeding, but again, no-one is empowered to check whether stud animals are suitable or not.
The only way to solve some of the problems arising from the fact that people who have no idea how to go about training a dog can go and buy one, is to make it compulsory for those acquiring dogs to go to dog-training classes with them, and making legal provision for a relevant authority to remove a dog from an unsuitable owner and re-home it if possible, but otherwise have it put down.
Certainly, the woman mentioned in OP's post sounds an unsuitable person to own a dog of any breed, and the advice given OP to seek advice from the police is sound, but I doubt either they or the RSPCA can act until or unless the dog in question is allowed to run loose, or the owner is reported for maltreating it.