Harassed on a walk

OMG that is exactly what I was thinking!

Nonsense

"Put your dog on a lead" has become the new "cancel the check."

This isn't a dog on a lead issue.

OFGS

There was a woman near me that was smashing cars up in a public lay-by that she claimed she owned. She didn't own it.

Locals did a honey trap and set up cameras in the car and filmed her. It immediately stopped. She highly likely was very unwell, by that's no reason to accept thousands of pounds of damage. She escalated. First no one knew why, then she came out ranting, then came the threats of personal attack. Who knows when the baseball bat would be bashing someone's skull in. Regardless of her mental state there's no free pass to act illegally for months on end.

People was scared to be walking near her house. Get a body cam so she can't see your recording and say nothing to her. Just gather the evidence. These people think they self proclaimed police. The police need to them them the reality check that they are actually the baddies.

You can't give her therapy and quite frankly any one would be insane to try to "help". She needs help from the police.

"Call an ambulance next time on 111. Tell them you have mental health concerns about a member of the public and they need to come immediately."
DO NOT do this! 111 is not the emergency services and can't just send an ambulance because you want one.

Most likely she does have mental health problems. The police should be doing something about it but clearly they aren't.

Sorry OP this sounds awful for you. Is there a local facebook group where you could post and tactfully ask others of their experiences. The police are more likely to take it seriously if there is a strong local opinion on it.

Do you know the woman’s name? You could write to the local GPs and say you are concerned for the mental health of x patient and they are behaving dangerously. If she tackles the wrong person they might not be as patient as you.

You could use an alternative FB profile so she can’t trace it back to you.

According to PDSA: "In public places, you must keep your dog ‘under control’. Generally, this means close to you and ideally on a lead. If they’re not on a lead, they need to be under control in another way, such as paying attention to your voice commands" So it is not cut and dried and dog owners need to check with their local authority.

Dog owners absolutely can have their dogs under their control if they are well trained.

BUT this is completely IRRELEVANT to OP and this thread.

@CatMadam derailing the thread to fit your own view and agenda is becoming boring now. It's been stated multiple times dogs can be under control without leads and it is not a legal necessity to have your dog on a lead in public.

Please try to focus on the woman who is stalking the OP.

Given that this is a known issue and that two people have been able to identify this person from a frankly quite vague post, I would bypass the councillor and go straight to your MP. That will concentrate the minds of both police and councillors...

How awful. Have you tried totally blanking her as if she doesn't exist?

If the dog was genuinely under control (and walking to heel counts as under control), there is absolutely no reason for the OP to put it in a leash in these circumstances if she doesn’t want to. Well behaved dogs are in the minority these days but they do still exist.

It’s not reasonable or rational to rail against owners of well behaved dogs - they aren’t the problem. It’s the muppets who allow their dogs to approach other people / dogs or run around out of control in public spaces who deserve the reprimand. Plenty of dog attacks happen while the dog is on a lead - it isn’t the mark of a responsible owner. You have to use your common sense, because problem dog owners don’t.

This woman clearly needs help, Op. That’s not your problem, but it’s a shit situation all round. You shouldn’t have mentioned the dog though, obviously it must be your fault if you have a dog!

What a terrible position to be in OP. Please don’t feel you need to continue defending yourself or your dog to any of the fools on this thread who are trying to argue that you’re at fault for a crazy person harassing and scaring you and your children. There’s been some good practical suggestions made by the reasonable posters on how to deal with this going forward. Good luck.

Do you have a scary man you could take with you who could threaten her to leave you be.

(Side note might not be legal!)

I feel for you OP. I have several of these kinds of crazies round my way and the police do nothing either. Even when the woman across the road was out slashing her husband's tyres they didn't come out

Don’t be silly. If it was under control, it would be on a lead.

You can be filmed in public places,
Harassment is only considered as such if it is continuous and you will need evidence so next time get your phone out and film her.

We have had an issue with neighbour harassment and the police do very little, it seems, unless you are physically harmed. However they did speak to our neighbour once we had quite a lot of footage.

You should phone 101 on each occasion and keep the police ref number to refer back to on each subsequent call.

And people saying dogs should never be off lead in public are, frankly, batshit 😂

In the uk most of the time people don’t have to ‘leash their dogs in the park’

You need to escalate this clearly. Some ideas below-

Call an ambulance next time on 111. Tell them you have mental health concerns about a member of the public and they need to come immediately.

Re the police tell them you are being stalked as they take this much more seriously than being sworn at in public.

I think you can get a civil non- molestation order. This is like a restraining order. If this is breached you can call the police and she will be arrested. Speak to a solicitor about getting once in place. You’re likely to need evidence of her harassment so from now on get your own camera out and film her every single time you have an issue.