Great Dane now on the attack - please can we do something? *Distressing content warning*

There is the possibility of a "big stick" approach.

Penalties
You can get an unlimited fine or be sent to prison for up to 6 months (or both) if your dog is dangerously out of control. You may not be allowed to own a dog in the future and your dog may be destroyed.
If you let your dog injure someone you can be sent to prison for up to 5 years or fined (or both). If you deliberately use your dog to injure someone you could be charged with ‘malicious wounding’.
If you allow your dog to kill someone you can be sent to prison for up to 14 years or get an unlimited fine (or both).
If you allow your dog to injure an assistance dog (for example a guide dog) you can be sent to prison for up to 3 years or fined (or both).

www.gov.uk/control-dog-public

I expect that the owner was just thrilled to see his dog enjoying itself and having fun, it didn't even occur to him that it was wrong to let the dog terrorize the deer.
That's what they're like... they prioritize the dog and the dogs enjoyment at the expense of everything else🤬🤬🤬

How appalling.

At least there is video evidence. To stop the thickos saying, ‘never seen it in the 875 years I have owned a dog so it didn’t happen’.

https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/dog-deer-bushy-park-conviction-b2334404.html
Another irresponsible dog owner ☹️

Absolutely spot on.

Yes and what is really going on there??😳
I'm starting to feel that these people are in awe of the dogs, feel they have to obey and almost worship them?
As if they unthinkingly subordinate themselves to the dog because to them it symbolises something and they respond unconsciously to the symbolism?
The behavior of people who keep these dogs is irrational, as if they are unable to see it for what it is.

Dog liability insurance.
No excuse for not having it, it's included with £25/year Dog's Trust membership. I'm not particularly keen on some of the Dog's Trust policies, but it's a very easy route for anyone to get liability insurance. And there are no breed exemptions (the four listed breeds must be legally registered to be covered).

My ds is a 6ft4 teen and he was set upon by some mega dog in our area a year ago or so. Luckily he didn’t bite, the owner managed to pull the dog off, but the dog did subsequently attack someone in the local park and was banned from it afterwards (he bit a woman’s arm who was trying to protect her own dog from him- was argy bargy about it on the local FB page).

God that’s so worrying!!

She also kept it outside alone all day and then in a cage for hours on end for the rest of the time, and admitted that she couldn't physically control it once fully grown. But it was ok cos her DP would do 'most' of the walking and it wouldn't ever be alone with her two young children or two smaller dogs.

I was reading an interesting AMA thread on here yesterday by the owner of an XL bully dog. She did her best to portray herself as a very responsible dog owner but when liability insurance was mentioned she admitted it was difficult to get insurance for that breed so they put money aside every month instead. I suspect she meant for vet bills as it wouldn’t be possible to put aside weekly the vast amount required for litigation purposes if their huge powerful dog attacked someone. The thread was deleted before I got to read it all.

Is it included in regular pet insurance?

I think humans should have insurance for themselves and the damage they inflict on others and their surroundings.

All responsible dog owners have liability insurance. IMO it should be mandatory for pet owners.

Having dogs as pets is not illegal, so why the penalties?

and this is why there should be heavy taxes and penalties for people who insist on continuing to keep dogs as pets.

I like dogs, I just hate the the trend of dogs being pets so their owners can let them fill our streets with poo, terrorise any people who are not comfortable with dogs running around off lead, and ultimately, inflict injuries on humans and other animals on a nearly daily basis now.

dogs should not be useless city pets - the externalities that inflicts on the general population of cities are becoming intolerable

another dog attack
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65441162

Of course dog bites are a public health issue. There is a reason you need a tetanus when you get bit.

Very interesting@HaveYouSeenTheTime thank you for posting from the article.
I hope this will be a trigger for some proper legislation to control the numbers and types of dogs which are kept as pets.

In the BMJ this week. Are dog bites a public health issue now?

Looks like the increase in bites is in adults. There are also some mentions of ‘near-decapitation’ in the full article. How does that happen??

‘Dog Bites
Rising fatalities, injuries, and NHS costs: dog bites as a public health problem
BMJ 2023; 381 doi: doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p879 (Published 27 April 2023)
Cite this as: BMJ 2023;381:p879

Numbers of dog related injuries are rising in the UK, so should attacks be treated as a public health concern? Adele Waters considers what should be done to tackle the problem
Last year saw a sudden jump in the number of people in England and Wales dying because of dog bite injuries. While a typical year records three fatal attacks,1 the death toll in 2022 totalled 10.234 Four of the victims were children.
Hospital episode data for England5 also reveal an upward trend in the number of attendances for dog related injuries in the past 15 years. There has been an 88% increase in attendances, from 4699 in 2007 to 8819 in 2021-22. Growing concern about dog related attacks have prompted media reports across the UK.67
Behind these statistics lie sizable welfare costs, both in the toll of psychological and physical injury to human victims and their families—including life changing disfigurement—and also in terms of the animal welfare burden. Many of the dogs involved in attacks are subsequently euthanised.
There are also financial costs to the NHS. Researchers at the University of Liverpool with Public Health England recently estimated the total cost of dog attacks to the NHS, using hospital attendance and admissions data in England.8Publishing their findings in Scientific Reports last year, they estimated direct costs of treatment to be more than £25m for the financial year 2017-18. Estimates for total costs of hospital attendance and admissions amounted to more than £70m for the same period.
The research also revealed demographic and regional variations in dog bite incidence, as well as typical presentation and management (see box 1). The figures show that rates in children have remained stable and the rise in dog bites is in the adult population: incidence has tripled in 20 years (1998-2018). Rates are higher in Caucasian people (perhaps because white people are more likely to own dogs, the researchers suggest) and there appears to be a strong association with social deprivation (also reported in other research9).’

The crux of the matter is irresponsible breeding and irresponsible ownership added to the craze for cute fluffy dogs that are dressed in clothes and as far removed from how a dog should live as can be. Cuddling and buying treats constantly is not loving a dog and how we end up with stressed animals that are more likely to bite.

People moan about not being allowed to rehome a dog because they are out too many hours, leaving a sociable animal alone and then have young kids which impacts the attention and time that can be provided to the dog, but these are things that contribute to unhappy stressed dogs and make bites more likely.
we need stricter controls on breeding and selling dogs as well as not allowing dogs in ever shop or cafe which makes accidents more likely to happen.

Worth a reminder

https://www.pdsa.org.uk/pet-help-and-advice/looking-after-your-pet/puppies-dogs/canine-body-language

I have owned and bred Great Danes all my life, as have my parents.
Yes, they're a giant breed ( one of two only giant breeds, the other being the Irish Wolfhound )
They're known as the gentle giants of the dog world but like any other breed, you will get the occasional rogue one.
I don't know what happened in this story, if it was something that the child did, if the dog acted out of character or if it was simply a rogue dog, so I don't want to pass comment on that.
I do feel for him though.
They're very lazy dogs and despite their size, they actually need less exercise than a small dog. In fact, too much exercise is actually bad for them.
All this hysterical talk of muzzling and banning etc is exactly that... hysterical.
Back home, all dogs over 2.5 kilo have by law, to attend training classes with their owners until the trainer is satisfied with the conduct of both.
This is something that I would like to see happen in the UK.
This is something that I insist on any potential owners of my pups participate in. If they don't, then they don't get a pup, simply because I can't be certain that they're going to be serious and capable owners.
There are more attacks by smaller dogs than there ever are by larger dogs, but you can never say never.

Was the animal destroyed?

@Sas12 Youre right, of course. I should have been a bit more precise and said “domesticated animal-free world”. Point still stands though, it doesn’t sound the sort of world I’d want to live in.

Getting rid of all domesticated animals pets, livestock, game birds etc) wouldnt equate to an animal free world! In the uk, we'd still have foxes, pine marten, badgers, otters, mink, squirrels.... etc etc.

Im not suggesting thats preferavle.