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

I’m curious….if we took the PETA agenda to its logical conclusion (and there are clearly people of that mindset, given the calls on this thread to “euthanise all dogs”), you eradicate all pets - so there go dogs and cats - we all turn vegan - goodbye cows, pigs, sheep and goats - horse racing and riding are abolished - farewell horses, then what….? Is the ultimate goal really an animal-free world? It’s not a world I’d want to live in, or pass on to my children.

@ThisNameIsNotAvailable I’m vegan and I agree however, have a friend who is vegetarian and wears fur.
She explained that she doesn’t care about animals particularly, she wouldn’t cause them harm but sees no issue wearing vintage fur. She simply doesn’t want to eat dead things.

I didn't mean "sadly" because I'm a "kill all dogs" person btw, blimey the last few posts on this thread have got a bit manic.

I just mean it's likely in a society that is more dog friendly in all avenues (including more people WFH) it's very unlikely that we will see a reduction of dog ownership, and not an increase.

With that increase we can expect a proportion of more irresponsible dog owners unless things change and owning a dog is considered a more weighty responsibility.

I’m interested because the choice to be vegan often goes hand in hand with kindness to all living creatures and advocating for mass culling doesn’t sit alongside that. The idea is horrific to me and I find it hard to square it with someone who chooses a diet / lifestyle which seems so polar opposite.

That said; I’m open to learning.

What relevance is someone's choice to be vegan?

Sadly I feel the opposite in terms of what will happen with dogs in society. As it's becoming more and more common for younger people to be priced out of housing and settling down, coupled with general cost of living concerns and environmental concerns, more and more people are turning to "fur babies" instead of kids.

I totally get and empathise with that decision. But the result is society is becoming more dog friendly, not less.

Why are you vegan?

and in 2021, over 17000 animals were killed by dogs

Amazing post you are the kind of dog owner the world needs. You recognise a dog is an animal with its own unique needs and not human. So many new dog owners call their dog furbaby , drag them around human centred spaces it's actually abusive. A dog needs to feel secure and treated as a dog not as a surrogate child.

I would like a type of dog but I like too many activities that aren't dog friendly. I wouldn't expect a dog to slot in my life which is what many new owners expect.

@PassTheDuckie Pet food industry meat is procured from various sources, most is not from the byproduct of the meat for humans industry.

I'm curious about your source for this claim - in the UK, the animal protein in pet food is a by product of human food, and may not contain ingredients such as euthanized animals, ingredients from an animal that has not passed vet inspections as fit for human consumption at time of slaughter, waste products, road kill, or diseased meat.

I didn't say it was. I said as a "byproduct of human activities" not a byproduct of producing meat for humans.

I know some meat in dog food is from animal culling, some is from fish bycatch etc.

Please show me some evidence that animals are bred and killed for dog food.

Agree, well put.

Overdramatics on this thread as usual.

Great Danes aren't generally aggressive. Feel bad about the injuries but there was obviously a reason that the dog bit the boy. Not victim blaming, but very often noone is reading the dog's body language.

Here's a tip for parents - stop bloody letting your small children interact with strange dogs, especially if you have no idea how to read a dog's body language. And supervise your kids with all animals, yes, even your loving family labrador.

And no, I am not a dog apologist. I don't really like dogs being in human places like cafés etc, but this was a pet shop so yeah, there will be dogs.

I have worked in a lot of animal shelters and witnessed animals being euthanased because they 'bit a child'. What you don't hear about are the reasons why the dog reacted like this. One young child was stapling the family dog's ear with an office stapler, around 3 times before the dog bit him. Dog put to sleep. It's an uneccessary reaction when in fact this was the child's fault (actually the parent's fault, the child was quite young). Child wasn't being supervised whilst alone with the dog. Disgusting.

Bugger off with your ban all dogs, kill all dogs overdramatic shite. It's never going to happen.

Yes they do but not many compared to dogs.

Sadly that’s not true. Pet food industry meat is procured from various sources, most is not from the byproduct of the meat for humans industry.

When dogs are so unhygienic, dangerous, costly, smelly, and people STILL choose to keep them in their homes, I have to think they have been brainwashed by slick marketing.

You need to get out more and stop generalising.
However, you could equally apply these descriptions to many humans and particularly children

@Stryke I am also vegan.

Mass murder of canines won’t happen because we are a civilised, dog loving country (Paul O Grady statue).

Just because a few hundred people on mn are triggered by a dog, that’s not the norm.

I don’t know anyone that doesn’t love dogs, 🤷🏼‍♀️they either own them or are happy to dog sit for me, and to go to dog friendly establishments. If they do have an intense hatred of dogs, they hide it well and must be very false. If you have to pretend to like something so people will like you then I feel very sorry for you. 💐

I do agree with you that the vast majority of posters on here probably don’t have the guts to air their sickening views in public.

@KimberleyClark some people do keep them as pets. Not everyone eats them.

Humans kill other humans. Maybe we should ban humans too?

Ahh the PETA manifesto emerges. Sharing the original story was just to exploit the victim for the opportunity to promote an extremist ideology. Usual tactics too, new account plus a pack of fellow activists to jump in and bias the replies towards the position the OP puts forward as the thread develops. PETA and their ilk regularly troll forums and social media groups with the same thread strategy.

I was just typing a post to say the same!
Humans and dogs coevolved
https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/dogs-humans-evolved-together-study-suggests-1c9924394

I think some people need to read up about the human-dog relationship. It goes back at least 15,000 years. Humans did not just domesticate them. If that was all there was to it sheep, goats and cows would also be pets rather than farm animals.

Animals are not bred and killed to feed dogs, don't be ridiculous. Dog food is made out of animal proteins as a by product of human activities. Euthanasing all dogs won't have any impact.

I follow a page on fb about a boy called JJ (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088594890488) - it is astounding how brutal the attack on his face was, and a miracle he survived. I wish people would stop apologising or minimising how horrific and common these attacks really are.

I agree re dogs. They aren’t here to serve us and be our friends, workers or whatever. We separate them from their mothers and litter mates, then force them to
lead unnatural lives. They often can’t breed as nature intended, and they are kept at our whims. I find this very problematic and controlling.

I was on a train a while ago and the face of a young child in a buggy was covered in fading scars. The mother explained to another passenger that the child had been attacked by a dog and she was slowly succeeding in encouraging the child to trust dogs again. I couldn’t believe it.

I am with Op. Something has to be done. I also think dog ownership (or pet ownership of any kind) is cruel. Dogs aren’t meant to be our playmates/family members/Guardians. We have forced them to become so. No wonder we get attacked.

@OfTheNight 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻excellent post.