DC was bitten by strange dog, owner has now contacted me

[Villanelle]

Yesterday my DC was bitten by a dog at the park. He was playing in the play area, went down the slide and then started running after his younger sibling, the dog came out of nowhere and started chasing him. It caught up to him and bit him on the leg and back. He was hurt (puncture wounds, bleeding and bruised) but not enough to need stitches, thankfully. It was terrifying though and could have been so much worse. It was a big dog, like a Weimaraner, and totally out of control in a children's play area, the children(!!) walking it had to drag it away.

We contacted the police but they're going to contact us again in a couple of days.
It was posted about on FB by someone who witnessed it. I didn't reply to it but somehow the owner of the dog has contacted me. They haven't apologised or anything, just given me their phone number and told me to phone them.

I want to shout at them for being so irresponsible, I'm so angry. I don't know if I should reply to them or just leave it up to the police/dog warden. I don't want to argue with them, of course, but I don't think they realise how awful the situation was?

@MissMaple82

So they've given you their number told you to ring and your angry!

I've pressed to comment, but now I don't even have the words. Of course she's fucking angry. It sounds like her son has not only got puncture wounds but spectacular bruising, never mind the trauma he's experiencing! I'd be absolutely fucking livid if this happened to either of my children. Irresponsible, dangerous, could have killed a smaller child. Your tone doesn't sit right with me at all.

OP I'm horrified and hope he mends quickly. My brother was bitten in the face twice as a child and it was awful. He's still not a fan of dogs and he's in his late thirties. Fingers crossed for your DS

If they can't control the dog it shouldn't be walked by children. Puppy or not.

But sadly with irresponsible owners the ddog won't change...

@HerMammy

Again on these threads, pp saying the dog needs PTS, no it doesn’t, it needs its owners to be responsible and keep him on lead and muzzled if necessary and be walked be adults who can control him. No dog should die because they have stupid owners.

Hmm, the dog was being walked by children, which means however much it may be muzzled and controlled when out in future it likely comes into contact with children inside. My understanding is that once a dog has bitten once it is more likely to again in future.

I have a dog by the way and am in no way a dog hater however I loathe bad dog owners.

Same here - they give us all a bad name and cause untold distress to everyone.

It wasn't a puppy, it was an adult dog. Even if it was a puppy it was very big and very strong and could have done a lot more damage than it did.

Tonight DS asked me if our dogs will start biting him now. Despite me trying to reassure him he truly believes it was his fault. Just to be clear, he did nothing wrong, the dog came after him, we didn't even know it was in the play area until it was almost on top of him. It was that fast.

I wouldnt want to get into a conversation with them at all and I'd be worried that if they have found my details then they might turn up on the doorstep.

The owners of the dog should not have allowed their children to take it out. Based on that I would say they are trying to avoid you getting police involved so I would just pass message on to police.

You've done the right thing, OP. I hope your son is OK.

Tell your son the truth.
In life there are bad people and good people.
Your dogs are good dogs, you respect them and love them, this was a bad dog and the bad dog will be looked at by the police, so the bad dog can't EVER hurt anyone else.

Oh bless him. Of course it’s not his fault.

Ring the owners - ask for their address./contact details, see what they have to say.

Don't contact the owners. Leave all contact to the police.

Don't forget it's likely their stupid kids who took the dog out when they shouldn't have have spun their parents some line minimising what happened

Those kids WILL have said 'oh one of the kids ran past the dog scaring her' or something

So don't think yet that they know any of what really happened

I hope the police follow it up

@Cyntia123

I would call the owner, they may want to apologise. I dont know the age of the dog and if it was being aggressive or just over excited. Please don't jump on me as I'm not excusing what happened but I have a 4 month old puppy who gets very over excited around children, especially if they run and scream, she jumps up and bites. I take her to the country park, on a lead and she really pulls towards the play area which isn't fenced. I dont let her off the lead but I have no doubt if I did she would run straight to the children. Just wanted to give a different perspective as I see comments saying the dog should be destroyed. Def sounds like it should be on the lead and it may be the children let it off when they shouldn't have and the owner may want to explain and apologise to you. Hope your child is ok.

This comment is crazy - the OP's son has puncture wounds, is bleeding and bruised and you're suggesting there's a distinction between a dog being aggressive and being over excited!?

If this is what the dog does when it's overexcited I would hate to see it if it gets aggressive!

A bloke I know had a dog, a terrier type who was leashed outside a shop, and a small child was poking the dog..and the dog bit the child’s face.

If the child was "poking the dog" then the person at fault is the parent!

Even the sweetest natured animal may snap if it is tormented or hurt.

That said, I would never leave my dog tied outside unattended for just this reason (and the risk of theft)

@Aprilshowersandhail

But sadly with irresponsible owners the ddog won't change...

If the owners get fined 1000 pounds and their dog is taken away, they might think about it next time!

We need more enforcement in parks and public places, I’m 5”3’ and I’ve been knocked to the ground twice by dogs running up behind me and knocking me out behind my knees! I seriously hurt my back last time and the owner didn’t even think it was an issue, just said sorry and walked off! This was on Bristol Downs.

I’ve started shouting at dogs saying ‘go away’ so owners can hear me, the ones that run up to me and in my local park. I took photos of a big dog that hassles me even when I’m with my hobby!

I’m terrified of walking around heavily pregnant now when big dogs are running loose in parks 😞

If my dog had bitten someone, especially a child, I would not message the victim/parents on FB saying basically "Here's my number, ring me now or give me your address so my husband can come and discuss this incident with you" because that sounds quite rude to me and not at all like I'd take responsibility.

I'd be on my knees, apologising like crazy and doing whatever I could to make it right, including doing anything the police/dog warden said I had to do.

I wondered if this was the post I saw reccently about a dog attack, on Facebook but then realised it wasnt, the owner in this case has responded, (publicly so not posting anything that cant be seen online) The owners response is interesting, I wonder if its along the lines of what the owner of the dog who attacked your DC was going to say

Hidden Name·
Message from the inbox:
This is a response from the owner of the dog mentioned in the original post below:
“I’ve joined this group because I’ve been told that someone has put up a post about me. My post is in reply to the anonymous person hiding behind Facebook.
They’ve use this site to put an inaccurate account of something that happened at Mentmoor last Sunday. My boxer dog was playing with other dogs. At no time was she terrorising any of them. She is a young dog and really friendly. This anonymous person has said my dog ran up and jumped into their child’s face aggressively and traumatised their child. There is no way my dog would ever hurt or bite anyone’s face , let alone a child. She is in regular contact with my grandchildren , the youngest being two.
She had run about fifty yards across the field to meet other dogs She was not aggressive, she was just playing. If you knew anything about dogs you’d know that boxers impartiality are a bit mad especially young ones. As soon as I’d realised she had gone I looked around. I saw a man pick up a small child and I then called my dog back. I waved over to say sorry as I realised she might have run up as she thinks all children are my grandchildren. You didn’t wave back , shout over or come and talk to me about what you have posted as a traumatic attack on your child.
What I can’t understand is why you would then write about it on here , stirring up people who don’t know the facts and frankly have nothing else in their lives but to join in with nasty comments about something they have only one side of. That wasn’t aimed at every comment, thank you for those who were a bit more diplomatic. If as you said my dog did do this why wouldn’t either you or your husband come over to me and talk to me. I would have apologised for her jumping up. Their were two of you one of you could have walked over. It’s a real shame when people behave like this. Gone are the days when people talk to each other Now they’ll just go wining to one of these pages Now I’ve had my say.”
Original post:
“I just wanted to warn anyone who walks up Mentmore park to be careful if they’ve got little ones. Today as we were walking through the field to the playground a massive slobbering boxer came out of nowhere and after terrorising a number of other dogs nearby it jumped up and went for my toddlers face. Luckily my husband picked him up before any real damage was done and my toddler is fine and his skin wasn’t broken (except now being terrified off dogs and telling me that the dog bit his face). The owner was not close to the dog and when I looked for an owner there was a lady about 100 metres away chatting to other dog walkers with a lead and no dog. This lady who I am presuming was the owner (but I’m aware it could have been any one of them) made no effort to restrain this dog, call it or come to retrieve him despite my toddler screaming at the top of his lungs in my husbands arms. My baby was so upset and I was so angry that I didn’t leave my crying toddler to go and find the owner but with hindsight I wish I had to make them aware of what had happened because not being anywhere near their dog they may not have witnessed it. My boy was lucky but I’d never forgive myself if this dog attacked a smaller child in the same park and this dog was so fast that we didn’t see him coming. More and more dog walkers seem to be bringing their dogs here (which is strange when you shouldn’t be travelling outside of your local area and yet the car park and street beside the park was lined with parked cars) which means there’s more dog poo on the ground and more dogs let off the leads unsupervised both of which pose a massive risk to children. I know that dogs are curious and like to have a sniff and I see many people walking their dogs here and I’ve never been involved with nor witnessed anything similar before. Please be extra vigilante if you use this park especially of dogs that appear unsupervised.”

I couldn't speak to them whilst I was so enraged ...no good would come of it. As earlier poster said they are likely ready with excuses or some sob story mingled with an apology. Perhaps that is the cynic in me...& they really want to genuinely apologise & check your son is okay now. I think the wiser option is to pass the number on to the police. And I'd be following up to see what police are doing about it too.

Did child haveTetanus jab after being bitten if skin broken? I would take a photo of nite marks and text photo to person so they can see what outcome was. I would also pass their number to police.

God, the owner sounds horrible. They should be mortified and apologising profusely to your dc and you, taking the dog to training classes and keeping the fucking thing on a fucking lead round fucking play areas!

Don't ring them. Pass their number to the police and chase the police to find out what they're doing. Don't let this slide -especially if the dog and owner have form for this. It could be much worse next time.

I hope your dc recovers quickly. 💐

Large dogs in particular need to be well trained - a friendly boxer is a large, bouncy, heavy dog that can send a child (or an adult for that matter) flying! It doesn't have to be a bad dog - just an unruly one!

There are several boxers that I meet regularly - luckily all are well socialised with other dogs - and all except one are kept on leash, not because they are bad, but because they are over-friendly.

I've noticed recently though that there are a lot of unsocialised young dogs about - covid puppies, I imagine, and unfortunately there are some very large breeds (yesterday I met a dogue de bordeaux puppy - stunningly gorgeous, 12 weeks old and bigger than one of my cocker spaniels. The owner was a tiny woman. If that dog isn't properly trained, there is no way at all that she will be able to physically hold on to him. I'm just hoping that she knows what she's doing with dogs.

[quote KindnessCrusader]@HerMammy I actually really disagree. This wasn't a minor incident. The dog has attacked and seriously hurt a child. I'm guessing the only reason it bit the child's back was because the child was pinned down that way. Only luck that it didn't pin him down the other way and go for his face and hands.

My family member was attacked by a dog. The owner absolutely savaged US and the witnesses on a local Facebook group as did other dog owners that weren't even there. The dog warden ordered her to keep her dangerous dog on a lead and muzzled. She does no such thing. Owners that allow it to happen in the first place (multiple times, reading the OP's post) can hardly be trusted to obey rules to muzzle and keep their animal on a lead.[/quote]
Totally agree. My moneys on them not really caring. Our cockapoo was attacked and killed by two dogs. The owner was initially very apologetic. Promised to pay etc but then didn't. She was visited by a dog warden who told her to keep the dogs outside (she had several young children) and walk them with a muzzle on and on a lead. At the time they didn't even have collars on. She did no such thing. Then the dog bit her own child and was put down. These people don't care unless something happens to their own.

That's heartbreaking Lucas. I've seen an occasional dogfight (usually caused by people taking out a bitch on heat - even some neutered dogs and bitches can be unsettled by them, it's not just uncastrated dogs) and it's terrifying, even when all it is is a lot of noise.

Your poor little dog.

@Lucaslucas1612 Oh my goodness I'm so sorry that's terrible. Really awful.