Yet another person killed from a dog attack.. what is going on

[icelolly12]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-64254413

Something needs to be done...reports of dog neglect taken more seriously, harsher prison sentences... any other ideas?

Awful, awful way to die, and makes me think twice about passing dogs off lead on walks.

"The same bloke wrote the article. The police statement said a number of dogs."

You're assuming the reporter is using the police statement. It's a local newspaper, so he may be at the scene.

The owners were not present. They cannot be held responsible for their dogs actions when not there! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Who’s going to pay for these thousands of dog wardens?

And let’s say they aren’t abused and told to fuck off when they try and scan a dog, when they find one that’s unchipped, who is going to immediately turn up like batman to seize it?

You are talking of thousands of employees, vans, places to keep unchipped dogs, legal cost, food costs while the dogs are impounded.

It would never work.

@Kevinyoutwat it may not be a tiny minority where you live, but it is in other parts of the UK.

You can't just extrapolate your own experience and apply it broad brush.

There are more issues around the dog ownership in the UK than just the example in the news today. They each affect different people in different ways.

It ALL needs to be addressed, one approach won't work for all of it and sadly there's no "quick fix"

*Honesty, we aren’t speaking about a tiny minority of people here. And they wouldn’t care about anything. It’s not just dogs, it’s every aspect of life. Like a PP said, taking drugs in the high street on an afternoon would horrify a lot of people - in a lot of places, it’s normal. You wouldn’t put them off doing anything.

And these people KNOW their dogs aren’t friendly. They aren’t the sort of people who would say “oh, don’t worry, they are friendly!” if they jumped up at you.*

Clearly these are not the people I am referring to when I made the statement about "being friendly".

Why on earth would you think that I was?

Because it’s a lot more people like that in this country than you think.

All the people shouting for muzzles know nothing about dogs.

Muzzling a dog only addresses the symptom; it does not address the cause.

I think 80% of these issues can be cleared up simply banning the breeding of staffys and bulldogs.

Perhaps! I'm not going to test it out to see though...

There are not many legal products on the market that specifically claim to deter an attacking dog. The reviews on this product were the best I found. That's worth £26 to me.

I’d agree with that.

Exactly - no-one needs a big dog and no-one should be allowed to own a dog that’s capable of causing serious injury.

No one "needs" to own a dog full stop.

With the exception of toy or teddy bear breeds most dogs are capable of causing serious injury.

You're seriously suggesting that's all people should own?

Given that there is absolutely no prospect of a solution to the cause any time soon, muzzles seem a good suggestion. It’s not either/or.

Speak for yourself!!! 😡 My dogs have been the only thing stopping me from suicide at times. How dare you suggest people like me don't need them!!!
And for what it's worth my dogs are NEVER off lead in public. In fact they are rarely walked in public anymore due to other people's out of control dogs.

I agree.

I also think that even if a dog could cause a small amount of damage wearing a muzzle it would be unlikely to even try. Any muzzled dog knows it is at a disadvantage and doesn't look for trouble. Muzzles need to allow free breathing and drinking, and that's is. Often wire muzzles/box muzzles are better for this than the soft ones.

One of our spaniels wears one on certain walks because she eats sh*te she picks up - dead mice, discarded tampons, half-eaten burgers etc - she doesn't like the muzzle but it's that or a short lead.

This happened in my local town and I also use a dog Walker locally. Not read the thread so probably known but sounds like the dog was the breed that’s been in press lately for incidents similar. I don’t think dogs that size should be suitable for group walks personally.

I rarely put my dogs on a lead.

Tbf we rarely see another human on our walks, apart from occasional other nice friendly dog owners.

I know admitting this is akin to murder on Mumsnet but there you go. Dogs are 12 and 13, one's big, one's small.

You are talking of thousands of employees, vans, places to keep unchipped dogs, legal cost, food costs while the dogs are impounded

Until recently it absolutely did work. My local council got rid of their dog warden last year. They could easily have afforded to keep it but chose to waste money elsewhere (it will out my area too easily if I say what they spent the money on). Dog wardens are an essential service.

I personally am sick of the rights of dogs, and dog owners in fact, trumping the rights of everyone else. There I've said it.

You’re so outdated with pack leader rubbish. My dog has a walker as I work, we have zero problems. One person gets killed by a dog here and people are making ridiculous suggestions. Clearly something agitated the dog (the horses maybe), could have happened with an owner just as easily as owners do get killed by their dogs too

You are entitled to your opinion of course! Hopefully you don't live in the rural countryside or you'd be very miserable all the time.

My dogs have been the only thing stopping me from suicide at times. How dare you suggest people like me don't need them!!!
And for what it's worth my dogs are NEVER off lead in public. In fact they are rarely walked in public anymore due to other people's out of control dogs

Well there you go. Maybe dog owners should lobby their fellow dog owners to train their dogs and keep them under control - not just for the "irrational dogphobic" people, but also for the sake of other dogs and their owners.

You don't need to live in the rural countryside for dogs to be a problem.

But I think a lot of farmers find dogs a menace so it's not the case that everyone loves dogs in the countryside, far from it.

I'd love to hear the other side of this story.

Living in a city centre, as I do, doesn't make me immune from the menace of dogs and their clueless owners. Exactly the opposite in fact.

But if I did live in the countryside, I would be just as entitled to be able to walk down the road, go in a pub, or a shop, or to work without being jumped on, slobbered on, growled at, or worse.

So to be honest I fail to see your point.

Pepper spray is illegal in the UK, and and extendable baton, being a weapon, probably is, too. You are leaving yourself open to arrest and prosecution certainly for arming yourself with pepper spray.

And dog size isn't what drives the "pet industry" - it's novelty value. Large size and type of dogs are demanded less as pets but rather as animals to weaponise and as status symbols. "They" don't get paid more for big dogs - they aren't sold by the pound, for heaven's sake!