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.

Looks like it was the same dog named Shiva. Owner, pictures all over Daily Fail, with videos of owner when the dog was a small pup on a bbc dog programs.

It says it was in the pack. Not the one that killed her? I guess noone will ever know which one 😭

Exactly right, it proves that first assumptions aren’t always correct.
Our local Facebook page was alight after a car crashed through the garden wall of a house near by about a year ago..with comments such as “Old people shouldn’t be on road”, “Idiot pensioners” “probably pissed” “bet he was on drugs” “pissed, going too fast, blind as a bat”. The ambulance hadn’t even left the scene when the comments were posted.
The driver was a 60 year old man who had a brain aneurysm at the wheel.

And the sad thing is the police might decide to destroy all 8 if they can’t work out the culprit. They say they’re going to have them assessed, well reading about previous cases it seems to take the police at least six months to assess a dog. No way would my dog cope with being in kennels for six months, I don’t even put her in for one night. If I was one of the owners I’d be employing that famous dog specialist solicitor and fighting tooth and nail to get my dog back.

True, I should have been clearer it wasnt confirmed as the one that attacked. But stand by the opinion 11st dogs should not be owned by people who think it is ok for them to be walked in groups of 8 dogs with one walker.

Agree too.

We will if a proper investigation is done - bite mark measurement and DNA etc.

Also we still don’t know what the other two dog breeds were - Leonberger, 2 x dachshunds, collie, cockapoo known so far.

weight and tendency towards protective/dominant nature are key factors. My dogs weigh about eight pounds, so even if they decided to "go for me" they wouldn't have the physical ability. I could shake/kick them away very easily. An angry 11 stone dog? Not a chance.

Honestly not being snarky, but we cannot know that the owners knew this is what was happening.

And one more thing, I will shut up after this, in all my years of being a dog walker, I can hand on my heart say, I never had one client who didn’t adore and want the absolute best for their dogs. Irresponsible, uninformed dog owners don’t tend to hire dog walkers ime. They can’t be arsed with that kind of organisation and financial outlay.

And the absolute last thing, this is why Borrow My Doggy is such a shit and dangerous idea, yet I see it recommended on here regularly! People who use that are often people who don’t want to pay for their dogs to be walked and are happy to hand them over to any one who asks!

so the logic seems to be because there are so many dogs these numbers are acceptable. Not that, maybe there are too many dogs. If we said 700 hospitalisations a year (roughly two a day) was acceptable, then that would mean 90% of dog owners giving up their dogs.

"If I was one of the owners I’d be employing that famous dog specialist solicitor and fighting tooth and nail to get my dog back."

Even though they don't yet know which ones attacked her? The witness on the horse says at least 4 maybe more. Presumably the woman who ran off after being attacked knows which one bit her.

Sorry but no, I think they should all be put down.

To the poster arguing that as the numbers of deaths is relatively low, this is a rare occurrence etc - are you saying the existing (scant) legislation, regulation and enforcement is sufficient then?

Safety laws are about risks being as low as reasonably practicable. So we don’t ban cars because there are car accidents but we do have legislation, regulations etc that are enforced.

With dog ownership there is in practice little regulation and next to no enforcement. An analogy would be allowing car ownership/driving without a driving qualification or licence or traffic laws or enforcement.
It’s all very well prosecuting a driver after they’ve driven recklessly and killed someone but that’s not ensuring the risk is as low as practicable.

So no - the number of deaths and hospital admissions for dog attacks is not acceptable because f**k all is in practice being done to mitigate the risk.

Write to your MP. This is a failure of a duty of care.

So terrified dogs who only wanted to escape should be killed when they had nothing to do with it?

"So terrified dogs who only wanted to escape should be killed when they had nothing to do with it?"

Yes, you don't know what they wanted and it'll be impossible to find that out. Its also impossible to predict how being involved in this attack will impact on their future behaviour.

I know exactly who walks my labrador, where they walk him, how they walk him and the breeds of the other dogs they walk with. If any of the dogs in the group change, which isnt often, the group is informed. Our walker keeps the breeds in the group to similar temperments and sizes - mostly medium sized gun dogs/spaniels. We get photos/videos/updates of nearly every walk and how the introduction of any new dog is working out. I just wouldnt blindly hand him over not knowing if the walker was suitable.

Agree we dont know if they knew, but imo they should have made sure they did know especially with a dog of such an extreme size.

When dogs are involved in aggressive incidents, they release chemicals in their brain that remain heightened for a time - couple of days - afterwards and the dog is anxious and more likely to be involved in another altercation. This can be managed as long as owners and walkers are aware. Do you think that all dogs who are attacked or in a fight should be destroyed immediately after? Because that’s what you’re advocating here - actually you’ll probably say yes to that 🙄. So incredibly ignorant, just passing judgment on the lives of living sentient beings, which were only where they were because a human, put them there, breaking all common sense rules what might have kept her safe.

I don't own a dog, but am concerned about the level of dog incidents we hear about (news / social media / first hand accounts etc)

How many dogs would a responsible dog walker take? I've been in our local park and seen 10+, with the walker having absolutely no control. Obviously this isn't responsible but makes it financially manageable for both walker and owner I'm guessing? So what's the limit - 2/3? Do dog walkers needs licences? Do local parks have any by laws in place?

Sorry if already been covered on the thread!

Where I live it’s four. I used to a licenced, insured dog walker. She shouldn’t have had 7/8 and she shouldn’t have been walking a massive dog with small ones as she was. Apparently she was seen doing this regularly in the area. Personally I think it’s unlikely that the Leonberger was the main culprit but her presence in that walking group would very likely have made smaller dogs nervous and heightened from the start. I don’t believe for a moment the walker was attacked by all the dogs. More likely one or two with the others desperate to escape. An onlooker would just have seen multiple distressed dogs though. No one can know until an investigation is done. It’s a terrible, awful thing but it was preventable and blaming the dogs and demanding the deaths and/or removal of all dogs in the country rather than blaming the humans involved given the details we know already before the investigation has even happened, is ridiculous.

"Do you think that all dogs who are attacked or in a fight should be destroyed immediately after? Because that’s what you’re advocating here - actually you’ll probably say yes to that 🙄."

No it's not 🙄. When the attack resulted in a human losing her life, however, I think it's appropriate to destroy all of the dogs involved.

And another thing, I see the DM are targeting the Leonberger and her owner, who is a black woman. I push back hard against current identity politics as I find them poisonous and divisive, but even I can see that the DM are delighting in being able to drag that blank woman all over their head story with the poisonous implications within the main text. She wasn’t even there!

Well you’re wrong and don’t know enough about dogs to be declaring death sentences on them.

"Well you’re wrong and don’t know enough about dogs to be declaring death sentences on them."

Well I think that you're wrong and your blind love of dogs is skewing your views of what's appropriate in this situation.

Blind love of dogs? No, I was a registered, insured dog walker who completed level three courses and dog first aid with almost a decades experience, during which time I could count on one hand the amount of aggressive incidents my dogs were involved in. I had clients whose dogs I walked for for the whole time I was walking, who gave me their new puppies when their older boys and girls died. I think that’s a bit more than “blind love” tbh. What is your experience that allows you to advocate for all dogs to be destroyed after they’ve been involved in an incident that they had absolutely no control over? The ignorance of this thread is astonishing.