Another dog attack- 4 year old killed. Devastating

[singingsussie]

Just woke up to this news this morning. It's just so incredibly heartbreaking for all involved. Seems to be happening so much more than ever these days

From the reports I’ve read this morning, this does appear to be another case of a mature dog being sold and it’d been in the family 6weeks. This is part of the problem. People convince themselves that they are ‘rehoming’ a dog when £000’s have changed hands. They are not. They are buying a used dog. Absolute madness with young children regardless of the breed. That aside, I’ll wager it’ll be an American Bully with cropped ears, badly brought up distressed at a change in circumstances.

An absolute tragedy all round.

jesus I’m very sorry to hear that that sounds very distressing. All bull breeds were originally breed for exactly that - bull baiting. They have an incredibly strong bite down and will not let go, it’s the nature of the breed. I appreciate this is very difficult in a frightening situation and I hope it never happens to any of you, but if a dog is biting and refusing to give up, you need to choke the dog. Choke it as hard as you can (again this is going to be difficult with the neck span of certain breeds). This is pretty much the only way you’ll stop the dog. Bull breeds in particular will not give up despite being hit or punched. They need to be banned. They are a dangerous breed, a throwback from years ago. They have no purpose in a civilised society.

I stand corrected if it is a Belgian Malinois. Yet another breed weaponised by becoming a ‘status’ dog. Absolutely not suited to being a family pet.

I think the poster was referring to the dogs in the video I shared.

Sorry netaporter I was referring to the little news snippet, I’m not sure if that’s the breed that killed the child. It’s very concerning that malinois are now being seen as a status dog.

A pack of 4 running round the streets biting people, yet were returned to their 'owner'. Happened last week.

It seems like there is two linked problems - one, dangerous and out of control dogs, often of certain breeds who attack and injure and sometimes kill ( I think it’s easy to overlook injuries when people mention the small number of actual fatalities). Whilst measures could be brought in, it’s difficult and agree that it’s questionable how many attacks in the home would be prevented.

There is then the problem of the large number of out of control dogs in public spaces - knocking over kids, snatching food from people on benches, chasing and snapping and joggers and cyclist and attacking other dogs ( all of which I’ve seen in my local park). I suspect it is worth considering whether there are measures that now need to be considered to address this - as many of these owners would be more likely to comply.

Im not in anyway a dog hater - Ive owned many dogs over the years

It’s an utter disgrace. Just one of those dogs will kill and/or do horrendous damage.

People should not have dogs and tiny children.

As soon as you become pregnant, that dog goes to a family, friend or the rescue. Every dog is an instinctive wild animal and may react badly when the baby pokes or annoys it.

I also take great umbrage with this commenter:

I don't feel comfortable with this as I have noticed an increase in XL bully's, staffs, begian shepards and pit bull looking dogs in our area.

My staffy is the sweetest, friendliest, most people-oriented dog you could meet. My vet and trainer have echoed this, and he's a rescue so I don't know what the first part of his life was like.

Yet I cross the road to walk past people and children and dogs all the time as I fully understand that people might not like dogs and particularly a breed that has such a stigma attached to it.

It is so deeply unfair and lazy to loop all staffies in with 'pit bull like dogs' - which are BANNED and lazy, tabloid hysteria.

The woman who was sadly killed when walking 8 dogs - not a staffy amongst them, but there were daschunds. The person killed last month, everyone on here said it was a staffy, it was actually a husky.

Stop lazily blaming staffies all the damn time!

@JesusInTheCabbageVan i’m very sorry to hear this. I hope your dog is recovering.

It's not true that "nothing can be done" either. A lot of the problem is that where there are dog laws, on chipping, on cropping, whatever, they're not actively looked into, not enforced because of budgets or staffing, or effectively unenforced because of the laughable penalties.

Ear cropping, for example. If anyone saw the BBC documentary on these status dog breeders, it seemed like it was quite easy for the reporter to find out via Facebook about a dog show which had a whole load of people there with dodgy dogs. Why not storm the show, seize every dog with mutilated ears, and destroy them unless there's proof from a reputable vet that the ear cropping was a) necessary and b) necessary to that extent? As far as I know there isn't any legal justification for the very close crops they do on a lot of these types of breeds, so a lot of very expensive dog would be going in the incinerator. If people knew that the moment their dog's ears were mentioned to or seen by any person in authority the dog was as good as dead, they might be less keen to crop. That would hurt these people more than some piddly fine they can ignore, and being humanely destroyed would cause no suffering to the dogs and might prevent suffering for future dogs.

From my pov, and I appreciate you love your dog, is that the bull terrier breeds were bred for a specific purpose as I’ve said. You cannot undo genetics. They have bite capabilities that mean they are far more likely to seriously injure and kill than many other dogs.

No this is BS. I like many dog owners would like much tougher restrictions on the breeds of dog that are allowed to be kept in the country.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_dog_attacks_in_the_United_Kingdom

You've only got to take a look down the lists for last couple of years to see how we could easily identify and ban more dangerous dog breeds. And no, it's not good enough to blame it on how the owners have trained and socialised them, and no, I don't care that there are examples of American Bully's being lovely dogs. They need to go or more people and children will die in the most horrible fashion.

All dogs can bite. It's temperament.

Some of the largest and most deadly animals on this planet are herbivores, for Christsake.

Always 'staffy, staffy, staffy' is the first slander on a post like this and I'm sick of it and sick of people's pearl-clutching reactions to my staffy.

You need to look at dogs on an individual basis. You need to only walk small groups of dogs. You need to not have any dogs around babies or young children. Any dogs that are reactive, volatile, aggressive, sensitive to things in their environment need to go to childfree, capable, experienced dog owners.

I am aware that all dogs can bite. That isn’t what I’ve said. You have chosen to ignore the factual information I have given you regarding why bull breeds are so dangerous.

You want to ban staffies, correct?

Absolutely.

I would like to see all bull breeds banned preferably yes. It’s not going to happen as there isn’t the will for it. I do think something drastic needs to be done regarding the amount of bull breeds owned by incredibly stupid people who have no idea how to handle them. Look, take emotion about how you feel personally about your own dog out of this and look more into the traits of the bull breed as a whole.

pissssedofff
move we every got up to 1,000 deaths a year then it would be a problem, rather than tragic accidents

I 100% assure you that banning staffies will not stop dog attacks and deaths.

The characteristic temperament of a well-brought up staffy is affectionate, people and family-orientated. A hard bite is no reason to ban a dog breed that will never turn it against a person.

Loads of dogs have powerful bites and like I said, a husky killed someone, a group of 8 dogs not including a staffy killed a dog walker - but I would say that staffies are really up there in terms ofa playful and affectionate and loyal temperament that means that they never would use their capabilities.

But to endlessly hear 'it was a staffy' on the back of any of these tragic news reports is so lazy and grating to this owner of a lovely staffy.

There is a main common denominator here - bull breeds. Staffordshire bull terriors, XLs appearing numerous times. The facts are there.

And all this lumping together of staffies and XL bullies as ''bull'' breeds. Yes, perhaps genetically speaking, but have you ever seen them in person comparatively? Huge difference. Again, lazy, lazy comparison.

Have a look at those stats regarding death dogs. That tells you all you need to know. Of course there will be anomalies - just as there are friendly bull breeds on an individual basis. This does not counteract what we know about these breeds. You are ignoring the fact that they have a bite force and a genetic legacy that means they are going to bite and not release.

*dog deaths