Two dogs shot in London by police

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I’m usually very empathetic and recently even posted on an animal testing post but I just can’t find any compassion in my heart for out of control and dangerous animals at the moment, it’s just getting ridiculous. I obviously feel for the owner who I hope gets some kind of mental support/ counselling.

It’s so confusing as I’m usually so compassionate, I guess having a small child and the number of dog attacks does something to your brain? I hate walking past Bullies with my baby in the pram. Even normal dogs I’m starting to get very hesitant about. For context I usually cry if I step on a silver worm in the bathroom so this is a very strange reaction for me.

Interested to hear what other dog owning/ non dog owning people think. Also the government are going to have to step in at some point right?

I have no idea why anyone would want a bully dog..just crazy..I mean why??

we need dog licenses - be expensive to administer though, but I guess that’s the owners problem

Definitely!
Dog owners v should be paying for the real cost of dogs - and dogs should only be shitting in their owners gardens and is they don't have a garden then train them to use in a litter tray in their home. Either way the disposal of their waste should be borne by the owners, but through council tax etc.

Have you read the article? I have never said that an Alaskan Malamute is a 'nanny dog' 🙄

I have a medium size dog breed and she is usually off the lead. I do put her on the lead around other dogs and small children I don't know. Firstly because not all dogs are friendly (and neither are all owners) and when it comes to small children I realise it doesn't matter how friendly a dog is (mine is ridiculously friendly and loves small children) it's incredibly intimidating when a largish dog that you don't know runs towards you, especially for little children. I lost count of the amount of times big dogs ran up to my kids and the owner would shout its ok they're friendly. My children were terrified because of this.

I agree. It's hardly surprising that labradors/dachshunds bite more often than bully breeds- there are far more of them around. The difference surely is that the consequences are so much more catastrophic when a pit/bully XL attacks. Plus, I'm not sure how any owner could have one of these dogs 'under control'- how would they propose stopping their dog if it decided to attack someone? They are incredibly strong. There have been cases where even stabbing a bully XL with a knife wasn't enough to stop an attack.

The 'nanny dog' myth drives me absolutely crackers. It's just complete nonsense.

Confused it stats noone was take to hospital. How was the lady attacked by dogs if she didn't need to go to hospital. Even a nip or scratch by a dog needs to be cleaned and treated !

@Weedoormatnomore it's the media. They love to blow everything out of proportion. Dogs probably barked at her

Not sure if anyone has read any of the updates and eye witness accounts that have come out today but the dogs didn’t attack anyone. There was an altercation between one of the dogs and a passing smaller dog who was on a flexi lead. The lady got tangled up in the leads and fell over. It was sorted by a local business owner and one of his customers who got a hold of all dogs safely. No person or dog was injured by a dog, although I think the female owner hurt her leg when she fell. The owner and dogs were well known as he is a local homeless man with drug addiction problems. Neither of the dogs had shown aggressive tendencies before, they sit on the street everyday and are petted by passers by. The female owner called the police and when they arrived one of the dogs jumped up on her before the guy took off with them. Jumping up is certainly not acceptable but if we start shooting all dogs that would jump up in a high energy situation, there wouldn’t be many left.

However, the homeless man already had a current ban on keeping dogs. I wonder if he has previously owned a dangerous dog and is known to police, hence the reaction? Or if they just aren’t taking any chances with that type of dog anymore. Regardless, it’s very sad for the dogs, it really doesn’t sound like they deserved such a horrible ending. They have been failed by people from beginning to end. As I said in my earlier post, there needs to be wayyy more regulation over who can/can’t own a dog, what restrictions there should be based on the dogs temperament and training etc and these need to be policed properly to stop the increasing number of dog attacks/out of control dogs.

@Niffler29 that is absolutely shocking and heartbreaking. The police should be ashamed of themselves.

So all of that over tangled dog leads 😮goodness that's awful it's almost like she made a malicious call to the police and they sent an armed response , and the dogs and owner were scared witless .

100% agree.

This is a heartbreaking read.

I can understand the Police taking no chances, but what a dreadful way for two dogs to gie.

*die

The police could only respond to what they were dealing with.

I agree it is heart breaking, but from what I saw on the video they were trying to get the dogs away and talk the situation down, they (the police) were at risk and couldn't know whether they were about to be attacked.

It 100% comes down to the owner. He certainly didn't seem to be reacting coherently or sensibly, so addiction/mental health issues could be involved. But he still failed those dogs. He created the stand off.

They’re small dick energy dogs to me. I always see them being walked by chavvy looking men trying to look tough

There's a guy that walks two massive Bully XLs near me. I doubt I'd stand any chance against one of them. Two would be certain death.

I dread to think what would happen to my toddlers if the dogs ever got hold of them.

The breed is an abomination and should be completely banned.

Agree with @mixedrecycling .

The police had a report of uncontrolled dogs which had apparently attacked someone.

In the light of recent dog attacks on people, other dogs and police horses. they had no choice but to be draconian in their response.

BBC news reported that the woman suffered a leg injury - whether she was bitten, clawed, or hurt herself when she fell isn't made clear, but the wording suggests she was NOT bitten.

Because the dogs' owner didn't respond appropriately to the police challenge they couldn't take any risks.

It seems the woman had her dog on a flexi-lead. Those bliddy things should be banned. They give an illusion of control which doesn't exist. Dogs often break the lock mechanism, and even more often owners don't use them properly.

Poor dogs.

@mixedrecycling if this had been two cockapoos there would be uproar.

The guy wasn't going to let them take them away he's homeless them dogs were his family. Would you hand over your kid if it got tangled up in some reins. No

It could have been handled so much more easier if the police weren't such power hungry loons.

I don’t like or trust dogs at all, but honestly, watching that video, I don’t think the police handled the situation well and I feel pretty sad for the owner and the dogs. It didn’t look like they needed to shoot them, very heavy handed.

Unfortunately with our under funded police force, we do not have officers trained well in de-escalation as it is, (a very short course which absolutely does not teach all officers to be any good at it!).

Add in dogs, where there is no training on how to properly de-escalate, evaluate and handle dogs from outside education providers, its all internal, outdated and based around police dogs, and still very little of that (think 'heres a catch pole, here's how to deploy it, the front end bites, off you go'.)

It is NOT a surprise that any situation with a volatile person and some big exciteable/frustrated/scared dogs, will go absolutely, horribly wrong.

Jumping up at people meets the description in the law so I'm still very happy they were shot and would be very very happy if it did happen to any dog that jumped up to or chased or touched a stranger without permission.

The police where responding to a dog attacking people.

The found the dogs and owner who didn't appear to be compliant or calm. He turned and waked away before returning walking at the police with the dogs behaving aggressively. It appears the human is struggling to hold them both.

The location is a difficult one as the officers are hemmed in by the water and buildings, the dogs would easily be able to out run the officers. The space is confined and this is a considerable impact factor in the decision making. The first dog is only shot when it is at very close quarters and having approached the officers.

Taser is only effective momentarily while then electricity flows and ceases to be effective when the charge is stopped. If they'd tasered one dog they'd be left with limited options of how to contain it and only able to retaser it a limited number of times all the while the other dog and human is marauding.

As unpalatable as it is, the officers didn't have many options. The human could have tied them to the railings and negotiated with the cops. Once secure the full details of the initial incident could be obtained.

Cops can only deal with what they have at the time. Essentially it's not as if they shot the dogs while the human and dogs were calmly chatting or even walking away.

I have watched the video and the owner of the dogs seems intoxicated. Definitely doesn’t seem to have the capacity to handle 2 agitated dogs. He almost seems like he could be street homeless

So would you call out an armed response if a dog jumped up on you , really ? you wouldn't think that was a waste of resources ?