Two dogs shot in London by police

[flowagurl]

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 give up. It’s like talking to a brick wall.

what about the dog walker who was mauled to death when walking about 10 dogs? How come they were seized by police and taken in for investigation and behavioural observation ? They weren’t all shot dead were they?

these dogs didn’t put a mark on anyone. There are meant to be professional dog handlers in the police who would know how to manage this situation. These police officers clearly don’t know anything about dogs and had no justification for their actions

Police acted correctly.

Dog was inches away from the armed officer at the time of first shot. Should the police have not acted, there could quite easily have been a situation where an officer carrying a loaded high powered gun is being mauled by a large powerful dog. Incredibly dangerous.

It’s all down to the owner/keeper of the dogs. He was acting aggressively and threateningly towards the officers, effectively using his dogs as a shield or weapon. If you approach an armed officer in that manner, using your dogs as weapons, you are likely going to get shot. It’s not difficult to understand.

Wow im not ok with this. We all know the police cannot be trusted and this has opened the floodgates to "oh yes Mr officer, it was that dog over there, the one that's barking and looks a bit dodgy that attacked me" - cue army of thugs in uniform turning up and escalating it nicely so they can use their guns, how exciting.

He had hold of them, they were under control, all that shouting etc just escalated it. Fair enough they should have been assessed etc as usual, and then destroyed if found to be dangerous, not disputing that.

Fuck the police. 😡

@Megifer I completely agree. Whole thing is disgusting

He had hold of them

No he didn't. The first dog was released from his grip and lunged towards the police.

1st image shows gun flash = position of dog when shot.
2nd image shows the lead lying on the floor.

He HAD hold of them. But the thugs in uniform caused that to escalate. Homeless man pursued by police because a woman tripped up and we're surprised he was agitated. They are absolute scum and handled that siuation appallingly.

But hey, they got to shoot their big guns 👍

A further interesting point from the footage: the police were attempting to negotiate. 'You're leaving us no choice, fella' were I think the precise words used. The owner reacted with aggression and the dog - unleashed by this point - makes a lunge toward the police officer.

They don't have to wait until a potentially dangerous dog savages someone to deem it a threat to the public. The size and muscle of those dogs (esp. on the train footage where they're taking up seats) is considerable and they have those huge jaws which lock on.

All dogs bred with this characteristic are potentially dangerous. Granted, many of them are probably soft as brushes and will likely go through their lives harming no one - BUT all it takes is one mistake for them to revert to breed type, characteristics, and behaviour. And in the hands of an owner like this - who is solely responsible for failing those dogs - they didn't have a hope. Better them than an unsuspecting member of the public.

The police had no option.

Incidentally, I too would be wary of male 6' 1", 14 st. strangers in particular circumstances: it's a given that women have to risk-assess these issues on pretty much a daily basis. Some such men will absolutely pose a threat. But on this thread - which is on an entirely different topic on which such an observation is an irrelevant, snide aside - this is a cheap, low blow.

I don’t think the owner failed their dogs at all. The police like a bunch of bullies chased this homeless man and his dogs and pretty much had them cornered, even though they did nothing wrong. The police are to blame for this, not the owner and not the dogs.

the Police are out of control

https://orkidie.com/?p=53462&feedid=17246&&uniqueid=645de9a877078&amp=1

what about the dog walker who was mauled to death when walking about 10 dogs? How come they were seized by police and taken in for investigation and behavioural observation ? They weren’t all shot dead were they?
Because they don't come under the category of XL/muscle/bully dogs, none of them were inherently threatening & dangerous in the way that the dogs in the shooting incident were.
Those dogs are unsuited to being pets, they are inherently threatening and dangerous and need to be banned.

The dogs did not do anything though . You can’t just go and shoot dogs dead because you’re scared of the way they look.

The owner had set the dogs on the police officers, the dogs were dangerously out of control, they had two choices shoot the dogs or be attacked by the dogs maybe you'd be willing to sacrifice your life for a dog but I wouldn't and police officers certainly shouldn't be required to.

The dogs did not do anything though

Apart from being off lead and lunging towards the police in an aggressive and dangerous manner.

I just think that owners of XL bullies have been put in notice thdt their dogs can be destroyed if they are not in control of them in public. That is the law anyway, it's simply that owners of these dogs who enjoy the fact that these animals scare people have had their amusement curtailed. This owner included, who did nothing to control them.

Dogs are not people and don't get trials as to whether they have a good character. It's the behaviour that matters.

There's plenty of basis on which the police and the Met in particular are indeed 'out of control' and are not an institution I would necessarily trust. The incident on a recent thread about a woman refusing to get out of her vehicle at 2am when pulled over by two male POs is a case in point. In her circumstances I'd have done exactly the same.

This isn't one of those incidents. The behaviour of those dogs was very threatening and they were clearly out of control and lunging at officers in an attack mode.

Perhaps some members of the public are quite happy to have other members of the public put at risk. They evidently believe themselves at liberty to make the [split second] decision of what constitutes risk to others on their behalf. They are fine with expecting police officers to wait until the dog savaged them before taking whatever measures are necessary to protect both themselves or the public.

I don't agree. And frankly, I don't want the kind of barmy person who constantly elevates the wellbeing and rights of dogs over those of actual human beings, making such decisions on my behalf.

It's to be hoped the Met have the majority of the publics' support on this. Too many similar occasions have recently ended in tragedy.

@Becky12123
Please try to understand that these dogs are not normal small pet dogs that you can easily overpower if they try to attack you
these are dangerous powerful predators, more akin to a puma if it attacks you it's very likely to kill you or at least very seriously injure you.

Exactly this^^

Not what I , or most other people saw.

This post is spot on.

I've had 4 staffies - all were very sweet-natured, but one did respond when TWO other dogs (both bigger than her) attacked her and had her pinned against a fence so she was forced to defend herself. She knocked seven bells out of them both - injured one of them very severely.

It was horrible.

She had never behaved this way before (she was five when this happened), and we made sure she didn't ever again by keeping her leashed, but if the other dogs had been under control it would never have happened anyway. However, it meant that our good-natured dog was never allowed for a run off-lead again

A good, placid dog can be ruined if it is subject to attacks by out of control animals. We have two border collies locally which are very aggressive towards other dogs, and have injured several - one of them a whippet (and whippets have skin like tissue paper and very little body fat to protect them). The owners still allow them to run freely - unleashed and unmuzzled, and the woman owner can't hold them back even when they are on leash in the streets. If the police were to shoot those buggers I would cheer, TBH.

@ThisOldThang they were chased and cornered. They were on leads. Any dog regardless of breed would be intimidated and confused by this and would want to protect their owner. The dogs are chased by the police for no reason- no one was injured or attacked. Their leads got tangled up with the small dog’s. Indeed the woman who owned the small dog was upset and crying about the fact the dogs were shot dead.

obviously you are scared of dogs byt

These breeds of dog should never have been created. I remember when I first heard of them in the media a few decades ago there was talk about them being banned in the UK. Of course nothing was done by the government and here we are.

They are dangerous animals. You can't be sentimental about them . (and I love dogs, normal breeds/mongrels, friendly ones).

I've owned staffies and am very familiar with the breed, and frankly if even a small staffie came aggressively towards me looking as though it meant business if would frighten the bejabers out of me. They are powerful dogs.

I honestly don't think the police had any choice in this situation - it is very sad. Those dogs were beautiful and in excellent condition, but they were not properly under control. All of those people protesting - what would their response have been if the dogs had actually reached and bitten a police officer? Do we really want people injured, perhaps disabled, before we take action?

So there’s an incident reported that the dogs have attacked someone/something.

Police arrive and the owner isn’t cooperating. The dogs are barking and lunging (seen on video)
The man then let’s go at which point one dog advances towards the police.

What was he meant to do? Wait and see if it bites him? Try and grab hold of a 50kg reportedly aggressive loose animal and hope for the best? Let it go and hope it doesn’t maul someone? Remember they don’t know if it’s nice or not.

The man is refusing to cooperate with the police, we’re they meant to just say oh all’s fine then off you go with your two potentially dangerous dogs without a chance to discuss anything because your upset? That’s not how things work, just because your swearing and having a tantrum does not make the incident okay.

I have dealt with dangerous dogs in similar situations due to the nature of my job (veterinary working with behavioural euthanasia cases) and it’s terrifying when a dog is in that frame of mind. Am I scared of bullies, yes in some ways, scared of the potential for disaster if one does decide to eat me. I’ve also seen how relentless they can be compared to other types which makes things even scarier.

I'm not scared of dogs, I won't to say this clear.

I have dogs, I have been around dogs since I remember, but these dogs, the bully type owned by certain type of owner terrify me. I worry for myself and for my dogs, who are also scared. There are a couple we meet, and my boys, who are usually confident and cheerful, come back to me and hide behind me, whenever we see the bullies. They are shit scared themselves.

There has to be some sort of regulations for these breeds.