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?

sorry, I want to not won't.

This man chose to have dangerous powerful predators as pets, you can't lump dogs like this in with normal dogs.

"She knocked seven bells out of them both - injured one of them very severely."

Good on her! But would you have been ok if 7 coppers with guns chased you down, created a situation of heightened anxiety that spooked your dog a little, and shot your dog after that? That's where its heading if we're ok with how this situation was handled.

I had a similar situation years ago, another SBT (not a proper one tbf, this one was huge) got hold of my little old biddy SBT and punctured her side. From that point if she saw another dog like it she'd lunge, bark, and get very agitated, understandably. On the outside looking in, a thug in uniform might judge that she's an "inherent danger" and put a bullet in her with no further assessment. I'm not ok with that.

I haven't read the whole thread but to me a lot of it is dogs not being kept or handled appropriately

I see ones near me being walked up to the shop and back, and that's probably their only walk. Being hung off tree branches, no recall, no socialisation, nothing and cooped up in a small flat. They're bored shitless, restless, don't know how to act around other dogs and the owner has no control

It's like a parent letting their child run wild and never saying no or telling them off for biting or hitting. Except the ones that run wild near me are now the teenagers/adults that have these dogs

My friend has a small staff that she has had since a puppy. She researched the breed and knew both the parents of the dog as being a great temperament. Did puppy training, socialising, regular vet care, he's walked for hours. Genuinely lovely dog that always has a big staffy smile on his face even at the vet. Big garden and she pays for a dog walker if she isn't home so he gets the exercise he needs and play time as well as doing puzzles/games with him. He loves a job and will fetch you a toilet roll as his party trick

Oh and other people being stupid

I walked for a dog rescue, had a dog on a lead with a jacket on saying nervous dog. The amount of people that would let their dog run up... there's a reason I'm keeping the dog on a lead! Trying to stay away from people doesn't work if they let their dogs run across a field and have no recall

Also had a puppy run and sit on my horses hoof, the back hoof. On a day when she was kicking under her belly at the flies. I screamed at the owner who ambled over no rush and took minutes to get there. The puppy was literally the size of her hoof and my incredible horse didn't move an inch until the stupid owner got there, even when the puppy was chewing her tail

@Megifer exactly! They scared the dogs and caused things to escalate. It’s so sad. I wish people on this thread could take a step back and see this for what it is.

also dog leads always get tangled up when dogs interact with each other . I have a Labrador and that always happens. Doesn’t make me an irresponsible dog owner and it certainly wouldn’t justify 7 armed police men cornering me and my dog, scaring him and shooting him dead

@ThisOldThangthey 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.

They weren't on leads!

The first dog was completely loose and lunged at the police.

Have you watched the video I linked to earlier?

Why do you keep denying reality?

Do you really think 7 armed police officers are going to come and take down your Labrador, tangled leads or not?

@ChardonnaysBeastlyCat well my dog would also lunge and bark at them if surrounded like that. He would feel he needed to protect me. My dog isn’t dangerous. I don’t think those dogs were either

But would you have been ok if 7 coppers with guns chased you down, created a situation of heightened anxiety that spooked your dog a little, and shot your dog after that?

No - but it wouldn't have come to that. I wouldn't have been confrontational, and nor would I have released my dog to threaten the officers.

As far as the police knew, someone had been bitten. This proved to be incorrect, but at the time they thought they were dealing with aggressive dogs.

Had the idiot allowed the police to take them and check the situation, then the dogs would very likely have been alive now.

What happened to your staffie was what happened to ours - being attacked meant that she became very defensive towards other dogs that we didn't ever risk another fight.

It made life difficult sometimes when other dogs - particularly large dogs - approached her in a confrontational way and the owners responded with "Oh, he just wants to play!" and the dogs either weren't recalled or had no recall. I was then trying to control her and keep between her and the other dogs as they bounced round each other.

That wasn't my question.

Well surely that situation wouldn’t happen because you could cooperate with the police in the first place rather than running away and escalating the incident.

And the dogs weren’t cornered, it was a public path with an opportunity for flight the opposite direction especially as it was off lead.

But if he did, wouldn't just command him to sit and be done with it?

Also, the hearsay is that the man with the dogs was banned from keeping animals. Presumably that was also a reason for trying to get him to surrender the dogs since he is breaking the law even having possession of them, yet there he is refusing and letting them off lead to run towards police.

So much sympathy for the man but it makes you wonder why he was banned in the first place.

Sounds as if he was determined not to comply with the ban and chose the breed (ie weapon dogs) precisely because he wanted them to attack anyone who tried to take them away from him

The problem responsible dog owners have is that - even more so than the rest of the public - they also have to deal with the irresponsible ones. And this can end up having a detrimental impact on the lives of their animals, as seen with the example of the bull breed above. It's so unfortunate that a once-good animal can no longer be let off the lead - because its owners have a sense of social responsibility - once she's been attacked by others' out of control dogs.

And what kind of owner lets their precious pooch tangle with a SBT? You'd have to be off your head. Soft and loving through many of these dogs may be, I'd still never trust one. It only takes once.

Thankfully, the responsible owners with a clue are very much in evidence on this thread. The irresponsible ones are also showing themselves up loud and clear.

I have every sympathy with the former variety who have to deal with the latter.

No - but it wouldn't have come to that. I wouldn't have been confrontational, and nor would I have released my dog to threaten the officers.
tbf I'm not surprised a homeless man being chased by 7 thugs with guns wasn't entirely cooperative. I'm not sure he released the dog intentionally, I don't think anyone can be certain that was what he did (or not).Again I imagine having all that going on with threats of being tasered might make someone lose grip or do something stupid. That dog was huge and im surprised it didn't appear more aggressive when lunging if it was intending to attack.

As far as the police knew, someone had been bitten. This proved to be incorrect, but at the time they thought they were dealing with aggressive dogs.
exactly though, no assessment was carried out. Let's hope this incorrect assumption doesn't result in more humans getting shot unnecessarily

Had the idiot allowed the police to take them and check the situation, then the dogs would very likely have been alive now.
Yep, true I agree there. But again if i was being chased by 7 thugs with guns I genuinely don't know what I'd do? If it was the situation with my SBT I think my gut would be "no, you can't take her, you have guns so you'll kill her!" Knowing full well that all some people need to see is an SBT so much as whale eye and they assume they are a danger

What happened to your staffie was what happened to ours - being attacked meant that she became very defensive towards other dogs that we didn't ever risk another fight.

It made life difficult sometimes when other dogs - particularly large dogs - approached her in a confrontational way and the owners responded with "Oh, he just wants to play!" and the dogs either weren't recalled or had no recall. I was then trying to control her and keep between her and the other dogs as they bounced round each other.
yea it sucked massively. Sorry that happened to yours too!

I guess what worries me is how this all escalated because of the actions of the "police" being way too eager for a bit of argy bargy. Like I say if we're ok with this, we now have to accept that in our situations with our SBTs they too might have ended up with a bullet in them. Because today its "the guy refused to let them take his dogs", tomorrow it could be "well we assume the guy wouldn't have given up his dogs"

Yes.

I have to worry about twatty owners of dangerous dogs and people are looking at my dogs with suspicion because of the action of a few idiots.

I had to look up the abbreviation SBT. Most people use staffy, is there a reason you are using a more obscure abbreviation to describe your dogs?

Reason apart from it being a very common abbreviation? No.

I know quite a few police officers who own bull breeds. More often than not when a dangerous dog is brought in to the practice (regularly sadly) the police are kind and respectful towards it. Never have I met a policeman who wanted to kill a dog, and neither have I wanted to kill one either but sadly sometimes there’s no choice. On the occasion a dog has been unapproachable due to aggression it has been euthanised in the kindest way possible, often with the police spending all day with the dog waiting for sedatives etc to make that the case.

If you own a big dog with the potential for it to hurt someone or something, especially if it’s a breed people hate then control it. Don’t let it escape, bother the public, intimidate people, hassle and terrify other dogs, comply with the law and you will never have a problem. Prove to the public that your dog isn’t dangerous by not letting it be a danger- train it within an inch of its life, make sure it’s physically containable and if your not sure how it will behave don’t put it in that situation to find out. There’s not a situation where you will be walking your dog and have it shot for just existing. To be honest I feel sorry for the police officer who had to make a split second decision after the owner put the dogs in that position in the first place and now has to listen to people who have never been there say they could have done it better.

With any dog of sound temperament, how they react to a situation will largely depend on how their owner reacts to a situation. If the owner in this case had dealt with the original issue sensibly, or had told them to calm down and had a discussion with the first police officer that they met, they would probably also have been fine (I am sure they didn't send that number in initially, they will have been called because the owner was argumentative and trying to leave).

This video wasn't taken by someone idly hanging out their flat window - they will have started filming because there was already a ruckus going on that drew their attention.

@GSD20
I applaud your post at 14:02, but at the same time I fear that bull breeds will always attract the wrong type of owner ☹️

Heartbroken for these dogs.

I’ve seen photos of them on the tube, passive. I’ve seen photos of the police gunning down what looks like a terrified dog, not lunging but turning the opposite way!

I’ve seen a video of what sounds like a deranged woman screaming at the homeless guy and his dogs (who weren’t lunging at her or her dog)

I’m hoping that the police cam shows clearly why they chose to handle it the way they did.

You can't put people at risk from dangerous dogs, if in doubt, shoot them dead. The owners should take this into account when they choose to own dangerous breeds. I'd shoot a lot of the owners as well but unfortunately this isn't allowed.