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 live in Switzerland, and I see dogs not on leads, walking behind owners, in trams, in restaurants and cafes. No dog is attacking anyone. Problem is with the people owning them.

Another incident when animals let down by humans. For centuries have been used for hunting, for entertainment eg in animal racing, animal fights, horse racing, as a transport, their habitat being destroyed because we love to get everything cheap, so palm oil is essential, sea water being infested by microplastic, ducks being plucked alive to get us cheap down parkas, cheap make-up.

Op, I hope your child turns out to be more compassionate than you are. Please don't get dogs if you support shooting of dogs. And this constant comparison of dogs versus babies is not necessary.

I found that video extremely disturbing and those dogs must have been terrified. It was a horrific way to end their lives whatever the owner had done. Whatever happened to humane destruction? Whatever they had done or whatever breed that they were, there is no excuse for that ending.

If the police had attempted to catch the dogs in order to take them to be humanely euthanised by a vet, they'd have been at risk of serious injury. Shooting them was the only option. It's quick enough if done correctly. They did balls the second shooting a bit which wasn't great.
No it isn't fun to watch but maybe if people realised that this was the reality, the potential outcome for owning a badly behaved, out of control dog, they'd think twice.

@Bluebells1970 I feel exactly the same. Those poor dogs must have been absolutely terrified.

Agree with this. Even if we unquestioningly accept that both XL bullies and the like and guns are innocuous in the right hands, it isn’t easy to keep either out of the wrong hands it seems. Given that neither are essential, banning is a perfectly reasonable response.

The other similarity I see with the gun debate is the argument about other types of dogs also being dangerous in the wrong hands. Precisely the same logic as saying you can kill someone with a knife or your bare hands if you’re so minded, which is a favourite of right to bear arms fanatics.

Things are bad at the moment and there needs to be better legislation in place. But in this case the police handled the situation very badly indeed. The man was obviously not 100% well and distressed, the dogs were on leads and no longer a danger (until the police decided the right course of action was to taser the man).

apparently many who witnessed the event were appalled and distressed with the way it was dealt with.

the dogs would have had to be taken away, professionally assessed and then maybe destroyed - that is quite different from shooting two animals in public. Disturbing for all those who had to watch

I don't notice the police making any apology or sounding concerned about the footage. A clear message has been sent, and let's face it, better the dog shot than people killed. That's what people will understand

In my opinion there’s no point in destroying the dogs if there’s no regulation on breeding
These dogs are often bred in horrible conditions, their mums will fire out litter after litter, damaging their own health and then the puppies will be bought by some dodgy person and trained to fight and guard. They’re not trained to be loving family pets, they’re used to intimidate and attack.
If nothing is done about breeding then anything else is pointless, all you have to do is type in XL bully/cane corso on instagram to find some idiot with Turkey teeth advertising his dogs for breeding, they’ve all got names like Fendi, Shredda as well as elaborate advertisements with bloody cinematic effects on to announce pregnancies etc.

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it but I would favour all dogs wearing muzzles in public spaces. I used to muzzle my dog because he has a tendency to eat rubbish. I mean food that has been discarded by humans. Unfortunately so many people asked if he was vicious and treated me like a leper! BTW I think the police were in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation here.

In all of this discussion the key point is that the problem is people, not dogs.

Any dog can be dangerous under certain circumstances. Too May people get down without any real thought (or willingness) to do what is necessary to ensure the dog has sufficient exercise, training and mental stimulation. Way too many people choose a dog breed based on appearance than breed traits and massively underestimate how much many dogs need. A half hour walk on a lead once or twice a day is woefully inadequate for a great many breeds.

Add in indiscriminate breeding (by the well intentioned but ill-educated as well as despicable puppy farmers) and all the careful work responsible breeders take to breed out health conditions and poor temperament is undone. The combination of stupid owners and poorly bred dogs is a disaster waiting to happen.

I am a dog owner. I don't subscribe to the idea that dogs should be on leads at all times in public. If you introduce that you may as well ban dogs full stop and put to sleep everyone's existing pets. Not allowing dogs to sniff and run would be cruel in the extreme in many cases. Dog parks may be an alternative but you'd have to have different times/sections for well-socialised dogs and reactive dogs.

Instead solutions need to focus on legislation for breeding and ownership. I'd like to see a licence be applied for at the point of even considering getting a dog so that you have to attend some sort of day course about choosing the right breed for your lifestyle. You'd have to produce that to a breeder/rescue before being allowed to get a dog. Only breeders who pass strict controls should be allowed to breed. Back street breeders - and those who knowingly buy from them - should be prosecuted. Completing something like the canine good citizen award should be mandatory for all owners and their dogs. If your dog doesn't pass, it may be subject to either restrictions, forced rehoming or sadly euthanasia if need be.

I know this sounds draconian but I believe it's the only solution. The majority of dogs are fine, or could be. It's shit owners that are the problem. I want to live in a world where I can take my dog out and let him run off lead knowing that even a person who doesn't like dogs won't be too worried as they'll know the dog will not attack them and will go back to the owner on being called.

Anecdotally, in all the years I've had dogs and walked them I've seen a massive rise in the number of reactive dogs and anti-dog sentiment. They are obviously connected. In my view that starts with poor socialisation and training- the fault of the owners/breeders - so that's where solutions need to be targeted.

This is only going to punish the thousands of labradors, spaniels, retrievers and so on, dogs who have never done anything wrong, but who have owners responsible enough to put a muzzle on their lovely dogs.

The ones who tend to have the killer type of dogs will laugh at this sort of regulation.

Also, many of the incidents have happened on domestic settings. Again, a muzzle won't help there.

I have two lovely fluffy well behaved dogs. I keep them on the lead when I have to and they are well trained. Why should we pay for the mistakes of others?

Literally yesterday I had a rottweiler jump up at me on our walk. My little dog froze to the spot when she saw him and she's the friendlies creature you've ever met, so I'm chatting with the owner about what a big softie he is whilst he's licking my face - I don't care - but not the point. I then have to go and pick my pooch up to carry her in the opposite direction and our walk is over because the freaking lion on a lead is determined to "play" with her.
Utterly unconvinced the owner - 9 stone wet - was capable of stepping in to save me if necessary nevermind my dog.

People are stupid.

Well for months he wasn't mobile as he needed extensive (expensive) surgery. Then only very short walks, he was always on a lead and garden was secure and we didn't know it would be long term as we assumed his "mad" moments must be related to pain and frustration and quite possibly some of them were. We were lucky in that we rented a small field behind our house so he could have lots of exercise as his health improved without encountering anyone else, of course as his health and mobility improved we had to consider if he would get out of the field although he was always supervised. He really had a very hard start to life, was barely able to walk, was living wild and was painfully thin because he clearly couldn't find enough to eat. Once he recovered from surgery and put weight on and was clean he was an absolutely beautiful dog.

It was so sad as time went on and it was clear his mental state was deteriorating. He was very bonded to me and one thing that I think added to his mental state was me having a bad fall downstairs and breaking bones, left lying unable to move. He was in the kitchen with the door closed but he could hear me just the other side of the door and he was completely freaked out, I could hear him howling and barking and throwing himself against the door. It was after that that it became apparent that there was something seriously wrong.

Realising that there was only one responsible thing to do was very hard but his previously fairly easily controlled "mad" moments suddenly got much worse after my fall and he attacked my husband, big bloke and police officer who was used to looking after himself but although he wasn't seriously hurt he was visibly shocked and it was clear he could have done serious harm.

Saddest thing I've ever had to do but the professionals agreed there was nothing else to be done.

The problem is exacerbated by the tendency to cram as much housing everywhere. So more people, more dogs and no where for people and dog to go for a walk and exercise.

Much of this is brought on by the indiscriminate high density development obsession LA's have.

@Stressedafff I'm not a drug dealer 🤦🏻‍♀️ I vape though. Enough with the stereotyping already.

they'd think twice.

They don't think at all, that's the issue.

I realize that attacks happen in domestic situations, but the argument that it's unfair all dogs should wear muzzles because a only a few digs bite doesn't cut it with me I'm afraid. Labradors, spaniels etc can and do bite, even a small dog can bite and harm. And if the law says dogs are muzzled and some aren't then that is for the police to deal with.

I've just watched the full footage there was no need to taser and shoot the second dog. They had the pole around its neck. Those poor people who had to witness that.

I love dogs but I hate the sudden increase in huge dogs which have clearly been bred/chosen because of their size and aggression, and I find it really weird that anyone would get one of these dogs and then pretend it's because the dog is just such a loveable scamp rather than because of the sense of power or importance, or the kick some people get out of having the biggest car.

I understand the many difficulties with regulation, but couldn't there be a size regulation, but where if your dog is over a certain size then that's when you have to register it, microchip, prove you've been to training etc - would mean that service and working dogs, and any dog that grows unexpectedly big would not be unfairly PTS, but also that it would be easy to do 'spot checks' for the registration of any aggressive huge dogs on the street?

I don’t know if microchipping has that technology. Would someone on here know? Would make total sense though!

I watched the video, it's all over Twitter. One of the dogs appears to escape and head back to its owner. I think they shot them (a fairly small target) as quickly as possible. I don't have any emotion other than relief tbh - if a dog attacks a human, kill it. I have zero time for assessment etc, its just stringing it out. If its I'll, treat it.

That is probably true but obviously I don't know anything about who owned him originally.

This .
Some people are just too irresponsible to have dogs

I agree. I would be much happier if a fighting dog was chewing my face off if I knew it had been microchipped.

Last dog related thread I read was about how cruel e collars are and how we must only ever use positive only training which simply doesn’t work with lots of dogs, apparently anyone that uses an e collar is a shit owner, yet they are proven to work particularly at stopping dogs with a high prey drive from killing sheep or any livestock. It’s ok to kill a dog that’s killed a sheep but not use an e collar.

Simply put stop treating dogs like they are children or human. They are not, they are dogs and they are trainable. e collar training should be able to continue which is without doubt one of the best training methods if done correctly and can help with a multitude of issues. STOP saying training dogs with positive only is the only way dogs should be trained it’s complete bullshit.

as a nation we expect dog owners to train dogs but take away the right to choose how a dog is trained. We say ppl are cruel for using certain tools then shoot their dogs when they do something awful. prevention is always better than cure.

and for those ppl who are slagging staffie owners off, staffie’s were once known as the nanny breed there’s a reason for that.

The hypocrisy of the British ppl is beyond belief. Who pays the price - always the dogs.

another social media fuelled witch hunt.