To report staffie to police for attacking my DD 14 wk old puppy?

[pippala]

Last evening my daughter and her partner were walking their puppy past some houses on an extendable lead.
Staffie tears down his driveway which had no gate and picks puppy up by his back and shakes him.
The lead was extended so wrapped around dog and daughter and boyfriends legs.
Boyfriend bitten on wrist by puppy as he tried to pull him away from the dog. He managed to get him out of the dogs mouth and handed him to my daughter.
The staffie then jumped up and got puppy by the back legs and dragged him out of my daughters arms. Now in the middle of the road.
My daughter was screaming, she thought Puppy would die.
Young boy aged about 10 saunters down the drive, totally uninterested attitude and gets staffie off puppy. without a collar on!
Four men from across the road also tried to help before boy came down the drive.
This dog could so easily do that to a toddler walking past the house.
Will the police do anything to help?
This dog could have history. He had no collar on and loose in the garden. What if he kills a child one day when it could have been pervented?
They should pay the vets bills which will run into the £100's but we dont want to approach them personally. Would the police help? Could we take it to the small claims court?
What if the puppy doesn't pull through. My poor daughter she is devastated.

I'd report it, take photos and vet notes.
Then next time it happens, and the time after that, hopefully there will be a file building up until someone takes action.
Hope your puppy pulls through, our friend's cat wasn't as lucky.

Yes, I think that you can and should report this to the police.

A prosecution against the owner of an out of control dog can be brought before the magistrates by either the police or the Local Authority or a private individual.

Don't get fobbed off if you can help it. That was a nasty incident. And the breed is irrelevant if the dog is out of control. (Different areas have better or worse reponses to this kind of thing. But it is your right to insist that the police take a report.)

Dogs Best Friend and others will know more.

Definately report it to the police. Don't say it's a staffie, just say it's some sort of pit bull terrier thing, you're not sure what breed and that it attacked all of you.

As for the vets bills, put it in writing to them first. You don't have to actually talk to them but you should give them a chance to cough up.

YANBU.You would never be able to forgive yourself if that dog attacked anyone else, please do the right thing.

You also need to make sure your daughter's boyfriend is up to date with his tetanus shots. He can call his doctors and they should be able to tell him, if not he needs to have a booster shot to be on the safe side.

I would definitely go via the police rather than confronting in person. For a dog to behave like that I would assume it has been trained to attack (or not trained at all maybe?) but whichever they don't sound like the kind of folk you want to get into an altercation with!

Hope your DD's pup pulls through, poor wee thing

That's awful

Really though (and I'm not being funny) wouldn't you have been better off ringing the police and asking them?

Not necessarily trained to do anything, just defensive of territory, or seeing something little and furry and toy sized.
Perhaps the pup squeaked at it.
Who knows?

Definately report it to the police. Don't say it's a staffie, just say it's some sort of pit bull terrier thing, you're not sure what breed and that it attacked all of you

It didn't attack all of them though?

And why lie about the breed? Even if the dog was a Yorkshire Terrier, it's out of control.

I have replied on your legal thread.

YANBU, but be warned. We had a dangerous dog living on our road a few years back, who attacked our dogs three times that I remember.Each time, the police refused to do anything as it hadn't killed our dog(s) or injured myself or whoever was walking them at the time. Hopefully, they'll be better with your case, and I know I'd rather think "I did what I could" than to hear the dog had attacked again, and I'd kept schtum about it.

Don't lie about the breed and don't lie that it attacked all of you. What a stupid thing to suggest. But yes, do report to the police and your district council. They should have an animal warden who can help.

If you want the complaint to be taken seriously, tell the truth calmly.
Why lie and over-embellish?

So your bf hands a puppy who is being attacked to your daughter who then gets puppy pulled from her arms?

Isn't that putting your DS in extra danger? Seems a bit odd

But yes yanbu to report this dog

Sorry. HER bf and your DD not DS lol. Damn this phone

'Last evening my daughter and her partner '

Not OP's partner.
It's what you do automatically, lift something small and vulnerable out of harm's way.

I'm sure it all happened in the blink of an eye...and the BF probably handed it to her so he could deal with the dog attacking it.

Thank you for your replies.
DD back to the vets this morning.
Puppy will recover, finally passed water this morning. Three puncture wounds in his legs and badly bruised.
He is on anti b's and pain killers. He won't get out of bed and walk and cries when he is touched.
The vet says he was very lucky not to have been shaken to death.
He also told DD to report it to the dog warden. she is going to drive down the road later and take note of the house number invloved and the four witnesses.

DD's BF passed puppy to her because he had been bitten trying to get the puppy out of the dogs mouth.
He was in A&E last night getting a tetanus shot
He thinks it was the puppy that bit him by the size of the teeth marks. He doesn't blame puppy as he was terrified.

Aww hope the puppy recovers quickly

I would also ring your community police and give them the heads up. That way, if they're passing and the dog's loose in the front garden...they may at least give the owners a knock.

Definitely report it asap!! I used to own to a Staffie and would have been horrified had he done something like this! An out of control dog of whatever breed should not be running loose where it can get to other animals or people.

I hope all are ok and recovering x

"This dog could so easily do that to a toddler walking past the house."

UTTER BOLLOCKS.

THERE IS NO PROVEN CORRELATION BETWEEN DOG AGGRESSIVENESS AND HUMAN AGGRESSIVENESS AND ALL YOU'RE DOING IS ADDING TO THE PREJUDICE AND HYSTERIA ABOUT DOGS WHICH IS ALREADY THE CAUSE OF THE DEATHS OF SO MANY.

In fact, the opposite is very often the case - hence fighting dogs need to be particularly human friendly so that man can handle him and treat wounds without being bitten (those fuckers wouldn't take a dog with fight wounds to a vet).

That a 10 yo dealt with the Staffs kind of proves my point.

WRT the attack, there are several ways forward.

1. Contact your local Dog Warden (IF your council still has one) and ask them to visit the owner, warn of the consequences and advise (they can do this in such a way as to be polite but intimating that the owner shouldn't fuck them about, they mean business).

1. Take out a private prosecution for vets fees - consult your insurers first. I take it that pup is insured?

1. Police action under the DDA which if the PC knows his stuff will be effective and accurate. CHances are that the PC doesn't, this law is HUGELY abused and misinterpreted, and will fuck it up but the public wanted the knee jerk legislation and public wants what the public gets, you could say.

1. If social housing, report to housing officer.

1. Report to council's anti-social behaviour officer.

Klad what a ridiculous thing to suggest

Id report but would hesitate to state the breed just because it doesnt matter if it was a Staff or a Lab.

PS I do hope that poor puppy makes a full recovery. WHEN he does, cos I'm praying like mad that he will, please make lots of effort to socialise him asap, especially with Bull Breeds, as otherwise you could have a dog with fear issues (and therefore possibly dog-fear aggression as a result) on your hands.

Training classes are probably best for this socialisation - or have a word with local rescue, they may be able to put you in touch with some Bull breed owners to introduce pup to. You may well be using training classes already but make a point of asking the trainer for help here.

and agree with DBF that its a load of ignorant shite to assume that this dog would attack a human

Completely agree with DBF.

Absolutely report this incident. This dog has serious aggression towards other dogs and the owners must be made to ensure their dog is kept secure.

However do not muddy the matter with 'that could be a child next time' hysteria because that is just going to detract from the real issue.

Dogs do know the difference between humans and other dogs. There is no correlation between dog aggression and people aggression.

"Definately report it to the police. Don't say it's a staffie, just say it's some sort of pit bull terrier thing, you're not sure what breed and that it attacked all of you."

Sick.

Utterly sick and abhorrrant.