To give the money back for my mauled dog's vet bill?

[Hullygully]

About three weeks ago my dog was set on by an Akita that had slipped its lead and a Rottweiler, that was on a lead, but managed to get to my dog while the owner was pulling the Akita off.

My dog had four puncture wounds and needed staples, antibiotics and painkillers.

The man was apologetic and offered to pay the vet bill, I screamed at him that the dogs should be securely on leads and be muzzled, got his number, but didn't manage to save it on my phone.

My dog was extremely traumatised for a week or so (we had to cancel a holiday), but is ok now, just responds more aggressively to any aggression shown.

I went to the police because I wanted the man to take it seriously and muzzle the dogs. A very nice policeman went to see him (I had found out where he lived), and then came to see me. He told the man the dogs had to be controlled.

I put a copy of the vet bill through his door, plus a letter asking him to PLEASE take it seriously and harness and muzzle the dogs. He turned up on my doorstep and gave me cash, and said he was sorry and loved dogs. I said, you are going to muzzle them, aren't you? And he said the police had said it wasn't necessary, and that he had a more secure collar...He also said the dog had attacked two other dogs before.

I was so stunned I just said, well, I think you are being very irresponsible etc.

He left. Now I want to go and put the money back through his door as it feels like he thinks he's bought his way out of his responsibility.

I am so enraged.

I think that 3 is covered by 2, Fanjo.

yes, i was going to say it sounds like a mixture of 2 and 3!

I see where you are coming from on the blood money issue Huls but in the scheme of things if you give the money back it's not going to get the result you want. He's still not going to muzzle his dog is he even if you buy him one?

Keep it or give it to a charity. How about asking your vet if they could use it for a deserving cause or two? Someone's going to turn up with an injured dog and no money to pay for it at some point and the vet isn't going to be able to recover funds in all cases.

Take the money. Your dog won't have been any less mauled for you being out of pocket. I understand you're angry, but wouldn't you have been even more angry if he had taken no responsibility at all?

It would have made more sense. How can you apologise, pay the vet bill, then not muzzle your dogs thus giving them the chance to do it again. Illogical.

I don't think he gives two shits about responsibility.

He thought "how can I have a quiet/easy life? pay her off and apologise"

WHEN you have calmed down!!!!!

Firstly, the owner of these dogs is a prize cunt. As an ex Rotweiller owner, i see no reason for these dogs to be aggresive unless they are trained to be. (I remember the owner of a dachshund once being absoultely horrified as her dog came tearing round the corner of the woods once. Launched itself at my dog, all the poor woman could hear was her dogs shreiks and snarls and my hysterical laughter - seriously, her dog was hanging off my dogs throat going full guns, while my rottie just carried on with what he was doing and piddled up a tree. The elderly owner soon joined me in my hysteria but thats another story).

I am wary of Akita's, they do seem to be inpredictable, im an ex vet nurse and most of the akitas on our list were classed as "Watch" ie, likely to bite. Most of the time perfectly fine then for no reason, gotcha.

So this guy obviously has those dogs for the wrong reasons - i wonder are they some sort of guard dogs?

But YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST TAKE THE MONEY FROM HIM. You are absolutely not being unreasonable in your assumption that actually he thinks this absolves himself or responsibility. Ownership of powerful dogs comes with a high level of responsibility and that is to keep them under control. He blatantly isnt doing that. It is, i would say, difficult enough to hold onto one of these big dogs let alone two. I certainly wouldnt want to have to deal with that - My Rottie was very tolerant of other dogs and on the whole would not react if another dog attacked him, but sometimes he would react if he got hurt and it did take all my strength to hold him, but if i had another dog to deal with as well it would be impossible. Therefore even if my dogs didn't start the fight, it would still be my responsibility because I would be the one unable to remove my dog from the situation. This guy thinks its ok and IF you give him the money back all he will think is, stupid cow, i offered to pay her bill but she didnt want it, her loss.

He absolutely should be reassuring you, as i know you have a genuine concern for dog welfare hully, that he will be taking steps to ensure this doesn't happen again. As you say, muzzle the bloody things or take them out one at a time so he can control them. I dont care how strong he is, he would not have been able to control TWO big dogs like that.

This is really odd. He is responsible on the one hand, is keen to give you the money, is full of apologies, loves dogs etc but wont muzzle them? That is insane.

I wouldn't give back the money. Why would you want to do that? As Fanjo suggested I would call the police again and speak to them about what he has told you. They surely can't let him get away with just having a more secure collar.

I really hope your dog is feeling better Hully poor thing.

Why won't he muzzle them tho? What is his thinking?

he might be thinking he doesn't want to get bitten trying to muzzle them. Or maybe - apart from the actual biting - muzzling makes them behave worse.

(my only experience of muzzles is that once a vet decided to muzzle my dachs before treatment... he wouldn't have bitten her unmuzzled but nearly did while resisting, and was then really difficult to control, he bloody hated the thing. So I'm a bit dubious that they are the panacea for canine evils - though I can entirely see why you think these particular animals should be)

Yes, weird huh?

I can't figure it out.

You might be right, desperate, but I wanted to say to him that he couldn't buy his way out of what had happened.

I think he won't muzzle them because he LOVES them and they are his ickle wickle baby killing machines

I might write to him too.

Is he just thick as shit?

Then he is mad and he is not as sorry as he suggests. Why on earth didn't the police tell him to muzzle them?

They can't without going to court. I think.

I will write to them with love and concern.

With regards to the muzzle, i really don't like muzzling dogs if it isn't necessary. When we first had our rescue rottie we didn't really know what he was like so I used to muzzle him when we went or walks for the first six months, he abolutely HATED it and would become subdued and even when i did let him off the lead he just mumbled along. Saying that, i wasn't 100% sure of how he would react in certain situations so the muzzle stayed on until i was confident that he wouldnt do anything.

The problem with these dogs is that they have shown uncontrollable aggression which actually suggests they are poorly socialised. So he needs to be thinking about getting them socialised under controlled circumstances (this is what we did), But until he is absolutely certain that he can control the dogs and they wont fight (not sure it isnt too late tbh) they absolutely should be muzzled, or walked where he can garuntee there will be no other dogs.

Grimma at your vet wanting to muzzle your Dachsie!! We would only ever muzzle dogs if they had a history of wanting to chew our fingers off or if they were difficult, we would never muzzle as a matter of course. Most dogs ime however do tend to calm down once the muzzle is in place and it makes the whole thing less stressful for everyone concerned, most importantly the dog - but all dogs are different. Yours reminds me of Hairy Maclary's rumpus at the vets

Give the money to a charity that focuses on dog training/welfare. Go to a local paper, get them to write up the story about why you are doing this. You don't have to name him, if he has an unusual dog, people will cotton on.

Or even better, go round there and say, whilst you appreciate the contribution, your dogs are insured and you feel he would be better off training his dogs and that you are perfectly willing to use the money he has given you to pay for him to take his dogs onto a socialisation/training course - see him squirm out of that one!

now there's a thought...

that was to notwaving, but yours is one too, altho I'm not sure I can face him again.

Oh Hully I remember your original thread about the attack, awful, hope you did have some in the end!

I agree with keeping/donating the money, and writing to the police re not muzzling, previous attacks etc. Just read the suggestion of the local paper. Maybe they will approach him for his side of the story tho, would that lead to more confrontation??? But might make him realise the issue this is. Oh heck I don't know

Cuddles and biccies to hullydog.

I can understand your thinking Hully with regards to blood money, but I would not give him the satisfaction of returning his money - I second the dog charity.

Definitely write to him though, pointing out the error of his ways, in your own inimitable style.

Keep the money. It is the least you are owed for the distress and costs incurred by his irresponsibility.

There are two distinct issues here. Your vet bill which you should be reimbursed for and his failure to accept his dog needs to be muzzled. It is absolutely not blood money to accept the money towards the bill. The control issue needs to be dealt with by involving the police and dog warden, not by leaving yourself out of pocket.

that's what dh says, Pande. But I don't feel that way. I feel all Old Testament and the money is Tainted.

hully so sorry your lovely dog was attacked I would not give the money back myself but I can totally see why you would feel the need to do that! Maybe buy a couple of muzzles and write the letter and post it through his door with the muzzles...

My lovely dog was very nearly bitten walking through the park with me and DD the week before last the man had a female big muscly staff and one that looked close to being a pup, both on long leads. As we were walking along the path, my Daisy-dog on her halti collar and lead, the man came round the corner ahead of us walking toward us. His bigger dog immediately started to snarl and the man just chuckled and said o-kay girl to his dog and kept walking, I pulled Daisy-dog closer but he left his on her longer lead the dog started snapping and growling really aggressively and lunged at my dog with the stupid owner chuckling away like it was funny!! DD was very shaken and started to cry and Daisy-dog was clearly frightened and walked tail-between-legs along the path I shudder to think of what could have been, had that awful dog not been on her lead I do think maybe the pup was her own and she was protecting it (understandable as she is an animal after all) but the owner was so blasé about it so it had clearly happened before! I would be mortified if my dog so much as growled at someone (would be very out of character for her though)

So sorry for HullyDog . I hope it isn't a child next.