To be so sick of selfish dog owners...The seal pup in London

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It’s in the news that a seal pup has been mauled by an off lead dog. The seal pup now is likely to be put down.

Recent story of an off lead husky attacking lambs and sheep . A few months ago an off lead dog mauled a deer which had to be destroyed.

Numerous stories of swans being mauled by off lead dogs. On top of the numerous stories of children being attacked by off lead dogs.

Ffs why are people so bloody stupid and selfish! Keep your dog on a lead near wildlife!

I feel so sad for the seal pup . AIBU to think laws need to be tightened around off lead dogs?

I say this as a dog lover and owner .

Dogs can be trained to be steady around distractions/wildlife and be obedient so as to look to it's owner for 'permission' before approaching a person or other dog etc. Many owners train to a very good level, but many simply don't bother with obedience or much training. I think it should be compulsory.

My Springer is on a long line until she is trained, and I will be continuing her introduction to sheep this morning. We live quite rurally. When she is trained I will be confident to give her more freedom to go ahead and explore, while checking back with me at suitable intervals. It is her nature to be highly trained and to be off lead.

There is also a very popular dog walking area a few miles away. Most dogs are off-lead and it is very rare there is any misbehaviour. The owners are responsible and know and have control of their dogs. Some dogs are on lead and a few may be muzzled. It's a mixed bag.

My friends dog is muzzled as he's a reactive rescue, so it is the right option while his reactivity is addressed.

I know so many well behaved dogs, and I have not met a badly behaved/controlled dog or owner in this area since living here 9yrs)

The town park where I used to live, there was more of a problem, but it's the few that tarnish everyone else, it seems

@SummersMumma

Just one last comment on here - For the various people that say "my dog has the right to run off lead in fields / woods / parks when no-one is around" or various versions of this - how do you know where the wildlife is? Isn't the point that its wild? How about I you really must let your dogs free you muzzle them whilst off lead then take the muzzle off when you put them back on leads? I'm sure the lady and her dog that started this debate did not go out thinking - my dog is going to attack and maim a seal today. The whole point is surely what can be done to prevent needless attacks happening in future.

It would prove difficult for him to fetch his ball muzzled. So no. We will pass on that

@Quit4me

Dogs should be on a lead at all times except in special fenced closed dog zones in larger parks. No dog should ever be running around wildlife or random people who don’t want a dog near them. I absolutely hate it when dogs come up to me, jumping sniffing etc. I don’t know them and they don’t know me. I find it totally panic inducing if it’s a larger dog and usually freeze and focus on my breathing frantically looking for the owner to call them off. Sometimes get a casual sorryyy but mostly nothing said. I don’t want your f- ing dog touching me!

My dog doesn't go near either wildlife or people.

[quote OldScrappyAndHungry]@Stolengoat yes of course - people should always walk their cat on a lead .[/quote]
lol this made me laugh !!god knows what our pair would do if i stuck them on a lead

@Stolengoat

Cat owners are as bad, their cats killing birds and other wild animals. Also crapping in everyone's flower beds. They should tighten the laws on dogs and apply them to cats too.

Oh yes, let's tar all cats/cat owners with the same brush.

My garden is cat proofed so my cat isn't 'crapping in everyone's flowerbeds', he caught a mouse last year but that's only the second one in 13 years and I don't encourage birds into the garden just in case he suddenly learns how to hunt.

There are responsible and irresponsible pet owners, no matter what species we're talking about. Unfortunately MN tends to bring out the haters.

@chaosrabbitland I tried putting mine on a harness years ago. It didn't end well for me...

@PinkSparklyPussyCat Ouch!!

In my old house, my cat was an outdoor cat but rarely left the garden

Used to feed the birds till she worked out they were food, so stopped doing that

New house, she rarely goes outdoors as she now prefers being indoors and we haven’t encouraged a single bird as much as I would love to, just in case she starts hunting again.

Doesn’t matter anyway there are so many cats about (2 on one side, one on the other and I’m sure there is another two behind us) that it wouldn’t be fair to encourage birds

@Soubriquet

In my old house, my cat was an outdoor cat but rarely left the garden

Used to feed the birds till she worked out they were food, so stopped doing that

New house, she rarely goes outdoors as she now prefers being indoors and we haven’t encouraged a single bird as much as I would love to, just in case she starts hunting again.

Doesn’t matter anyway there are so many cats about (2 on one side, one on the other and I’m sure there is another two behind us) that it wouldn’t be fair to encourage birds

I have 3 cats. 1 is a hunter, he wears a bell but it doesn't always stop him. We don't encourage birds either.

Sad really as I love watching birds but I would rather discourage them to stop then being killed

I hate the classic line of 'he won't hurt anybody' how the hell can you guarantee your dog won't hurt anybody?? It's an animal ffs.

@livinlavida2021

I hate the classic line of 'he won't hurt anybody' how the hell can you guarantee your dog won't hurt anybody?? It's an animal ffs.

I've never had need to say it, as my dog has never approached anyone.

Same

People approach my dogs not the other way around

Luckily one is super friendly and adores children.

The other will hide behind my legs and I will block people from touching her. If she was put in the position where she was crowded, I’m pretty sure she would nip someone

So I don’t let her be in that situation. I block people from her, tell them to stroke the other one and if they keep trying, I walk off with my dogs

@OldScrappyAndHungry why not? Should cat owners not be responsible for their pets? (They do sell cat harnesses). It would stop them getting run over.

When cat owners are routinely failing to stop their pets killing seals and sheep, knocking over small children, shitting in the middle of pavements, licking strangers and running amok in playgrounds I’ll accept that cats should be harnessed.

Feckless dog owners are becoming an absolute menace at the moment, and really spoiling many people’s enjoyment of parks, playgrounds, beaches and the countryside.

Oh but but but my neighbour’s cat shits in my garden. These are absolutely not equivalent social problems.

You don’t walk a cat - they go out on their own. We keeps ours in at dawn and dusk so they don’t kill wildlife.

Maybe leads should be mandatory. I’m perhaps biased because my DC are absolutely terrified of dogs so every time one off a lead comes bounding over they start screaming and basically jump on me. They’re only scared because dogs bounded over to them when they were toddlers and they’ve just never got over it. No issue with dogs on leads at all, it’s the ones running up to us.

@OldScrappyAndHungry

You don’t walk a cat - they go out on their own. We keeps ours in at dawn and dusk so they don’t kill wildlife.

Same here. Even though the garden is cat proofed we keep him in at night just in case something ventures into the garden.

Even if I thought walking him on a lead was a good idea I wouldn't do it - he'd be a target for off lead dogs and the feral little bastards and their catapults.

When cat owners are routinely failing to stop their pets killing seals and sheep, knocking over small children, shitting in the middle of pavements, licking strangers and running amok in playgrounds I’ll accept that cats should be harnessed.

^that.

@LST But some dogs do attack, ok yours doesn't, but what are we going to do about the irresponsible owners? Obviously not the dogs fault at all.

Cats also don’t have the same legal rights as dogs. Dogs can kill cats and it’s not an offence and if you hit a cat when driving your car, you do not have to report it. If you hit a dog you must report it to the police.

[quote Pomegranatespompom]@LST But some dogs do attack, ok yours doesn't, but what are we going to do about the irresponsible owners? Obviously not the dogs fault at all.[/quote]
Why should it be made my problem when it isnt my dog?

@livinlavida2021

I hate the classic line of 'he won't hurt anybody' how the hell can you guarantee your dog won't hurt anybody?? It's an animal ffs.

This is the issue. The QC whose dog is the subject of this thread presumably did not think her dog was a problem, otherwise she'd have had him on a lead.

Then you had a dog so invested in attacking a seal that it took a number of people to pull the dog off.

Just because your dog isn't a problem now doesn't mean your dog won't be a problem in the future.

I adore dogs, even the growly scared ones, and the badly-trained ones, and the need-to-be-in-a-muzzle ones. If I had a dog, my heart would break if it attacked something and I had to put it down.

All dog owners say oh my dog would never attack. It’s always a first time.

Also heartbroken about Freddie the seal, who was a familiar and beloved sight in my bit of London. Dogs should only be off lead in enclosed dog play areas (and big parks should have big ones for them.) I am neutral on dogs, but do not like it when owners let them jump on you or wipe their dribbly muzzles on your trousers. Gross.