Woman 80s, Savaged to Death by Dogs, Birmingham

[Flaxmeadow]

A woman in her 80s has been savaged to death by neighbours dogs
Am I being unreasonable to want much stricter controls on keeping dogs as pets

@Flaxmeadow

Where? Please do copy/paste or quote the post

I don't have time to trawl through a 35 page thread right now

Do you have anymore questions?

You can filter posts by OP. Shouldn't be too tricky as you're it.

Please explain how banning breeds and introducing leash laws would reduce dog attacks when in the UK previous banned breed legislation has been ineffective and the majority of dog attacks occur in the home?

DH and I are walking in ‘shifts’ at the moment, due to having a puppy at home.
I had the ‘early’ shift today. Lots of collies, GSDs, Labs, a Rottie, a Doberman, springers, several staffies.......all just mooching along enjoying the sunshine. Most off lead, moving out of the way of cyclists and other dogs and walkers. One collie looked my way but was swiftly recalled by the owner.

Couple of hours later, DH was battling through hoardes of designer mongrels, Frenchies and pugs, running across the path off lead or on useless extendable leads, making cyclists wobble off the path, small children shriek, annoying other dogs on leads.

It is always owners to blame. Every. Single. Time.

We noticed this when we had our previous dog. The decent owners tend to get out and about early, to avoid the arseholes. Arsehole Owner numbers have increased over the past year or so.

Good luck anyone who wants to report a well behaved dog as ‘threatening’. Someone tried that a couple of years ago at my nearest park. A couple of young men used to take their large dogs out about 7.30 am when it was quiet. I came across them several times - perfectly well behaved dogs. Some twat reported them to the park committee and the totality of their complaint was “I don’t like that breed being out and about”. They got told to (politely) jog on.

I don't believe that big dogs are more dangerous.

I've been bitten badly twice. Both landed me in hospital. One was a yorkshire terrier and one was a Welsh Springer spaniel. Neither of those are big dogs.

I have had large breed dogs my whole life. I have come across hundreds if not thousands of dogs on walks.

My large breed dogs have been attacked by small dogs several times.

Only one largish dog has ever gone for one of mine and that was a weimeraner. Hardly one of these stereotypical dangerous breeds talked about on these threads.

Please explain how banning breeds and introducing leash laws would reduce dog attacks when in the UK previous banned breed legislation has been ineffective and the majority of dog attacks occur in the home?

I would like to extend the ban to include more breeds and breed types. This would be dogs with certain characteristics, neck size (muscle), width of jaw, size if head. IMO this would reduce dog bite injuries in the home

Dog leash laws, on a leash at all times in a public place, would reduce dog bite injuries in public places

I agree with current laws on banned dogs but you're right, they are not good enough, and so i would like to see these laws extended to include more breeds/breed types

Obviously not in response to the opening post as the lady was in her garden, but something I find annoying as a small dog owner is when people assume it's ok to just come over and try to stroke them because they're small and cute. I've taught my children to ask the owner before approaching any dog. As has already been stated, dogs are animals and not all of them enjoy being fussed over by humans who aren't part of their pack.

Good luck anyone who wants to report a well behaved dog as ‘threatening

How is the general public supposed to ascertain if a random dog, in a park for exmaple, is "well behaved"

@Flaxmeadow

Good luck anyone who wants to report a well behaved dog as ‘threatening

How is the general public supposed to ascertain if a random dog, in a park for exmaple, is "well behaved"

Errrrrrr.....if it’s doing what the majority of dogs I come across are doing, i.e minding its own business.

@Flaxmeadow

Good luck anyone who wants to report a well behaved dog as ‘threatening

How is the general public supposed to ascertain if a random dog, in a park for exmaple, is "well behaved"

By not actually bothering you? Fair enough if it was near you, jumping up etc. But you can't seriously report one that is minding its own business not bothering you.

I don't believe that big dogs are more dangerous.

And if they attack? Are they not more dangerous then?

What would be the more dangerous. An attack by a chihuahua or a rottweiler?

By not actually bothering you? Fair enough if it was near you, jumping up etc. But you can't seriously report one that is minding its own business not bothering you.

If you're worried it is not under control you absolutley can. That is the law

You aren't genuinely interested in improving public safety. Only on ignoring all the inconvenient facts to push your own agenda.

I'm afraid I would have to agree with this assessment.

You have persisted in arguing that dogs should always be on a lead in public places but have been unable to offer any evidence to support why that would reduce the incidence of fatal dog attacks.

You have been offered plenty of evidence to show that in the majority of cases the dogs who attack are pets in the home where the attack took place and known to the person attacked. In other cases the dogs came from a nearby property and gained entry to the victims house or garden, they were not being walked in a public place.

How would making leads in all public spaces mandatory have prevented these attacks?

No one is obliged to like dogs and it's perfectly understandable to be annoyed when you are bothered by a dog jumping up or trying to join your picnic but your antipathy goes beyond that and I'm wondering if you have a phobia. I'm deeply sympathetic if you do, dogs are everywhere but phobias aren"t amenable to reason so it must make life stressful.

Leash laws would reduce dog on dog (and seal) attacks banning breeds has proved fairly ineffective what we should perhaps ban is inbreeding or breeding for colour etc (like white alsation dogs for example look great renowned to be awful)

Cross breeding should be done under supervision no more "accidentally breeding" your jack Russell with a rottie i mean the pup was cute but fuck me not a good combo bring in fines for people doing this enforce neutering programmes you pay a fee for having an uneutered animal pay a fee for breeding from the animal make it not cost effective to have a dog to breed from

Crack down on Facebook selling animals yes as admin on a selling page it is like wack a mole but it can be done

Of course none if that will have helped the lady who passed away but I feel too many dogs are in inexperienced hands and thats an issue if the rspca cannot handle the volume of dog neglect cases perhaps the government should create a new department and hire staff to deal with it I saw a shocking case of neglect quite recently the rspca said it was fine in living conditions that you wouldn't expect a human to live in without getting sick they said it was OK for the cats and dogs to stay they had no clean cat litter no appropriate food no access to outside but that was "ok" there were feaces all over the floor but it was fiiiiiine urine puddles thats OK too who are we to judge how you live your life the stench was so bad you could smell the house from the driveway and they never opened a window rspca said they would be back to check she had them castrated never returned

Unfit for purpose

Errrrrrr.....if it’s doing what the majority of dogs I come across are doing, i.e minding its own business.

I'm asking how are the general public supposed to know?

My point is that in real life (not mumsnet world) I've come across hundreds of large breed dogs. None of them have attacked. 2 small breed dogs have so therefore in my experience small breed dogs are more dangerous.

The rotties I've met have been soft as shit!

A small breed dog can easily rip a child's face off if they are that way inclined.

But you don't want to hear that. You just want people to agree with you.

Tough shit!

What would be the more dangerous. An attack by a chihuahua or a rottweiler?

I’ve seen a damn sight more small dogs swinging on the end of a lead snarling and frothing trying to bite a passing dog/child/cyclist than I have rotties.
I can only repeat that where I live the larger breeds have responsible owners. Fortunately, the Lockdown Dogs over the last year have tended to be designer mongrels and poor, wheezy, brachycephalic dogs. A complete pita to responsible dog owners, cyclists and runners, mind you.

I would happily ban all dogs tbh. Can’t stand them.

I'm asking how are the general public supposed to know?

Because it’s not running around biting people?

By all means cross the road if you see a dog you are scared of.

it's perfectly understandable to be annoyed when you are bothered by a dog jumping up or trying to join your picnic

I'm talking about ways to prevent dogs injuring people. Whether in a home or in public

The statistics are shocking, wouldn't you agree?

@Happycat1212

I would happily ban all dogs tbh. Can’t stand them.

I love dogs i have cats though as dogs need more effort and my cats are vastly superior they can sit beg give paws dance for treats (or for fun) my worst cat tries to wake me about 6.30 but I should be awake then anyway!

You'd happily ban all dogs...fair enough.

I'd happily ban all people with unfounded hatred of dogs 🤷‍♀️

Because it’s not running around biting people?

Dogs are doing this though. Every day.

By all means cross the road if you see a dog you are scared of

Why should someone have to, and what good would it do anyway if the dog is off leash?

Why are people, especially in urban areas, increasingly expected to change their lifestyle and habits in order to accommodate other peoples animals. "Walk on a different side of the road then" is a good exmaple of it. Or be fenced of in a tiny playground, while dogs have free reign of the rest of a park

I see a lot of hatred towards cats on MN yet don’t see any cats killing people. Dogs are vile. You know not everyone loves your little “fur baby” right?

You don’t have to cross the road to avoid a dog, but if you have a phobia-level fear of every dog you meet being minded to attack you, then that’s a good course of action to take.

I think you might need to lobby your local council if packs of offlead dogs are running around huge open parks randomly biting people while you huddle together in a tiny fenced-off play park. Or move somewhere else. It doesn’t sound like a very nice place to be. Never heard of anywhere like that