Dogs capable of sending us to hospital/the morgue need to be banned

[SplishSplashIWasTakingABath]

Yet another serious dog attack.

uknip.co.uk/Breaking/News/breaking/woman-rushed-to-hospital-after-attack-by-dog-in-the-street/?fbclid=IwAR3bVa7T5KdsbfMlHZqg8CjSCFIkSVJtGYjB8iAZJ5_2C2Rv4tomNMO1ask

YANBU - ban these dogs (bully breeds, huskies, Dobermans etc)
YABU - aw, poor pibbles, must have been provoked

Not all of those “dangerous breeds” are dangerous though. I think that Instead, they should make the ownership of any dog, reliant on a license, issued only when some sort of a qualification for a national level of dog ownership/training/competence has been achieved by the owner, and providing the added advantage that all dogs and their dna are registered, thus also cutting fouling rates…

I hate American bulldogs, I really do. Our neighbours had one and it just had the worst stare. It would just lock eyes with you and stare you down with it’a cold dead eyes. Once I was in my shed, turned around and it there it was - it had gotten in my garden, crept up behind me and was just stood there staring.

It disappeared shortly afterwards (not unusual, our neighbours were notorious for getting pets and getting rid of them when they got bored). I found out years later that the dog had bit one of their foster children. They had sold the dog to a woman a few miles away without disclosing this!

I think the main thing we should do in terms of dog safety is bring back dog licenses. All dog owners would be required to pay for and attend training lessons and have regular appointments with a vet or the license would be withdrawn.

You know that the dog walker woman was attacked by a group of dogs including a cockerpoo and a couple of dachshund don't you?

I believe that the dog responsible for the most hospital visits, statistically speaking, is a sausage dog…

I have a spaniel and, with the strength of her jaws, I have no doubt she could kill me if she were so inclined. Luckily, she hasn’t demonstrated any indication of aggression and her breed isn’t known for it.

I don’t know any dog breed that couldn’t cause injury requiring hospital treatment.

It's not just the breed.

It's the quality of ownership.

Breed based bans don't work - those who want to keep "status" dogs and treat them in ways that make them volatile will just go for a different breed - after all, it went from GS to dobermann and rottweiler, to pitbull to American bully. Onlt one of those was ever a banned breed, and the ban has made no difference at all

I feel the same about men sometimes. I read far more news stories about abusive men and murdered women than I do about dogs.

I’m fairly sure a woman was killed by a jack russell a few years ago. So where do you start and stop with it ?

I think the main thing we should do in terms of dog safety is bring back dog licenses. All dog owners would be required to pay for and attend training lessons and have regular appointments with a vet or the license would be withdrawn.

I am old enough to remember dog licences. They didn't work then (which is why they were abolished) and they won't work now. Every dog is required to be chipped by law, but many aren't. How would you enforce making people go to "training lessons" and would that include those of us qualified to train dogs? And you cannot force someone to go to a private business. Training, insurance, proper medical care are certainly things that I would want to see responsible dog owners doing, but you can be certain - absolutely certain - that the irresponsible owners would not not be the ones doing any of this, and they will still get their hands on dogs.

You do not manage the irresponsible by punishing the responsible - who already do all of these things and more.

As has been said on any one of the 300 dog threads in the last four days.

The man who owned the dog in that article has been charged with "grievous bodily harm with intent". To me, that says that this was a purposeful attack and the dog (presumably a status dog) is not at fault. Properly punish offenders like this twat, don't ban dogs when 99% of them don't cause any problems.

In this case there should be a rule how many dogs you can walk safely at one time. 8 is ridiculous. Dogs are pack animals.

I believe that the dog responsible for the most hospital visits, statistically speaking, is a sausage dog…

I don't know about the UK, but in the US it is the Chihuahua! Four bloody inches high! But the issue is as with many smaller dogs - people think they are so small that they are toys, not dogs, and don't train them.

This is spot on. You can train almost any dog breed to be dangerous. You can breed almost any dog breed to be muscular/large/strong. If you ban bully breeds then the owners in question would just buy GSDs or Akitas. You ban those and they’ll buy a Rottie or a Husky.

The man in the article has been charged with GBH with intent. That means the dog was trained as a weapon and set upon the victim. The dog did what it was bred and trained to do. If that dog were banned then another breed would be bred and trained to do the same job.

This wasn’t an out-of-control or untrained dog. This was an under-control dog that has been trained to attack.

But they rarely do. If you look at the stats it is the same breeds.

There is. I believe the rule is 6 at a time but not all the dogs were being walked by the victim of the attack, there was another woman who was injured who was walking her dog and it’s unclear if any other people or stray/escaped/unaccompanied dogs were involved.

Which is why it makes no sense to ban then like OP is suggesting

YANBU. I get that it's the responsibility of the owner and all dogs are capable of being aggressive if trained to do so. These large aggressive breeds tend to do a lot more damage and more frequently though.

It's not the dogs, it's the owners. That's what we should be focusing on.

I’d agree with this.

According to the Kennel Club, the number one breed in the UK is the Labrador.

This friendly, lovable breed has long been a family favourite. However, with evidence suggesting most dog bites are from the family pet that’s had no previous history of biting, it follows that Britain’s most popular breed is also responsible for the highest number of canine attack personal injury claims, because there are more of them.

Other breeds that were highlighted in the report included German Shepherds, Staffordshire Bull Terriers and Border Collies.

This data comes from a report published by pet insurers Animal Friends.

So no Labs then?

@Chubbernut 6 seems like too many to me!

Then we ban ALL breeds that are strong enough to seriously hurt us.

I had to go to hospital due to a pug biting me a few years ago, I needed antibiotics and stitches, would like them banning for non-health reasons?

Any animal with teeth can hospitalise you, so you would need to ban all dogs if you ban any dog capable of hospitalising people.

Yes. Most breeds can be aggressive. But I fancy my chances of fighting off a chihuahua. No chance with a fighting breed dog.

This, with bells on. It's the owners who need policing, not the breeds. No one should be walking 8 dogs at a time, no one should be training 'status dogs' to be aggressive and no one should be allowed to be a generally irresponsible dog owner, but all those faults lie with people, not dogs. It's the overall attitude to dog ownership and the fact that there's no one to impose or police rules which would keep us all safe that's at fault in this country, banning breeds does absolutely nothing to stop dog attacks.