Can we muzzle all dogs in public yet (warning, graphic image of mauled hand)

[lfYouLikePinaCoIadas]

“Whilst out walking a route that Tom has been on numerous times, he was the victim of an unprovoked attack by an unleashed dog. The dog attacked Tom multiple times as he tried to protect his puppy from being mauled by the dog and was left with horrific injuries. What is more horrifying, however, is that the owners of the dog didn’t try to help and fled the scene leaving Tom bleeding from his artery on his wrist.

Wife Katy recalls the moment that she opened the door to find her husband standing there after the attack: ‘‘Tom managed to get home where I had to tourniquet, to try to stem the bleeding, while waiting for 999. He lost several litres of blood in the short time until the ambulance arrived. Our two children were at home at the time and were woken up by the commotion. My 7-year-old was terrified and thought that her dad was doing to die from the blood loss.’’

https://www.familiesonline.co.uk/news/dad-of-2-viciously-mauled-by-dog-trying-to-protect-family-puppy

Imagine it had been a child’s face, or neck, or little body, instead of an adult’s hand.

Absolutely sick of nothing being done to protect the public.

YABU - dogs are man’s best friend
YANBU - something needs to be done

Dogs should be on leads in public. The exception should be fenced dog parks that people
can choose to enter knowing the situation.

the lead won’t actually stop a large dog intent on attack, but it makes sure dog and human are close together at all times and serves as a psychological link between the two. It tells the dog to follow instructions and it tells the human that they must pay attention to the dog.

So being "only" disfigured or permanently injured is OK?
Why would anyone dare complain about about that - it's not that they've been killed?
Absolutely nothing ridiculous in seeing it that way, surely?

I find it difficult to believe that a chihuahua did real damage. I owned two years ago and we had to watch out that cats didn't attack them as they were considerably smaller than cats. They couldn't get their mouths open far enough to get a decent mouthful of anybody. They only nipped if they were scared. Somebody came up to my mother who had a leashed chihuahua with her and attempted to interact with the dog. My mother told her to stop as the dog would bite. The woman just ignored my mother and carried on and she did get bitten (which served her right) but a nip from a chihuahua is very different from say a bull terrier. A chihuahua is not going to drag you to the ground and go for the neck.

I think that would be unnecessarily complicated and expensive. Just shoot the fuckers.

I would never have agreed with this before but there have been too many stories in the media about people (often children) being mauled. The other day we were at a park and there were two men with two massive, obviously not neutered male pitbulls off-lead, coming right towards us along the path! I didn’t want to be ‘that person’ making it obvious I was judging a book by its cover and abruptly changing direction or veering off course at the sight of these dogs, so we kept walking, and I was horrified when one of them pointed its muzzle towards my 3 year old whose face was at the same height as the dog’s. She had her water bottle to her mouth at the time and it looked like he was catching a quick whiff of that, but I grabbed her shoulders and moved her away. The owner said ‘he’s alright mate’ (I think to my husband) and gave a short command to the dog, who did change direction immediately (to be fair), and kept walking on. As they walked past there was a sudden overpowering smell of weed, which to smell that strongly must (I think) have been smoked around the dogs. I don’t know anything about how weed can affect dogs, but I can’t imagine it would have no effect on their brains? The what-ifs of this situation have kept me awake at night since, and now I won’t hesitate to change direction in a similar situation again no matter how judgemental it appears. Even my husband wouldn’t have been able to handle that dog if it had decided to do anything. I really wish certain breeds would be banned, but if not then yes leads and muzzles all the way. And it isn’t just ‘bad owners’ IMO, size and breed does play a massive part in it.

Oh when I say muzzle I mean its actual face, it wasn’t wearing a muzzle. Stupid of me, up doing a night feed 😴

How do you plan on enforcing it? Where’s the money coming from? Not going to happen.

I’ll take my chances with a canine in a dark alley, over one of you any day!

YABU

“Muzzling is not the answer. It’s a certain type of owner drawn to a certain type of dog causing these incidents 99% of the time. Let’s be real about that.” - Agree with this.

Licenses didn’t work.

Agree dogs should be on leads.

Every time I walk my very nervous little Yorkshire terrier, some off-lead dog comes up and bothers her.

When I ask the owner to call their dog, they look at me like I've told them to go f* themselves.

First, instead of calling their dog, they say something moronic like, "oh he's just saying hi" or "oh, she's friendly."

Then, when I've picked her up and their dog is still trying to "say hi," I ask again for them to please call their dog. They say the dog's name several times and nothing happens. They clearly have little to no recall control of this animal. If I have to shout at their dog or kick toward it (not actually kick it) to shoo it away, the owner acts like I've done something wrong.

I'm standing there, usually with one hand on a baby buggy and the other trying to hold and comfort my trembling dog, and these people act like asking them to control their animal is somehow morally wrong. This happens to us literally every day.

My dog (always on lead) has been snapped at or bitten by off-lead dogs multiple times. The owner is always saying, "they're friendly." Some owners have had the audacity to tell me that it is the fact that my dog is on a lead that is creating conflict between the dogs. It's not always very large or agressive breeds either.

It doesn't matter if your pooch is the friendliest toy in the world, if it approaches another dog (or person) that is afraid, that is not OK!!

I do not understand the off-lead-in-public-places mentality in this country. In parks, there should be designated, fenced-in off-lead areas. Ideally, one for big dogs and a separate one for small dogs. Outside of these designated dog areas, dogs should be on leads. (Except, perhaps, in very isolated areas where there is little chance of the dog encountering others, harassing livestock, or running into a road.) These dog parks work really well in other countries. Why is the UK so opposed to them?

Police should be able to write tickets with means-tested fines that actually pinch the owner if their dog is off-lead in a public space. The funds can go directly into the policing budget. If their dog actually injures another person or animal (including wild animals and livestock), the fines should be catastrophic to the owner.

We need to not only regulate the people who can own dogs but also be more discerning about the dogs we allow into the country and who can breed.

The importation of dogs by individuals is a seriously bad idea.

The country now has such a high number of dogs, they are owned by people who do not treat them as dogs should be treated in order for them to be stable and healthy.

The desire to always rehome despite previous behaviour of the dog is also a big issue, some dogs are rehomed multiple times. If we had licences again we would be able to see which dogs were being passed on.

It is not poor taste, it is just that you are personally offended by it. But your personal attitudes to charity/requests for money are not anyone else's concern. The article is legal.

Leads would be a start that said yesterday I was cycling home on cycle track
dog on ridiculous extendable lead jumped up as me and nearly took me off my bike
booted it away with my foot

Mine is muzzled and always on a lead- unless I’m a private, fenced area. Ex-racing greyhound, has a prey drive so it’s better all round.

Muzzling him allows him to breathe, drink, take snacks, snuffle, have ear scratches and be told what an amazingly beautiful boy he is. Just as he can without one. He can’t eat crap off the floor or bite something that he thinks is a track hare. He associates a muzzle with going out and about so is perfectly fine with putting it on. So I don’t understand all the vehement hate for them.

However, I also don’t understand the”small dogs are harmless” rhetoric. They also have teeth and are as unpredictable as any other breed. The last issue we had was a small dog running up, yapping and prancing around my dog’s paws. Luckily my 40kg hound was clearly just wondering what the fuck this thing was doing (also, he’s muzzled!).

Yes but your 40 kg hound probably wasn't frightened or in any danger from the small dog yapping and prancing around.

Stupidest comment I have ever read. 🙄 You obviously have not got a clue how strong a dogs jaw is. I was playing tug with my small dogs yesterday and using all my strength I cannot prise a toy out of their mouths. The cat, I will very easily overcome.

I completely agree op! I am sick to death of seeing young teen boys around my area being walked by there extra large dogs looking like a good gust of wind could take them out, zero control over the lead or dog!

It makes me extremely anxious! I think muzzling needs to happen unfortunately and I think dogs of a certain strength and size people should need to go through holding some sort of license and undergo a series of tests and pretty much jump through hoops before they are even allowed to buy these breeds!

Can you lose several litres of blood before an ambulance arrives and live? I thought we had about five total?

Do agree with leads in public, muzzles if previous aggression.

You can get sepsis from a splinter. Shall we ban all wood as well just in case?

Classic MN whataboutery 😂Reaching new heights of ridiculousness.

I don’t know about muzzles but it should be made much much harder for people to have dogs, as others have said tests, licenses, high costs to continue owning one and being able to meet their appropriately definitely need to be looked into

Muzzles will not solve the root cause.

The problem needs to be addressed with regulatory measures in terms of licensing, breeding laws, approved/banned breeds.

Muzzling is not the answer, although there is a place for it in certain circumstances.

Money will stop anything effective being done.

As others have said, it's the owners.
Put a large dog with an owner who treats it badly and doesn't train it and you have serious potential harm.
It's these people who should be targeted and restricted

I feel genuinely sorry for you.

You shouldn't play tug with a dog. It can damage their teeth and it teaches them not to let go of things. Teach him to drop instead.

I agree about licensing. There just seem to be so many more owners now who have very little control.

Even dogs just jumping up etc- “oh he’s very friendly”. I don’t care, control your pet. We were out with 3 of DC’s friends at the park yesterday evening and 2 of the 4 children have horrendous dog phobias (hiding behind their mothers as soon as one appears) because dogs have jumped up at them in the past.

Whatever law changes happen, all that will happen is that sensible owners follow the rules - the type of owners with certain types of dogs won't.