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

Nope, not going to be muzzling my two any time soon.
Always on a lead in busy places and around children, off lead in quite places where they can run, play and swim.
Oh and btw for all the mums that let their kids run up to my dogs or any dogs for that matter, please train them to ask before putting their manky little hands on my pets.

I agree with a previous poster who suggested some kind of licence fee.

I appreciate it will limit the number of people who can have dogs.

But if you can't afford a relatively small licence fee or don't want to spend your money that way then that to me would be a sign that you can't afford or wont pay for insurance or eg neutering.

(I have dogs.)

My gentle soul of a labrador only ever gets aggressive responses from smaller dog. The large dogs are invariably either friendly or indifferent. It's not the size of the dog but the attitude of the owner.

These threads calling for restrictions on all dogs/cats/men/children simply because occasionally bad things happen caused by a tiny minority of dogs/cats/men/children make me despair of the human race at times.

If your dog 'nipped' my daughter - you think that's okay? I wouldn't want your dog touching my daughter. I wouldn't want your dog touching me. It's not okay to be 'nipped' by somebody else's pet.

A dog can be a weapon in law, and there is an excellent reason why drug dealers like aggressive breeds. In the wrong hands, such a dog is a machete.

I've been attacked by dogs twice when I was a kid. Ironically both times they bit me around the same place. I now get really anxious every time I see dogs. I would honestly cross over to the other side of the road if I see one coming. The sooner all dogs are muzzled the better for the safety of society.

Did you even bother to read the post? She was warned the dog would bite and didn’t listen.

So many 'responsible' dog owners with non-dangerous dogs see no problem in their very excited dogs jumping up at small children. It terrified my daughter and it constantly pisses me off. All we get is a 'oh he's very friendly'. That's not okay. Stop your dog from jumping at my child. This happened a lot during lockdown and she was only 2 then so would get knocked down by the dogs.

An acquaintance of ours had rescued a greyhound and that dog was very clearly unhappy around children. They didn't seem to recognise it until the dog went to bite my daughters head.

So bored of terrible dog owners who only see things from the point of view of their perfect dogs.

Having said that, I don't think all dogs need to be muzzled. I think dog only parks would be a good thing as they do need to run around off-lead at times (I assume). We have a dog park near us with the children's park being dog free.

The vast majority of dogs are completely harmless and friendly. Best to bear that in mind before you get too scared to leave the house.

They are terrifyingly large. And certainly where I am, seen with people I can't imagine would be capable of controlling them if the dog suddenly tried to bolt.

That's ridiculous. So if a murder happens on private property, that's not illegal either?

@VincentVaguer oh do fuck off. A dog jumping up at a 2 year old child is not okay.

A greyhound going for a 4 year old is not okay.

Keep your dogs under control or don't have a dog.

Exactly.

Everyone wants to think their cute little terrier or big sweet lab won't hurt anyone.

The only way to be sure is to be muzzled and on a short lead.

No, you calm down. Most dogs do not 'go for' anyone. You've clearly been very unlucky.

There are already plenty of banned types strutting down the streets of every city.

Most dogs don't hurt people. So many wound up hysterics on this thread.

Dog licenses.

Bring them back.

I'm not sure on details of the surgery, but it was something to do with the tendons in her hand :(

That really won't help. There is no one to police it.

I don't agree with muzzles for all dogs, decent dog owners will put their dog on a lead, muzzle it if needs must, and train their dog. The ones that don't, despite knowing the dogs likely reaction, the one as in this instance, where the owner walked away, won't do the right thing unless it becomes law & maybe not even then.

Breeding dogs should have more laws and regulations, as should owing one.
I do think that dog owners should own a licence and have to do some basic training as part of that licence.
Sadly a lot of dogs are now badly bred, not socialised, not trained and people have no clue as to the strength and type of dog they own. We saw it with staffies - great breed, but they became a status symbol, overbred and bought by people who wanted to look tough. Demand became high, and more were bred purely for money and sold to anyone who wanted one.
Until tighter laws are bought in with regards to dog breeding, and maybe even a dog licence, you are going to get badly bred, poorly socialised and untrained dogs owned by idiots.
We are now seeing a rise on XL bully's being owned by many who have no idea what they are taking on, other than it is big and 'tough' 🙄... They pay ££££ for these breeds with no thought other than how 'cool' they look.

I have dogs, but I don't assume everyone wants to be greeted by them, I also don't want a dog of any size that I don't know running up to me barking. One of mine is always on a lead as he is a complete dick head and whilst not aggressive, he barks at people and his recall is patchy, so he doesn't go off lead. The other one has excellent recall so if I can safely let him off, I do. My pet hate is when other dog owners let their dog run up to mine yelling 'it's ok, he is friendly' or 'he just wants to play' . I don't care what your dog is or isn't, I don't want him bouncing up to us. But that doesn't mean I think all dogs should be muzzled or on a short lead all of the time.

A lot of these issues we have had recently with aggressive dogs is down to shit owners, and shit breeders.

'I appreciate it will limit the number of people who can have dogs.'

No it won't. In N.Ire the dog license costs £12.50 a year ( discounts available for those who need them ) and you have to ave your dog chipped to apply for the licence. That's a fraction of the cost of owning a dog.

It makes little difference, because people who by status dogs and don't train them or deliberately make them aggressive or don't correct potential aggressive behaviour don't care about 'rules'. They don't care about having a dog licence. It's illegal to have a dog without one, but loads of people do.

Enforcement is weak - I have never seen anyone stopped and questioned about their dog, I have never been stopped with mine. Prosecutions are also very low.

In towns, definitely, in parks in town centres, maybe, but in public open spaces like the North York Moors where you can walk for half a day and not see a soul?

I don't think so.

There are 3 large fields less than 100 yards from my house that have been bought to preserve them as public open space. They are sheep grazed, one field at a time, on rotation, so the grass is rough and no good for ball games or anything like that. They have footpaths and a bridleway running through them. Why should dogs be on leads in a space like that, unless they're given to chasing sheep or horses?

What a load of shit!

So the majority of owners and dogs should be punished because of the minority of terrible owners and dogs?

My dog is almost 10months old, she's been taught from her first walk at 11wks old that if she sees cyclists, prams, joggers, mobility scooters/wheelchairs, small children on scooters/bikes, ducks/swans that she needs to be by my side until they pass. Every time she she's one of these approaching she automatically comes and walks close to my leg and is rewarded for doing so. You are telling me she needs to be muzzled when I've insured that she's a well behaved good mannered dog?

What you don't seem to realise is the type of people that have these dangerous out of control dogs aren't going to be the type of people that will follow rules and muzzle their dogs, all that happens is the good dogs will be stuck wearing muzzles and if one of these out of control dogs comes and starts attacking them then they have no way to even stand a chance on them defending themselves, so is it ok for them to get ripped to shreds because they are dogs?

There's laws to stop people drink driving! Does that actually stop people doing it? Should we ban all alcohol because of the few irresponsible drink drivers that kill people and punish the responsible drinkers? What about the amount of people that turn into thugs, beat up strangers, husbands wives coz they've had a few? I couldn't give two hoots if alcohol was banned because I've never been bothered by it but I understand that's selfish and punishes the responsible drinkers that like a glass or two with their meal or whatever.

Or do we ban cars? After all there are a lot of irresponsible drivers, drink/drug drivers, dangerous drivers, people that can't stop using their phones to drive, people that have not even taken a test but still drive. They are all a danger to the public, there are laws to try to prevent all of this but the scum of the earth still do what they want and put responsible good people at risk.

'I think it should be law that all dogs be kept on a lead in public places.'

There was a local campaign here by some parents to ban all dogs from our more than 5 mile of beach at all time of the day and night and all year around. Luckily common sense prevailed - and from May-Sept there are clearly marked sections for dogs allowed and other sections where they aren't.

Blanket bans don't work, people would ignore them. The fact that some people wanted dogs banned from being on a beach on a winters morning was ridiculous - the only people on the beach at 7am in November or December are dog walkers and coldwater swimmers. No kids, certainly no young kids.

Bring in draconian rules and they'll be ignored.