Something needs to be done about unleashed pitbulls/ XL bullys

[TheyareEverywhere]

We've just moved to a new area which seemed nice and a good place to raise the kids.

After living here for just a week I've had two encounters with one of those big, bulky pitbull / XL bully type dogs off lead with the type of owner you'd expect to have them - young, unable to control them, the sort who use the dog as a penis extention to intimidate people and train the dogs to latch onto things at the park.

DP got chatting to a man at the shop and apparently they belong to drug dealers from the other block down the road. Lovely.

I'm scared of those dogs and won't pretend I'm not. I know what they can, and do, do to people / kids. My DD is equally as scared of them after having one growl and bark at her at the park.

Surely something should be done about people like this, fines for having them off lead on public streets? I don't know. All I know is they're frightening and shit to live amongst 😔

AIB unreasonable?

You're right. To be honest I think it should be illegal to have any dog off a lead unless in a designated dog park.

Dogs running round everywhere and jumping up at the kids makes going the park at the weekend really unenjoyable.

The Highway Code Rule 56 says dogs should always be kept on a short lead near roads. And dog owners are liable under the Road Traffic Act if their dog were to cause an accident - which is why they should always be on lead near a road. As well as obviously being criminally liable if they are aggressive. If you have an idea of the identity of the owner speak to your local community support officer or your LA dog control officer if they have one - either are able to speak to an owner who is persistently walking their dog by a road unleashed.

Nothing will be done until a politician or a Royal becomes a victim. Politicians have been promising action but as usual...nothing happens.

A man was killed yesterday here no idea of the breed but it won’t be a poodle, I imagine.

That sounds awful 😔
Your children should be able to play at the park without the risk of encountering one of these things. Relatistically I don't think there's a whole lot you can do about it except stay vigilant.

I would have them all euthanised and banned. Absolutely nobody needs a dog of this nature & there are no positive breed traits which can't be found in other dogs. Staffies are muscly dogs but are smaller so less likely to kill - but all bull breeds have me crossing the road with my DC

I agree beside the dangers they are annoying,i go to feed ducks with my small children and autistic child whos afraid of dogs, regularly a dog runs up eats all the bread scares the ducks away and my autistic child wants to run away and the dog starts chasing her. Last time i asked owner to get the dog please he said he cant toucher her u til
she is finished eating :o|

I think ywbu if you make this breed specific rather than owner specific. Any dog breed can be trained to be violent by a bad owner and any uncontrolled or uncontrollable dog can be a risk to a child.

That being said I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want your children to be able to play without the threat of a dog attack, it’s absolutely antisocial behaviour and unfortunately tends to end badly for the public and the dog and never the owner who will just buy another one and go on terrorising people to stroke their own ego. Having any dog off the lead outside of a designated dog park seems high risk to me (as an owner of a big bully type rescue who has been attacked on multiple occasions by cute untrained and offlead dogs).

This definitely feels like something local police could be involved with as training latching behaviour is a huge red flag - but if you feel unsafe with this I think the best bet is to sadly avoid those parks. It sucks that these people are allowed to ruin things for everyone else with no accountability. I’m sorry you’re having to deal with it!

They all need to be euthanised.

My post was about dogs generally, they should be on leashes in public areas and
perhaps some breeds leash and muzzle.

I bet it was a chihuahua.

It did occur to me to speak to the councils dog warden but I have no idea what the owners names are or which flat they live in. I'm in a little block on the corner and they live down the road in one of the much bigger, long blocks on a housing estate. I'm in S.E Ldn for an idea of how big the complexes are.

I could try to discretely follow them one day but would be quite nervous about doing so and it would have to be when I don't have my kids with me which is most days 😔

Yep, I think it should be illegal for men like this to own these breeds, or to be out in public without a muzzle - the men that is, seeing as statistically, they pose a bigger risk than any dog does.

That's insane! The dog should be on a lead if the owner can't train it properly. Some dogs are highly reactive around food and need a lot of work with their owner to sort it out, but until it's been addressed the dog isn't safe off lead around other people!

@Lowkeyana the usual utter nonsense. I could train my 6.5kg dog to be violent but she's still not going to be able to kill somebody. Those big dogs owned by some irresponsible plonkers are a massive danger and we need to figure out a way to sort it out. Americans have a gun problem, we have a dog problem.

I'm a dog lover but have to agree. My dog died in first lockdown, but the vast number of offlead dogs that have appeared since then, is putting me off getting another. I worry about attacks on my own dog. I walk in National Trust properties and the practice is even spreading there too. I posted on here last year, having had a large dog growl and fly at my son at NT property. I managed to shield son but it closed its jaws round my (protected) arm! Large numbers being walked by one person worries me too - I worry about pack mentality and consequences for other dogs.

FFS don't start following drug dealers around, no good could come of that

I agree with you re the XL bully's and was just talking about it this morning. One close to me has just been seized after killing another dog. It was its 4th attack in a matter of weeks. Its the owners though isn't it, not the dogs. If xl bully's were banned those drug dealers would just get another big breed they could train to be vicious like a gsd or a rottie

So what is the actual problem?

You've encountered someone with a dog.

You don't know the dog, or the owner, but you've made assumptions on them based around what, where they live and how they dress.

You've said the dog was off lead but it appeared to be in a park where I imagine, off lead dogs are allowed.

You said your daughter doesn't like the dogs based on one growling and barking at her in the past, I take it this is a different dog to the one you've encountered in your new area.

If so, you're making a heck of a judgement based on stereotypes and your own prejudices. Maybe you're not best suited for SE London.

Are people missing that in the OPs case these dogs are owned by the local drug dealers?

Im not sure the dog warden or changes to the law are going to mean much to them.

I do agree though that they’re a breed that should never have been made and shouldn’t be allowed to continue. They are just dangerous dogs, breed with the intention of being dangerous.

I have lived in S.E London all of my life. We are a very normal working class family. I'm a cleaner by trade, DP works in retail. We're not middle class looking down on people from lower socioeconomic classes. The only prejudice I have is about those dogs is well founded. They are a problem.

Except that info came from her husband via a random man at the shop.
Highly unlikely random man at the shop knows all the neighbourhood drug dealers and their dogs.

Christ.

Since when is 3rd person gossip believed as gospel.

To be honest I would like to see all dogs kept on lead in public areas. It would nice if some specific enclosed places were set aside as dog fields where they can be off lead, but I don’t like the fact that anybody’s random dog can come bounding you to you as you try to have a picnic or go for a walk or play football with your kids. People should have free run of parks and public spaces without worrying about whether or not other people have trained their dogs. It would make it safer and easier for owners to clean up their dog’s mess.

Although I agree these XL bullies are not family pets and all dogs should be on lead. Can we remember one important little fact- humans created them. We did it. Yup, aren’t we stupid?

Now what can we do about all the stupid decisions we make eh? Eradicate ourselves? (Hopefully one day!).

There are loads of breeds very capable of causing irreparable damage to humans and others animals. The problem is the owner. The human who watches Insta and thinks ooh I’ll get one of those, but they don’t train it, they get it to look intimidating, they get them to fight, they get money from gambling on the fights.

If XL bullies get confiscated and shot, do you think that’ll be the end of the problem, seriously? or do you think stupid little humans will come along and manufacture yet another killing machine?

It won’t stop until the owner serves the sentence. If the dog kills the owner needs to serve the sentence- murder, owning a weapon whatever.

We need to hold ourselves accountable.

The man at the shop was the owner. He's been there years. He'll have a pretty good idea about who's who given that they congregate near his shop.

So to confirm.

You don't know the dogs.

Or the owners.

But you immediately know the dogs are dangerous because of the person with the dog and how they dress/act/speak/live.....