Dog attacking child - not stopping to help

[Idioticparents]

So, I’m walking my dogs on the beach. See a border collie on a lead being walked by what I presume is mum, dad and child. No problem - my dogs are trained to come to me whenever they see another dog (not that they go far tbh).

BC is clearly not friendly. It’s frozen. Stiff. Licking its lips as I go by. No issue. Give it a wide birth (10 or so meters given the tide is high) keep half an eye on it. Owners don’t real it in and keep it on the log line (full length stretched with dog nearly choking itself).

Child (about 8/9) walks up to dog as parents watch and wraps its arms around the dogs neck from behind. Obviously the dog attacks child. Parents wrestle dog off child.

Now, here is my am I being unreasonable - I didn’t stop. I just kept walking. Kid had two parents with him and I had my dogs nearby waiting to walk on. As I walked away I got a tonne of abuse for not stopping. But why would I? IMO the dog had attack its owners child and if it’s going to do that then I am not going near it. Partner says IWU not to help.

@Idioticparents you did everything right, as other poster have said, it DARVO, they and their dog is at fault, entirely and absolutely, but they are too cowardly to admit that, has to be someone else's fault: you will do! Even their dog getting riled up by your dogs is to do with their (lack of) control of their own dog. Hope you feel okay.

Actually, I think the brain dead parents calling the woman a stupid bitch are what’s wrong with the world.

I would imagine OP is actually quite worried about the child, since she phoned the police and wrote a post about it. She trusted her instincts but was made to doubt them by the abuse she received from the dog owners and then her partner not backing her up.

Why should she walk into a situation that could have got her and her dogs injured too? As most people have said, going nearer with her two dogs could have made things 10 times worse.

OP you trusted your instincts and did the right thing, no good would have come from helping those people. You. called the police which was all you could do. There is no way I would have gone back to people acting aggressively torwards me. FWIW If I was worried about my kid I think I would be pleading for help not shouting abuse, to a random stranger just walking by.

I really despair at the level of reading comprehension on here sometimes. It is perfectly clear from the OP that the dog owners were the parents of the child.

It seems concerning to me that the parents were behaving aggressively towards a passer by whilst their child was being attacked by their dog!

The other dog owned screamed obscenities at an owner of two very well behaved dogs who had passed whilst their DC was being attacked by their own dog?

I’d be interested to hear the other side of the story.

The fact that she is asking on here shows she does have compassion, however that doesn't mean she has to put herself or others in a potentially dangerous situation because of someone else's negligence.

What other side? Chavs gon' chav. As someone said earlier, typical for the Jeremy Kyle rejects you get on some beaches.

The fact they are posting on here shows they know they were wrong and are seeking reassurance from strangers.
It's never OK to walk away from a child who may very well need your help. Didn't even as much look back or see if an ambulance was needed? Come on now!

@6Y5T it might not have needed an ambulance ? You do realise that all these wasted calls to emergency services delay other people getting help

I assume that's a mention for me @gindreams
I know. I said didn't look back to see if one was needed? I didn't say "phone 999 immediately and demand one?" Point is could've waited from a safe space to ensure all was OK. That's what I would imagine most people would think of as reasonable? Not just going off home? That's the point of OPs post?

Not a dog owner. Aggressive dog attacking a child from it's own "pack" - I wouldnt go near it.

I posted because my partner made me question my decision. But the more I think about it, the more content I am that I made the right decision.

It is 100% okay to walk away from an injured child if, (A) that child has their parents with them, (B) there is phone signal (which there is along that beach so they could have called for help if needed), (C) if your presence would likely exacerbate the situation and (D) it is nothing to do with you.

I did nothing wrong. I was as far away as I could be. My dogs did nothing wrong. This is 100% on the parents for having an out of control dog and not paying attention to their child. I'm sad the child was likely hurt, but it's not my fault and not my responsibility - particularly if me coming closer would have made it worse, which it would have.

Cool when then if you're happy with your choice that's great for you.

No, it doesn't show they 'were wrong', because they weren't.
It's always ok not to get involved with a dog who is nothing to do with you.
Maybe you need to 'come on now'.

You did nothing wrong OP, ignore those saying you did. It is good to question our actions sometimes, which you've done, but still be happy we did the right thing to start with.

Doesn't sound like they wanted help. Sounds like they looked for someone to blame. Good thing you walked away. Your partner is being unreasonable. These people were rude and horrible.

If the childs parent(s) were there, and you had dogs with you it would
have potentially made things worse to stay. An out of control dog that just attacked a child isn’t going to react nicely to more people AND strange dogs in that situation.

what did they expect you to do?

Ridiculous! I don't need to "come on now" because if ever I saw another human being who may need medical assistance- least of all a child, I would never ever walk away until I knew everything was OK.
This is society now "pull the ladder up jack" I'm fine. That's all that matters and it makes me sad and I'm shocked so many people agree that it's fine.

I wouldn't have gotten involved, either. Two adults were already on the scene, and the situation would only be worse if the dogs started fighting, so the best thing was to put some distance between them. I'm not certain what they thought you could have done to help, under the circumstances, as surely they had a phone between them to call for help, if needed. Most likely they'd just have yelled at you some more, blamed you, and possibly threatened you.

They were trying to blame your dogs for the attack their dog made on their own child. You bloody bet you did exactly the right thing giving them a wide berth. Your dogs started it my arse! They would have sued you for sure!

This is spot on. I would honestly worry that if OP had stepped in and helped, these yobs would have found a way to blame her dogs. Worst case scenario, one of her dogs might have been destroyed. No way would I risk that. It sounds as if the kid got a nip, which is nasty but not life threatening. It isn't as if the child had been ripped to shreds and was bleeding out, obviously that would be a whole other scenario and not one that anyone would be posting about on Mumsnet! I am sorry for both the child and the dog for having such useless caregivers.

This 👍🏻

I think you did totally the right thing.

Adding additional dogs to the mix would have made things far worse and without having anything to physically tie them to you couldn't rely on them to continue to obey a "stay" command if they thought you were being threatened.

The parents sound the sort who shouldn't be allowed to have children or dogs.

For those playing Mumsnet Bingo:

You don't have a (dog attack) problem. You have a DP problem.

(I expect he just misunderstood.)

Get bitten, presumably.