Witch hunt for old woman

[DogsBehavingWrongly]

Yesterday a woman was walking her dog when it was attacked by an offlead dog. Offlead dog was owned by elderly woman who always walks dog in this same area daily. She says the dog has never done this before. Attacked dog was limping after the attack and elderly woman was asked for her details (after been shouted at by other woman). She refused to give any details and rushed off home.

Woman with attacked dog then posts on Facebook saying what happened and asks if anyone knows the woman as she wants the vet bills taken care off. This then starts a witch hunt on Facebook of people trying to identify old woman and suggesting people follow her home etc to get her address. A relative of old woman then posts that her grandmother is terrified at what is happening and asks for people to leave her alone as she’s now too scared to leave the house.

im torn on this - on one hand accidents do happen, dogs are unpredictable sometimes and this elderly woman has previously walked her dog in this manner with no issues. On the other hand, I’m sick to death of irresponsible dog owners and am fearful everytime I walk my dog that she will be attacked by an offlead dog. This area is full of the “it’s ok, he’s friendly!” Types.

Where would you stand on this? IMO the elderly woman (or her relative) needs to do the right thing, accept responsibility and pay the vet bills.

Where would you stand on this?

I would say that meaningless, subjective descriptors like ‘elderly’ should be avoided at all costs. Given the MN interpretation of the word, could be any age 50+.

Id find it uncomfortable, but wouldn't get involved

Her dog was unrestrained and it attacked another dog. She refused to give contact details. She is at fault and should pay.

It's not a witch hunt. It's an attempt to hold the responsible party responsible.

The owner of the attacking dog should pay the vet bill. I was left with an £80 vet bill after an off led dog attacked mine. No one offered to pay even after I sent a text with a photo of the hole after the vet had shaved and cleaned it.

no one should be conducting a "witch hunt" though.

There are two elderly people here who cause absolute havoc and ruin peoples' lives (not connected to each other). I'm so sick of their age being used as a defence. They're always scared and frail when confronted, never when they're abusing others.

(Although social media witch-hunts do need to be careful and can go too far.)

£80 vet bill? When was this? 1978?

Has to be a typo surely?!

£80?! Or £800?

Age is irrelevant. She behaved badly.
If it was a male teen that acted in this way he would be hung, drawn and quartered. And statistically she is far more likely to be able to afford any vet bills.

Well it kind of does involve everyone in the local area as a lot of us can’t walk our dogs without the fear of them being attacked by offlead dogs. In the past 5 years mine has been attacked by a Labrador, a Jack Russel, a French bulldog a collie and a coonhound. She was also circled by 2 XL bullys. Funnily enough the XLs were the only ones who didn’t actually attack but if they had, the owner and myself would have been powerless to stop it. I’m sick of it.

I dont believe she's "scared", I believe she doesnt want to pay and thats why she ran off.

Tough shit. Your dog attacks another, you should pay for it. If it had happened to her dog, you can bet she'd be the angry one in this scenario and wouldnt be "scared" then to chase the money.

It's not a witch hunt. It's an attempt to hold the responsible party responsible.

//

It may have been intended as such but once it's been shared and Dave who lives 150 miles away and knows neither party chips in to pile on with nasty aggressive comments it becomes a witch hunt.

Again - it's wrong if this happened that the owner isn't doing the right thing. But this behaviour from complete strangers won't compel her to do it.

She should pay for their vet bills. I suspect she ran at the time because she was being shouted at (also understandable in the circumstances but not helpful). Now the situation has escalated and she might feel she has a right not to pay if she can't leave her house and feels threatened. Once these things turn to FB we can all see what happens and it was irresponsible for the victim to do this rather than reporting it. If something happens to the older lady as a result no one will win.

I don’t think it’s healthy for a society if some adults are given a free pass and expect actions are lowered for some groups.

Yes, accidents happen but she should have given her details to the injured dog owner. What if the injuries were severe and the dog had to be PTS because the owner couldn’t cover vet bills?

FB is a convenient way of finding out about what’s gone on in the area. There would be no need for this hd the woman behaved responsibly, elderly or not. Although obviously there’s a difference between asking for info and a pile-on, the latter wouldn’t be acceptable imho.

it was irresponsible for the victim to do this rather than reporting it

To whom though? the police wont even come out if you've been burgled- they took two days to come and speak with my nan and told her they couldn't do anything. I've also reported some quite serious things (far more serious than this) and they've done nothing. They arent going to do jack shit about this. We dont even have a dog warden where I live.

Maybe she has reported it and was told nothing they can do so she's resorted to FB

It should at least be reported it to both police and dog warden before allowing the local mob to harass the person. People increasingly taking the law into their own hands doesn't bode well for any of us.

I am a dog owner and my dog has never attacked another dog but if he did I would be horrified and would have given my details.
But I also think witch hunts on Facebook are horrible, it's happened around parking wars in our village.
I think the elderly lady should do the right thing and offer to at least go halves on vet bills but abusive messages can and should be reported to the police

It should at least be reported it to both police and dog warden before allowing the local mob to harass the person. People increasingly taking the law into their own hands doesn't bode well for any of us.

She may have already done this- you dont know she hasn't.

I'm on a lot of the ageism threads here on Mumsnet.

This thread is a dog whistle to those on both sides of the argument. (No pun intended)

The woman's age is irrelevant.

It's down to her as the owner of the dog that the incident happened.

Yes, she should at least offer to pay the bills.

But there's no law to say she has to.

SM witch hunts which lead to harassment however, are against the law. And quite rightly.

My SIL has a dog and is useless with it. It runs amok. She was visited by the community police officer after the most recent event when it got into a school playground.

Her age is also irrelevant.

When you involve other people in things like this it can get out of hand very fast. It’s the online version of the village mob with torches and pitchforks. Of course the dog owner should pay the vet bill but it would be much more effective to contact the granddaughter, arrange to send a copy of the bill to the lady and delete all the chat.

Exactly this. It's nasty behaviour through and through to conduct a Facebook witch hunt. And that IS what it is!

Don't think either party has covered themselves in glory tbh.

Dog owner shouldn't have been aggressive towards the older woman. It's understandable that they were upset, but you can be assertive without being aggressive.
Older woman should obviously have provided her details.
I notice Older Woman's GD DIDN'T post "My Grandmother is terrified, we have now contacted dog owner and agreed to pay the bill so can we stop this now." Which would presumably have caused the witch hunt to quiet down.

I don't see the point in "what if's" - yes, if the old woman was a big burly young man, perhaps nobody would be feeling sorry for her, but it's equally possible the dog owner wouldn't have felt "brave" enough to behave as aggressively towards them as they did towards an older woman, would have asked for the details calmly, and big burly man wouldn't have been scared to provide them. I've been in a car accident where other guy (whose fault it was!) came out screaming and shouting, then once my big rugby playing DP got out the other door attitude completely changed.

I notice Older Woman's GD DIDN'T post "My Grandmother is terrified, we have now contacted dog owner and agreed to pay the bill so can we stop this now."Which would presumably have caused the witch hunt to quiet down

I thought this too. This would have calmed everything right down. Clearly they dont want to pay up.

I think age is relevant in establishing that the escapee might be more vulnerable than the shouty one. It is reasonable to assume that someone older may feel more threatened than someone younger and more capable of defending themselves, and thus it's important to know how the initial confrontation went down.

It doesn't have any relevance on her dog owning competence though

I sympathise with her panicking and dashing off but she should have used the relative to post an apology and that the owner had been contacted and vets fees will be paid by the elderly woman.

I will have to take your word about use of the word witch hunt because it could be a frantic attempt to find the person who should pay vets fees and be reported to the dog warden. I’ve noticed that FB stories like this often have replies saying that they know the dog/owner and their own experience encountering the duo. Also verbal abuse can be panicked reaction of attacked dog’s owner- totally understandable that she would have shouted and wanted answers.

I would be highly sceptical of the claim that the dog’s never done that before.

Luckily just £80! Antibiotics and cleaning only. It looked horrendous though.

if it had been £800 I would have actively tried to get the money from them.