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.

The victim blaming on here is disgraceful. Blaming the owner of the dog that was attacked because she shouted is pretty cuntish.
It’s really not, she could do horrific damage by posting on Fb- in the height of the pandemic there was a post of a picture of someone’s back room with loads of toilet rolls in it. Some people posted asking the address for the selfish (insert words here)- turned out they were for a shop!!! That woman should have posted asking could people pm her if they knew of a lady with x type of dog because she needed to speak to them, instead she did something that could potentially send a lynch mob to someone’s house

The police wouldn't do anything and why on earth should the women whose dog got attacked have to go door to door? She was probably a smidge preoccupied with seeking emergency treatment for her poor dog.

If the women with the dog had just given her some details then she wouldn't have needed to be tracked down. Maybe if the women didn't want all her neighbours to know what a twat she was she should have done the decent thing and not left without giving details.

Sounds to me like her dogs got previous for this and she's hoping to use her age as an excuse.

If she is sentient enough to walk a dog off lead in public on her own. She is sentient enough to pay the vet’s bills for the injured dog.

Relative could act as a third party to mediate paying the bills.

It isn't an accident! An accident is falling over.

Her dog attacked and injured another dog.

She is liable! Her dog is dangerous. She should have given her details first off.

The older woman's relative doesn't seem to be denying anything though.

If she had apologised and offered to pay there would have been no "witch hunt". I'm sure the owner WAS initially angry -I'd have been furious. However, running off wasn't the answer. I'm SICK of crap dog owners not taking responsibility for their animals. I've been bitten once (by a mini breed while I was just walking past -it got me on the knee) and been charged at twice in the past six months while out hiking by off lead dogs. If you won't take responsibility and you get photographed or found on social media then it's your own fault. Why didn't the relative private message the owner asking for the post to be taken down and make arrangements with them? Being scared isn't an excuse for not paying. Makes me think that the "scared" part is being played up to avoid the bill. My nan was a conniving old bugger and sharp as a pin -I could see her doing exactly the same.

Hmm the witch hunt isn't fair, however my 5 month old puppy was attacked by an aggressive off lead dog last week (no injuries but DH had to kick the other dog off of our puppy). The dog was being walked by an elderly man with a walking stick who had no control, just because he's elderly this doesn't mean it's okay surely. He knew it was aggressive too because as they approached DH called out to ask if the other dog was friendly and the man said no but couldn't get it back to him!

I can't even work out what your first sentence is supposed to say, so ignoring that... "If you make a mistake you are responsible for calming other person and helping fix situation."
You can't MAKE someone else calm down if they are kicking off.
And how do you know older woman didn't try?

i.e.
Dog Owner: LOOK AT WHAT YOUR STUPID DOG DID, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU, WHY WAS HE OFF HIS LEAD?
Older woman: Oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry, he's never done this before, is your dog ok?
DO: NO HE'S NOT OKAY! WHAT'S YOUR NAME? WHERE DO YOU LIVE? YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR MY VET'S BILL!
OW: Okay, just calm down a sec.
DO: NO I WON'T FUCKING CALM DOWN. GIVE ME YOUR DETAILS NOW. OR SHALL I COME ROUND AND BITE YOU AND SEE HOW YOU FUCKING LIKE IT!
OW: Look we can discuss this but you need to stop shouting.
DO: DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO YOU STUPID OLD COW. THIS IS THE LAST TIME I'M FUCKING ASKING YOU, WHERE DO YOU LIVE?

Would YOU give someone like that your address?

Compared to:
DO: Look what your dog did! You shouldn't have had him off the lead!
OW: Oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry, he's never done this before, is your dog ok?
DO: No, he's clearly injured. I'm going to take him to the vet, so give me your contact details, it's your dogs fault so you need to pay the bill.
OW: Um....I'm not sure about that
DO: Look, you can either give me your name and address, or I can call the police. Or I'll take a photo of you and your dog and put a post on the local facebook group asking if anyone knows you. What would you prefer?
OW: Um...ok, fine, my name is x and this is my phone number.

Perhaps OW wouldn't give her details in any circumstances but at least then DO would be completely in the right, and could still have done their facebook witch hunt as a last resort.

By trying to track down her address and telling people to go to her house?

I havent got further than the first page when someone mentions the mythical dog warden

Dog wardens, about as present as unicorns and buses that run on time.

The person looking for the information didn't tell people to go to her house. She just wanted to know who the women was. How else do people suppose they track her down.

Let's be honest if she turned off comments and just asked for people to message her then the relative would never have got in touch. So the women with the injured dog would still be in the dark about who this women was.

Bullying on Facebook is never acceptable. The elderly woman was verbally attacked and was frightened

Oh boo hoo. Maybe she should control her aggressive dog and not refuse to provide her details when it attacks another.

You could be a grandmother in your 50s or 60s which is far from elderly. It was wrong of the woman whose dog was the attacker to leave, it was wrong of the attacked dog to be very aggressive (although understandable) and it is really really wrong to put it on SM and start a witch hunt.

You have to be stupid or naive to not know the baying mob will jump all over something like this if you post it on social media.

So how else do you suppose she gets the women's details? She asked for them at the time the women refused. What else was she supposed to do, just suck it up because the women was old and pay for her dog?

FB is a very good tool for locating things. And people. Old lady shouldn't have been a dick

But doing it the way she did, led to this (from the OP):

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.

Anyone who regularly reads their local Facebook page should be well aware that contents would go this way.
On my local page that now moderates to avoid this kind of thing, similar events are reported very differently.

You might get "I need to contact the lady who regularly walks her brown terrier along South Street every morning. If you could PM me if you have a means of contacting her, (or if you are her) I'd appreciate it". And comments are turned off.

So how else do you suppose she gets the women's details? She asked for them at the time the women refused. What else was she supposed to do, just suck it up because the women was old and pay for her dog?

//

Of course not and I don't know how she does. But I'm not sure this approach will be helpful.

Again, what the other lady did and running was totally unacceptable. We're hoping to become puppy owners end of this year and stories like this are very upsetting and worrying.

FB is a very good tool for locating things. And people. Old lady shouldn't have been a dick

/:

Agree with your last sentence but FB is also full of nasty twats who probably aren't much better than dick old lady

You might get "I need to contact the lady who regularly walks her brown terrier along South Street every morning. If you could PM me if you have a means of contacting her, (or if you are her) I'd appreciate it". And comments are turned off.

Which is fine but let's not pretend the relative would have identified her or messaged in that situation and she certainly wouldn't have given her details later on if she didn't give them at the time.

Yes people might have messaged the information privately and not posted it directly on FB this negating the supposed witch hunt to work out who she was but the women could still claim to be feeling harassed just by the fact the owner of the injured dog has identified her on FB. People who like playing the victim always find a reason to feel hard done by.

Let's just hope she's now done the decent thing , exchanged her details and offered to pay and maybe next time she will keep her aggressive dog on a lead.

The vet bill should be paid by the owner who couldn't control their dog and didn't have it on the lead...what if dog had attacked a child...

It terrifies me when an off lead dog approaches me as I'm pushing my baby in her pram.

I hope the police find the irresponsible owner and make her pay for the other poor dog's vet bills. She also needs to be investigated for having a dangerous dog.

Every single owner of every off lead dog who has started on my dog says they’ve never done it before.
Dont Agree with a social media witch hunt but the lady should pay the bill and get her dog on a lead. Only bomb proof dogs should be off and hers clearly isn’t.
Irresponsible dog owners need to be accountable

Well the post has been deleted so I’m assuming it’s all getting sorted out in private now

I screamed at a woman whose dog attacked mine while hers was off lead and she stood there doing nothing. My sweet dog was getting bitten in the neck and she did nothing. So irresponsible having them off lead where other dogs are.