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.

Let's hope so. I'm still sceptical that anything would have been resolved without the post however but am glad the situation seems to be resolved. Maybe seeing so many people get so cross at the situation jolted the women to suddenly do the right thing.

Hope the poor pup is ok too and the women takes note from this situation and now doesn't allow her dog to attack others by keeping it on a lead.

Old woman needs to pay up and keep her dog on a lead from now on.

If the old woman would have engaged and been responsible at the time, the Facebook incident wouldn’t have happened. No sympathy for her.

If the wronged party knows for sure who is responsible they can get the police / insurance to handle it surely? No need for a load of keyboard warriors to be involved at all.

The owner needs to pay for the vet bills. Her relative coming on Facebook should have offered at that point and everyone would have calmed down.

When she says "attacked" is there any independent evidence of the off lead dog being the aggressor?

Dogs will be dogs and yes they need to be trained and under control but they need to be off lead at times to allow natural behaviours.

Most dogs will not "attack" another out of the blue without reason if they don't do it routinely.
So just wondering if the other dog did something to provoke it?

If there is an aggressive dog that routinely harms others or is obviously threat and the owner does nothing then yes the owner should be held responsible.
But if there is a one off incident between two dogs and yours comes off worse than the other....you just chalk it down to experience and let your insurance deal with the bill.

My dog is not aggressive but is a friendly puppy who is still learning her manners....if she gets told off by an older dog because she was in its face, that's on her (and me)

So you let your puppy approach other dogs that are on lead? If so, she could well end up being killed one day.

My dog is not aggressive but is a friendly puppy who is still learning her manners....if she gets told off by an older dog because she was in its face, that's on her (and me)

You sound like a very irresponsible owner. Your puppy should not be getting into the faces of other dogs she could very feasibly end up getting seriously hurt or killed! Please keep her on a lead!

This doesn’t work both ways; there is no “just elderly.” Either she has problems like anxiety or dementia that made her refuse to tell the woman her info and leave the scene ASAP, and police need to be informed of her dog because it’s dangerously out of control and she’s no longer competent enough to determine if it should be on a lead and is, maybe unintentionally but still, a dangerous owner OR she owes vet bills to the woman whose dog hers attacked, and she and her relative should stop playing the “elderly” card. There are plenty of responsible dog owners of every age (but of course, sadly the opposite is true as well).

Their insurance premiums will go up once they claim. And also there’s always an excess to pay. Plus, while it’s not against the law not to issue a dog, it is against the law not to be able to control it.

Stop trying to excuse the inexcusable.

She needs to pay vet bills, she's not a responsible pet owner if her dog was off lead

Unless the dog owner physically threatened her, the old woman is a a CF who is trying to weaponise being a poor old granny in order to get out of her responsibilities. She needs to pay that vet bill and stop playing the victim.

Are you always victim blaming?

If someone is victim of drunk assult, should victim be told to negotiate better next time?
Are victims of robbery supposed to walk diffferent route and convince robbers they need money to pay food for children?
Are rape victims supposed to get modest clothes, walk in groups and tell rapists to consider they are someones daughters or sisters?

My dog was bitten by a collie. Both dogs were off lead. The collie owner was throwing a ball for their dog, and it landed near mine. She went to pick it up, and the collie went for her. Collie was clearly very possessive of its ball.
Anyway, my dog had a gaping hole in her neck. We didn't shout or have a go at the collie owners... just pointed out that their dog had injured ours. They gave us their details and offered to pay towards the vet bill... but in the end we didn't persue it as our dog was insured. We did let them know she was patched up ok though, and was fine.

I think in the instance that OP is describing, the elderly lady was possibly very scared of being shouted at. She could have well been distressed by her own dog's behaviour, especially considering it had never happened before. There are also ways of asking someone to pay towards something without being shouty and rude.

As for the FB witch hunt... I wish the admin of such groups would not enable commenting, and insist the person posting about the incident request that people PM them with information. Because these things do descend into witch hunts and character assassinations. I have seen it happen too many times... and you get people making comments on the physical appearance of the person being talked about too... it really does descend into bullying.

Keep your "friendly puppy" away from on-lead dogs. If you can't, keep her on a lead.

There is a thread running at this moment where poster has been threatened outside her home by a stranger who tracked her down believing she had slagged him off on Facebook.

In this case it was mistaken identity, OP has reported to police and hopefully won't hear from the idiot again.

But the threat of one nutter reading a post and deciding to do something about it, is very real. It would be bad enough if this happened and the old lady in question was hurt ("that'll teach her" ) but even worse would be mistaken identity.

The woman whose dog it was should have apologised profusely and given her details. If she's going to let her dog run loose she should be prepared to take responsibility for it. These days, with social media, people can't get away with what they used to. This woman or her relative should contact the injured dog's owner and pay all vets fees, then they should keep their dog under control in future.

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I love dogs but am fed up of irresponsible owners.