Not to help catch a stray/escaped dog! Now it’s my fault it’s been injured apparently!

[notmyproblems]

Someone’s dog keeps escaping and for some reason it kept making its way into my garden. It had been dodging cars apparently and being a nuisance. Regularly have people knocking asking is it mine.

Two weeks ago someone saw it run into my garden and they were banging on the door . I answered (I was WFH and busy) and they were demanding to be allowed into the garden to keep hold of the dog till the warden could get there. I said no. Wait till it goes back out again (I didn’t want someone I don’t know in my house / garden) then catch it and secure it .

Ive since got the gap fixed and the dog can’t get in anymore. Haven’t seen it

Had a knock on the door today (same person) saying the dog had been hit by a car and they’d had to take it to a vet and how it all could have been avoided had I allowed them access and they hoped I was happy with having it on my conscience. So i just closed the door as they were still talking which made them shout and bang on the door???

Im not the irresponsible dog owner so it’s not my fault !

I think it's two slightly separate issues.

Yes, maybe you could have allowed them into your garden. Although I can totally understand why you didn't. I'd maybe have allowed it in the vain hope that the dog would be permanently removed from the owner and therefore I wouldn't have to deal with the bloody thing anymore (although I doubt that would actually happen unless they couldn't find the owner and no one came forward).

But the fact you didn't doesn't make the accident two weeks later your fault at all. The blame for that is solely on the bad owner.

Yanbu. I probably would have allowed it, but i totally get why others wouldn't want a stranger trapsing through their house and staying in the garden for ages. If the person was that fussed then they could have sat at the gap in your fence to make sure the dog couldn't leave your garden, or they could have gone and got a lead from somewhere and asked you to leash the dog then walk it through your house to the person waiting outside

You were obviously under no obligation but they weren’t even asking for your help. Just to be allowed into your garden.
I think it’s quite shit you said no.

YANBU.

The person who was so worried could have spent the time waiting for it to come out if they were that concerned. The dog left your garden and you prevented it from getting back in again.

What happened between that time and where the dog was is not on you nor your business. The dog could have escaped again regardless if you had allowed entry into your home for someone to get it.

There is nothing unethical about refusing to put yourself out for some random dog.
I realize this might come as a shock to some, but what if, say, you don't really care about dogs? Why on earth would you interrupt your working day in your own home in order to satisfy some random dog fans on here that you're a half decent person.

Is this our moral yardstick now?
How far will you go to help a dog?

So is there only one way in and out of the garden for the dog, through the hole? If so why did helpful neighbour not wait there for the dog to come out?

That’s what I suggested

Considering how the man acted towards OP , OP did right not to have allowed them in.

YANBU.
The way how he blame you shows that you were totally right to not let that man in.

And yes, some people are really working when working from home.

If they suggested to block the hole (they could had done it from outside of your garden), so the dog would had been contained and you letting the dog warden in later, maybe that could had been considered, but random person demanding to stay is absurd.

Hmm. Random man trying to help a dog fgs!

I'd've let them in to get the dog but them knocking and shouting at you is ridiculous.

He was asking to be allowed into the house and the garden and wait there for an unspecified amount of time, while the OP was working. If OP needed to go out should she leave the stranger locked in the garden?

And then he just walked off instead of waiting outside the fence. It's not OP"s responsibility to let randomers into her house and garden.

Oh do get over yourself! If someone is indoors in their own house, they are perfectly entitled not to get involved with something going on outside - especially when they are working.
Letting random do-gooders strangers onto your property makes you liable for any injury that might be caused, too, unless you stay with them to ensure that they don’t hurl themselves off the terrace - or get bitten by the stray dog.
Nobody should be expected to drop what they are doing to enable anyone (except an official, E.g Policeman) carry out a rescue mission…

Definitely not! OP had no way of knowing if that bloke was safe, and the fact that he's come to her door mouthing off in this way indicates she was right not to let him in. Berating a woman he doesn't know and then shouting at her when she closes the door?! Fucking weirdo.

So helping a dog doesn't make him random?

A man, that has nothing better to do than wait in a garden for hours?

Would let a strange man walk through your house and sit in your garden in any other situation?

No I wouldn't have let him in either.

He could have waited at the other side of the fence.

The warden usually gives the dog back to the owner anyway. I suspect your actions made no difference to the final outcome.

I wouldn't have let some random man into my house and garden either.

If the dog ran through your garden 2 weeks ago, how is that relevant to it being hit by a car now?

Presumably it hasn't been lose for 2 weeks.

YANBU

I assume OP didn't see the dog go into her garden as well, so would be taking a man's word that he needed to go into her house and garden for that reason.

There's no way I'd interrupt my working day to allow several strangers into my home while I was there alone. The man could have waited outside until it left the garden if he was so keen. It's the owners fault that the dog was injured and nobody else. What an inappropriate thing for someone to do, to bang on the door of a woman they don't know purely to have a go at her.

She was at work!

Someone else's unruly and untrained animal is not her problem to fix.

So the dog came out through the same hole and only exit to your back garden and then got run over? I don't understand how it would have been any harder for this good Samaritan to stand by the hole as opposed to the dog? Weird.

You had a chance to help.

You chose not to. Own it.

Irresponsible human being - no thought for helping others at all. Karma mate.

A strange man knocks at your door and says he needs help looking for a lost puppy, can he come in?
I think some posters skipped the stranger danger talk at primary school 😂