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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think something needs to be done about all these dog attacks?

222 replies

BattIestar · 25/02/2025 20:51

And if so, what? What is the solution? My kids witnessed an attack recently, it hasn't yet made the news, and it wasn't deadly nor did the victims require overnighting at hospital, but my children are now wary of walking to school, and being in the playpark. I hate that we are living in fear of dangerous dogs, and really think it is high time something proper was done about it.

https://www.warwickshireworld.com/community/several-dangerously-out-of-control-animals-seized-and-man-arrested-after-dog-and-walker-attacked-4996021?fbclid=IwY2xjawIrCq1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHa1YUA3bHzoq_pxI7TwdO4w9hshfrow9PxUD0VpJG1LbgSkwc4JPRA0euw_aem_JMCCUtSRtxMqwxBAThDhBQ

https://www.kentonline.co.uk/herne-bay/news/teen-injured-in-dog-attack-in-residential-street-320351/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIrC0tleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHTWY4zAPIYc8FEZfB9beTtbmrCASCSz_xUnQVseSIC2sDP3eKSeXP06AAg_aem_BA0Cw6SxxhlAErwSGsGZBA

https://yourherefordshire.co.uk/all/news/breaking-police-would-like-to-speak-to-a-man-following-a-dog-attack-in-herefordshire/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIrC1pleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHXq3Pnj9d5fXTDfAXCDes_X_9Hk7-CnsblXBfc4lQXCcvvLqwLGgAh4QzA_aem_N61Z-O4i2e6VG67vPLaQkA

https://www.warringtonguardian.co.uk/news/24960445.armed-police-bardsley-avenue-bewsey-xl-bully-dog-attack/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIrC2hleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHRHREId8LTMtQgHjS8JVw9q7gVYWWakhqlKayXA5e-fuBkMMicfFfjsvVg_aem_HYpvfZuhY_Iq_EMgSlGrIQ

The above are all very recent incidents, which I found when I was looking to see if the one my kids and I saw had made the news. I bet there are many more thst don't get reported too. And then we have the crazies spouting "it's the owner not the breed", or "something must have provoked it". In the incident we saw, the dog bolted out of its owner's front door and jumped up at a stranger walking along, knocking them over and mouthing their sleeve - I think the only reason it wasn't worse than it was is because the guy had a very thick coat on. If that had been my kids in their thin blazer uniform, I dread to think.

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/two-attacked-family-dog-after-31015876?fbclid=IwY2xjawIrDB1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHVBbWJkkOJJ_O5mEFgA-RfzzPiud9QsanPcMUQ2HkKpScEqfubC4X1eSbg_aem_WkZXswfnJpUMgERlgNERRg#amp-readmore-target

https://www.wigantoday.net/news/crime/wigan-dog-attack-police-issue-picture-of-pet-owner-4960583?fbclid=IwY2xjawIrDDNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZ9q6tFB-TD2O-mqoHbZkh7kN_JpCyESva9LgrhtWlRto5ExCTUbHAxh3g_aem_gC6a5KoO1hOuXYBQ01w1jQ#w2e4b783th709kb31uiwoxny8q94akg

I think we need to get tougher on owners - any dog bites anyone, the owner goes to jail as if it were them who directly caused the injury.

I also think we need to actually properly ban the top dangerous breeds (we all know which they are).

OP posts:
ThankyouBakedP0tato · 26/02/2025 00:04

Stripeyanddotty · 25/02/2025 22:40

During the incident in Warrington on Monday when the 84 year old man was attacked, police had to shoot 19 times at 2 XL bullies before they killed them.

I heard the police say that on the news as well.

It's madness that we are surrounded by these killing machines.

19 bullets to kill 2 dogs. They're like robocop.

Ladamesansmerci · 26/02/2025 00:09

MellowTiger · 25/02/2025 22:41

It’s important to remember ANY dog can bite and some of the smaller breeds are more prone than the larger breeds.
resolving this issue would need the Government to invest money - ALL dogs should be licensed. Police/Wardens should do random checks on dogs in public areas and unlicensed dogs should be PTS. Part of the licensing should be to attend training lessons. I have an staffie, she is well trained to sit/get down/come to her name etc.. and we put her on a lead if anyone looks nervous or it’s a cyclist. I trust her completely but I would never leave her with my grandson alone, you don’t get a second chance if something happens.
Any dangerous dog breeds should be put to sleep.

They can, but I can kick away a small dog if needed. A young child could probably kick away a tiny breed like a Yorkie. Even the strongest fully grown adult male couldn't fight off a large angry breed. Also they attack and literally do not let go unless choked out.

The main point those is that XL Bully breeds have aggression in their genetics. They are unpredictable and dangerous, hence why you get so many 'he's always been so loving before this' stories. It isn't the dog's fault, it's just the breed. It's no different from the fact you can't train the inherent working dog traits out of a breed like a Border Collie. XL Bullies all need humanely PTS.

Other large potentially dangerous breeds (such as Rotties) imo should require people to have some sort of dog qualification or license. In inexperienced hands It feels like the equivalent of a newly qualified driver buying a tank!

Poppyseeds79 · 26/02/2025 00:16

Newly qualified drivers don't need a tank. They can do quite enough damage in a car sometimes. More so than a dog walking around a park. 16 people were killed by dogs in 2023, 290 were killed by young drivers.

NewMarmiteJar · 26/02/2025 00:28

Too right it does. Those XL Bullies aren't dogs they're monsters and don't come at me with its not the poor doggy it's the owners bullshit, they should never have been bred.

buffyfaithspike · 26/02/2025 00:29

People can be total idiots with their dogs

I was out riding with a friend when a very small puppy ran over, under my horse. Hot day, lots of flies and horses kick at their belly to get flies off
This puppy sat on my horse's back hoof, on the front of it. We were yelling at the owners and they just ambled across the field
Thankfully my very good horse didn't move an inch or it would have been killed

If that had been a vicious dog and a child...they were so far away from it and no urgency to grab the puppy

Muffinbakery · 26/02/2025 00:33

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BattIestar · 26/02/2025 00:37

AcquadiP · 25/02/2025 23:56

We already have a ban on the XL Bully which is responsible for at least 60% of human fatalities. By law exemption means the breed have to be muzzled and on lead in a public place, insured and cannot be bred from or sold on. However, if the half-wit owner allows the dog to escape from the house unmuzzled, the likelihood is someone is going to get hurt which is the reason why I believe tougher sentencing for the owner should be introduced.

In regards to the other breeds causing fatalities you might have one or two in a year out of tens of thousands. Is it fair to ban all members of that breed when only one or two badly raised examples have been rogue?

It's not actually a ban though, is it! They are allowed! Just with some utter nonsense exmeption certificates. My ban = eliminate them from society, euthanise them and feed them to the tigers.

One or two human deaths to me is one or two too many, so yes, I'd want a proper ban on the other breeds generally causing these deaths. There are plenty of lovely little dogs that won't kill us.

And it's not just the deaths we need to factor - it's the serious maulings too, life-altering injuries. Limbs lost or made useless. Facial disfigurements, scalpings.

OP posts:
BattIestar · 26/02/2025 00:40

Poppyseeds79 · 26/02/2025 00:16

Newly qualified drivers don't need a tank. They can do quite enough damage in a car sometimes. More so than a dog walking around a park. 16 people were killed by dogs in 2023, 290 were killed by young drivers.

We don't need these dangerous breeds. We do need to drive. There's a vast difference.

Still, like i said earlier, I'd support people not driving til 21, or maybe 19 but they can't drive anyone else without an adult over 25 in the car for 12 months, or something like that.

OP posts:
TheCompactPussycat · 26/02/2025 00:43

SnoozingFox · 25/02/2025 22:53

Proper system of expensive dog licences. Like £250 per dog per year. Funds used to employ however many thousand dog wardens. Your dog is found to be out of control or bites someone, it gets put down immediately, no questions asked. Tougher licensing for breeders. Unlicensed dogs seized and destroyed - no questions asked.

You can't afford another £250 a year to have your dog? Tough.

I'm not against paying for a dog licence (I pay £1500+ in insurance for the little darling every year so £250 would be loose change). However, I strongly doubt that it would have the slightest effect on dangerous dogs.

Responsible dog owners will get a licence or have to rehome their beloved dog

Lonely hard-up pensioners will no longer be able to afford their companion and will have to rehome their beloved dog

Irresponsible owners who want large aggressive dogs as a status symbol will either ignore the requirement to have a licence, or will have no problem paying it from their illegal earnings (which, let's face it, is why many of them have these dogs in the first place).

Keepingthingsinteresting · 26/02/2025 00:44

BattIestar · 25/02/2025 22:55

I agree - but actually make it higher than that - maybe £1000 a year. Or £100 a month. It needs to fund serious dedication to dealing with the problem.

I also think we need to do away with kennelling the offending dogs that have bitten, because they are being housed on our tax pounds. I read a figure the other day that was eye-watering about how much it costs to house the dogs that have bitten whilst undergoing whatever tests they are doing, rather than just putting them down. Galling, when our NHS is crumbling and old people are shivering.

Dog whistle post 🙄

Muffinbakery · 26/02/2025 00:44

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Muffinbakery · 26/02/2025 00:47

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WeylandYutani · 26/02/2025 00:50

BattIestar · 25/02/2025 22:55

I agree - but actually make it higher than that - maybe £1000 a year. Or £100 a month. It needs to fund serious dedication to dealing with the problem.

I also think we need to do away with kennelling the offending dogs that have bitten, because they are being housed on our tax pounds. I read a figure the other day that was eye-watering about how much it costs to house the dogs that have bitten whilst undergoing whatever tests they are doing, rather than just putting them down. Galling, when our NHS is crumbling and old people are shivering.

It is not only dogs that have bitten that get seized... it is any dog that looks like an XL bully... and some of them will be totally perfect pets and innocent.
And the money for these dogs is not taking away from the NHS and WFA. Totally different budgets.

WeylandYutani · 26/02/2025 00:51

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They were abolished as the admin for them cost more than it brought in.

BattIestar · 26/02/2025 00:55

WeylandYutani · 26/02/2025 00:50

It is not only dogs that have bitten that get seized... it is any dog that looks like an XL bully... and some of them will be totally perfect pets and innocent.
And the money for these dogs is not taking away from the NHS and WFA. Totally different budgets.

well, no. If it looks like an xl bully, it is either an xl bully, or something so closely related to an xl bully that it is high risk too. There is no need for any such dog.

Please - the budget would be reallocated. Where is all that money coming from? What could it be better spent on?

OP posts:
BattIestar · 26/02/2025 00:56

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Just because they were not run properly before, doesn't mean they wouldn't work if we had a better system in place.

Where's Elon!

OP posts:
Addictedtowotsits · 26/02/2025 00:57

50Balesofgrey · 25/02/2025 22:35

If a dog bites once it should be destroyed, and the owners should be barred for life from having any animals, but especially any other dog.
If they breach the ban then as we can't execute them they should be locked up forever. Or forced to live in Skegness.

Poor Skegness

Muffinbakery · 26/02/2025 00:58

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Muffinbakery · 26/02/2025 00:58

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Whatevershallidowithmylife · 26/02/2025 01:46

Rare this happens but if you’ve read the article you will see if was a terrier cross, which had already snapped at the baby and was, for some reason kept outside?

MellowTiger · 26/02/2025 03:35

cadburyegg · 25/02/2025 22:49

I agree. Dogs that bite once should be put down. There is a dog in a neighbouring village that has bitten several people and has been reported but the authorities don't know who the dog belongs to. There should be some kind of dog licensing and tracking system that makes it easier to identify dogs and ensures only screened owners can own one. It should be illegal to breed dogs unless you're a licensed breeder. All dogs should be spayed / neutered by a certain age unless you're a licensed breeder.

And all cane corsos and XL bullies should be put down. There are plenty of other breeds.

We will look back in years to come and be horrified what we exposed children to.

It is the law to have a dog microchipped and that microchip to be kept up to date, so regardless of the biting this dog should be removed by the council. Taking into consideration the biting, there’s no excuse, the council should have this dog gone yesterday .

FetchezLaVache · 26/02/2025 03:59

Which of the following would you rather fight off a small human:

a) a Dachshund/terrier cross;

b) an XL Bully?

WiddlinDiddlin · 26/02/2025 04:21

Mm.

We need the government to do several things:

Regulate dog training - many of the attacks I've seen footage of or read about involve dogs grabbing at sleeves, because there are morons out there (sadly, all over TikTok) teaching other morons how to turn their dog into a 'protection dog' - by getting them to bite people wearing bite sleeves, and then 'agitating' them - beating them with sticks, pipes etc to wind them up and get them to hold on/bite harder.

Currently anyone can call themselves a dog trainer or behaviourist with no requirement to undergo any assessment or externally verified qualification. It is also still legal in most of the UK to use shock collars and prong collars and other methods that we know increase the chances of aggressive and violent behaviour toward people.

Ban the import of dogs with cropped ears - this sounds like its just an aesthetic issue but ear cropping has become very popular, and whilst it is illegal here, it is perfectly legal to import a dog with cropped ears, or simply say you did. And there are companies who will sell you a cropped dog that they imported (or did they?) with the correct paperwork... and that dog can be sold to you after it's been trained to attack people. If you have the money.

Its the sought after thing amongst certain celebs and so Joe Public wants the image, hasn't the cash, so buys a big beefy breed/scary breed dog and goes to a back street 'trainer' for 'protection dog training'... or goes it alone with TikTok for advice.

Banning importing dogs with cropped ears would seriously damage such dog importation businesses. Add in new controls/legislation over who can/cannot have a protection trained 'guard dog' would also help enormously. If they were subject to the same sort of checks and requirements that Dangerous Wild Animals are (where your ability to house and meet that animals needs and keep the public safe from it are evaluated annually, and you're only licenced if you pass those checks) that would help.

Early education - get rid of the idea that a puppy is a blank slate (it isn't!), that where that puppy comes from and how their parents were raised/lived is also important - that training methods matter, not just results, a dog beaten and subjected to pain is far more likely to be aggressive than one trained using force free/fear free methods.

I don't know how you do that, work stuff into the curriculum within other subjects, you can find bits relevant to biology, psychology, PSE (does that still exist?), maths (how much does Joe Bloggs earn if his puppies cost x and raising them cost y and Susan Smith suing him because her puppy came home with parvo cost z..).

Making the compulsory microchip system work would be a start - a central database, and chips that cannot be altered/over written, that link to a dogs entire history from breeder to owner to owner. Make it the legal responsibility for both buyer AND seller to submit updated details to the database. That way if you're caught in possession of a dog not chipped to you, you get a fine AND the person who sold the dog on without updating the details ALSO gets a fine.

Make it possible that the seller of a dog potentially carries some responsibility for that dog for life - so if you sold a dog on and that dog bites someone, you might be partially liable. Which means you're far less likely to sell/give a dog to an idiot in the first place.

Police could be issued with a chip scanner, they take up little room in a car and anyone can operate one - making a 'stop and check' situation easy for all officers to do unlike a 'stop and assess if the dog is an illegal breed' which is impossible as it requires specially trained 'Dog Legislation Officers'.

The real root of the problem lies in human psychology though - you rarely ever find these cases involving well educated, financially stable, mentally/emotionally secure, confident people. They own big scary dogs because they fear the world and feel horribly insecure in it on some level.

Banning breeds doesn't work, because it doesn't address any of the myriad underlying issues, and we'll never have the police power to truly police it. Even if the police had the physical numbers to go around seizing dogs in the street, those dogs have to go somewhere, our legal system means they cannot be snatched and destroyed there and then, they have to be held, evaluated/assessed, owner taken to court to fight for the right for the dog to be released/defend themselves against the charge of owning an illegal breed. That costs (the taxpayer) enormous sums and takes months and months.

Btw - government are aware of all these things, they've been suggested in various formats/tweaks and some of them heavily pushed for, for YEARS now, decades in some cases, by the advisory group APDAWG.

It is cheaper to ban breeds, it makes the public feel like something is being done for pretty much zero effort.

UnfollowTopic · 26/02/2025 04:59

Poppyseeds79 · 26/02/2025 00:16

Newly qualified drivers don't need a tank. They can do quite enough damage in a car sometimes. More so than a dog walking around a park. 16 people were killed by dogs in 2023, 290 were killed by young drivers.

In general, until we stop equating dogs with humans when discussing the issues, there is no hope for stopping these incidents.

RavenclawWitchy · 26/02/2025 07:02

Whatevershallidowithmylife · 26/02/2025 01:46

Rare this happens but if you’ve read the article you will see if was a terrier cross, which had already snapped at the baby and was, for some reason kept outside?

I'm sure that information is of great comfort to the parents. It was known to bite so should have been put down. End of. Size really doesn't matter.