I can’t sleep and can’t stop thinking about what happened and what could have happened.
I had just stepped out to walk my dogs (both small, placid dogs - one is a toy breed and the other a beagle mix) this afternoon. We crossed path with a woman pushing a bike with a front trolley thing. I assumed the trolley was for a child (the type you see in Amsterdam), I didn’t have time to see that there was something inside. Suddenly a dog jumped out of the trolley and attacked my dogs, one after the other. The dog was a female Labrador, she went straight for my dogs’ necks and on top of their backs. My dogs yelped in pain, started going in different directions and tripped me.
It all happened so fast, as I fell on the pavement I thought the Labrador was going to kill us all.
Eventually the woman got her dog back, I asked her to stay while I called the police. I got my dogs back inside the house, checked that neither of them was bleeding, they are both fine.
The police arrived, the woman turned on the water works and started sobbing. I said the dog was dangerously out of control, and at the very least the woman should receive a FPN for not having her dog on a lead.
The police were so dismissive - they said they wouldn’t issue a FPN because the woman had not realised the dog wasn’t tethered in the trolley, so she had no intention of breaking the law. I pointed out that intent is not part of the offence, but they said the poor woman had a flat tire on her bike, she was very distraught, she was going to have to walk 25 minutes home (like it’s a massive ordeal?) and they “didn’t want to make her day even worse with a FPN”. They said the dog is not an XL bully or Rottweiler, so it is not a dangerous dog (obviously that’s not true).
There were so many little aggressions in the way the constables spoke to me, I actually reminded them that I was the victim and she was the perpetrator. Like they implied that my dog was also out of control (absolutely untrue), or that they have discretion and can do whatever they want. Also that they now have my details on file, like I was a suspect.
Honestly it’s made me feel so sad for all the women who try and report assaults, the mix of dismissiveness and superiority and “we don’t owe you an explanation” and “I can see there’s nothing we can say that will placate you”. Just because I was asking them to enforce the law and protect the public. It was also obvious they didn’t understand the DDA at all.
I did ask the woman why her dog wasn’t muzzled and whether she was prepared to live with her conscience if her dog killed a child or another dog. She replied “absolutely”.
I just keep reliving the few seconds when the dog leapt out at my dogs and I fell on the pavement, not knowing where the dog was or how to protect myself or my dogs… it’s like a nightmare on repeat. 🙁