To tell couple off in park?

[TLOAS]

Walking through the park this morning. It’s a lovely park with lots of woodland but big open grass area in the centre and home to lots of wildlife. The squirrels were running round this morning when I see one couple stopped with their dog who was pulling on the lead while looking at a squirrel. The couple, fully aware of this, lean down and upclip the lead and dog pelts at the squirrel.

I shout over, I say shout but it was a little windy and about 20ft away, and say why would you do that? They asked do what so I said “why would you purposely take the dog off the lead knowing it was going to chase the squirrel?” They shouted back some nonsense about it only being a squirrel and that their dog is only small and to mind my own business.

WIBU to tell them that the size of their dog doesn’t entitle them to purposely release it on a squirrel and terrorise wildlife?

BTW unless it's a red they're an invasive species and everyone is entitled to kill them.

I can tell which posters are the types that let their children stamp at birds..

Plus many of you are missing the point. It’s not that I think the dog was going to savage the squirrel. It’s about the fact its owners knew it was going to chase it and let it do so deliberately. Causing fear in any animal is wrong and I can’t believe so many people think it is. You have no more claim to enjoy this world as the animals we share it with.

Well, if you report this dog then on what grounds?

Where did I say I was going to report it?

It's not unreasonable.
Dogs can attack other dogs and humans.

Most don't

They really aren't, grey squirrels are vermin so it is within the law for dogs to catch and kill them.

I saw a neighbour from the other end of our street do exactly the same - but she let her dog chase another neighbour's kitten. I asked why she did it and she replied that her dog "just wants to play".

I checked on the kitten the next day, thankfully it was fine as it got under a fence before being caught. But i would totally have told the other neighbour who was responsible if it had been injured.

Stupid thing is, i bet all these dog owners say that they "love animals". They're just cruel hypocrites. I always give this particular woman stink-eye now, i just can't understand her mentality.

So if it’s fun then it’s ok? Bullfighting, fox hunting- all ok if the antagonist is having fun?

id do the same as you op. And have intervened when parents stand by laughing and encouraging their children to terrorise animals at petting zoos. And chase geese In the park. So sad but what can you do?

I agree with you in regard to dog owners talking about how much they love animals when they actually mean they love their dog. Even funnier when they say they don't trust people who don't like animals when again they mean dogs and dogs only.

I think you did the right thing OP. Not quite the same thing but I told off some teenagers who were taunting a squirrel (pretending to have food and then frightening it when it got closer several times) and only last month told a teenager off for attempting to catch a butterfly by clapping her hands together.

Ones too many.

I wouldn't let my (small) dog chase a squirrel and I do not let him off the lead in our local park (two reasons, one I want to know where he poos so I can pick it up and two, there is an open gate onto the main road and his recall isn't reliable). I wouldn't have told couple off though. When at my DD's she lets her dog off the lead in the very large park behind her house, as does everyone who walks dogs (they all pick up poo btw). The (grey) squirrels know to run and chitter at the frustrated dogs from the tops of the many trees. NB unless it was a red squirrel (protected) in your park then squirrels are vermin as the grey ones are a non-native invasive species which do a lot of damage and are pushing the native red squirrels towards extinction. Some idiot imported them as they were so tame and would feed from the hand - no accounting for total morons, unfortunately.

My dog is a dog, not a human, but I am very fond of him. I don't let him chase squirrels or anything else, though I'd be happy if he'd chase a ball, but he doesn't seem to get the idea.

So it would be fine to let a dog chase you if I thought that you could outrun it.
We get this crap talk in our local country park which has two herds of wild deer. "Oh, my dog will not be able to catch them", it doesn't matter they are easily stressed, which can bring on heart attacks or cause them to abort their calves.

Exactly this - if your dog does not have perfect recall and will attack chase kids animals it should absolutely be kept on a lead.

Guessing your dog is free to go wherever it wants - hope the day it decides to chase an on lead reactive dog you accept the consequences are all your fault and not blame the responsible owner for your dog getting hurt

I had assumed our dog wouldn’t be able to (and didn’t really want to) catch any of the squirrels he enthusiastically chased, but I’ve now seen him kill twice so I am less gung ho. The squirrels backed themselves into scrub/piles of branches on the ground. His “sport” now is chasing seagulls, and I think they are pretty safe (and they enjoy taunting him!)

My dog chases squirrels. She’s never come remotely close to catching one so I don’t worry about it. I would never let her off lead to chase a squirrel though, that’s just cruel.

That is awful. We live in an area full of squirrels. Our dog couldn't give a monkeys about them, but a friend's dog got one when on leash and pulled its tail off. Owners were very traumatised. Letting the dog off leash to chase is cruel.

I’d never be able to let my dog into her own back garden if I was worried about upsetting the squirrels as we have loads of them! The squirrels quite often come up to the French doors and she stands on the other side fascinated by them.
If we let her out she chases them but a 30kg Labrador has zero chance of catching one before it gets up the tree.

Is it equally great fun for the squirrel?

Would you be ok being chased by an XL Bully and having the dog’s owner chortling saying “he’s just having a bit of fun”?

Selfish Dog owners like you piss me off as you give the rest of us a bad name.

Not a great squirrel lover. We live next to a local.park who had a colony of squirrels for. decades

They climb the drain pipes of our block of flats and break the air vents snd get into the roof space and cause more damage.

However, all dogs even the handbag size furry loves, should be kept on leads at all. times.

As for dogs chasing squirrels for fun.
Dear Me.

I bet it wouldn't go for a cat
.
What a pair of prize ignorant knobs that couple were.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of them about.

Why do posters like you come on here, read the ops words in black and white and then make things up? OP didn't say no dog can ever be let off lead because they chase other animals did she?

Why did you feel the need to do that? I genuinely don't understand people like you who do this, it baffles me

Wow.

There is absolutely nothing defenceless about a squirrel! Bloody hell they are viscous buggers when cornered. Trust me I have known many occasions where the squirrel has come off better than the dog!

One of the terriers we had on the yard I worked at as a teenager would actively run away if he heard a squirrel!

Grey squirrels are not native to the UK. They need culling.