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?

It’s the over all behaviour that you describe in your post which fits the definition of ‘being out of control’.

I do not condone the couple letting their dog off the lead specifically to chase the squirrel, because that implies its owners wanted some kind of pleasure of watching the dog chase the squirrel and maybe catching it. and tearing it to pieces. So not cool.

However, @TLOAS, unless the squirrel in question was a red one ( and therefore endangered/protected), are you aware that many people consider the grays as pests or vermin? They are classed as a non-native and invasive species and do a tremendous amount of damage to their environment and other wildlife (including the reds). That there are various schemes in the UK to control their population - i.e to keep their numbers down by killing them - although they must be killed in specific ways?

It's not something I could ever do myself - they look very cute, but as a few others on here have said, that is how they are looked at by many people. Would you have felt the same if it was a large rat?

It is to have a dog out of control in a public place.

Yes, that's correct, dogs should not be attacking or chasing other animals and if they do they should be on a lead. Dogs should be on leads in most public places anyway and most parks have bylaws to this effect.

As a lifelong dog owner trust me when I say that squirrels are way faster than any dog and they also like to tease dogs (like some cats) by waiting until the dog has seen them and then bounding away up a tree. I doubt if they are “terrified”. A family member used to be a pest controller and would regularly tell us about all the damage these rats with bushy tails do to property, specifically loft spaces in houses. So I would definitely tell anyone to mind their own business if they wanted to tell me to put my dog on a lead where squirrels were concerned. As it happens, I don’t let my dogs off lead very often, usually in fields, as they aren’t keen on children😐

A dog let off lead to chase a squirrel is not an out of control dog.

My response was to the idiot who lets their dog run around in a public park off lead.

lol good luck with that

Was it a Jack Russell?
as a Jack Russell owner, i am a member of a facebook group specifically for owners of this breed. I've seen all sorts of posts with pictures of their JRT with some kind of kill hanging out of their mouths and a caption like 'little Rexy doing what he was meant to do' 🙄
It is quite often a squirrel from the park rather than a wild pheasant or something caught in the wild countryside in the middle of nowhere.
Yes they were bred to hunt but that doesn't mean you can let them off in the local suburban or city park so you can post a photo for your own self gratification.
Not saying this is the case, but this sort of thing isnt unusual with some dog owners.

It absolutely fits the description but yes not worth a prosecution however the next time they do that and it chases a young child or harms an elderly …. This is how irresponsible dog owners behave and end up causing harm to others around them.

Do you 100% know that they just let it off lead to chase the squirrel, or were the point in the walk where they would let it off lead anyway? I can imagine getting to the park, walking from the road a bit and then letting my dog off where I normally would, even if she had just spotted a squirrel. She chases squirrels at random times throughout the walk anyway, and I know she can't catch one, so it doesn't seem like a big deal. If a kid (or adult!) started running through the trees then it would panic the squirrels and make them run up trees - I wouldn't say that means we should stop humans running about in forests.

Good luck getting them convicted for that!

I was chatting with a National Trust employee who had tried grey squirrel - this was in Cumbria where they were catching grey squirrels to protect the red squirrel colony. Apparently it wasn’t very nice.

I dont think dogs or cats can be prosecuted.

You could but its probably unlikely unless theres video evidence your dog couldn't be controlled. Police have better things to do i think.

There isnt a Dangerous Cats Act.

You wouldnt be prosecuted for eating meat.

Millions of people do....

Horrible people to deliberately set their dog on the poor squirrel.

I'm not sure how you would discriminate between that and hunting if the dog was deliberately released to chase the animal.

100%

I don’t have a dog myself, but of course when there is an emotional connection we see things differently.

If I witnessed a dog attack another dog it would upset me. But not more than seeing a cat attack a bird. Or a dog attack a cat. As I said, nature 🤷🏻‍♀️

I get what you are saying though about dogs being on purpose trained to be aggressive, this is not ‘nature’ anymore.

So spaniels used in field work, to flush out pheasants etc, also shouldn't be allowed?

Dogs cause fear behaviour in wildlife. This has major knock-in effects on biodiversity (reduced offspring numbers for example). On lead or off lead probably makes little difference in a park setting (though OP i think YANBU) but I get extremely cross in nature settings (like our local bird reserve). I have seen an offlead dog cause a sheep to drown in a tarn in Wales right in front of us, as it was terrified but didn't have the strength to swim right across. The dog owners, seemingly, did not care - it was one of their children that let the dog off the lead and therefore they could not possibly be blamed.

Dogs, in large numbers, also change the pH of the soil - more knock on effects.

We need FAR FEWER DOGS. (And better owners).

(We also need far fewer cats, and this causes me pain to say, as a cat lover. But doesn't make it untrue).

You can’t reason with people who can’t see the difference OP. It’s same argument my bil used to use when he took his dogs coarsing.

He’d say it’s natural for dogs to chase rabbits, he’d say his dogs were having fun and that they rarely ever caught anything so no harm done. He stopped doing it when that “sport” was banned but will still deliberately let his lurchers and whippets off leash to chase other animals.

No, that's not what op is saying. Deliberately allowing your dog to chase wildlife is fuckin abhorrent.

I think it’s a stupid thing to do as obviously the dog is then out of control in a public place.

If it makes you feel better I don’t think the squirrels are that bothered. They’re much faster and probably used to it.

We have 3 in our garden and a dog that tries to chase them. Like another poster said - it’s a bit like a game. If they didn’t like it they would move gardens I’m sure!

Millions of people doing something does not make that thing okay to do. Millions of people CAN all be wrong.