To have no sympathy for this woman (potentially upsetting - death of a dog)

[Watermelonsugarcube]

A woman I work with owned an XL bully, which last week attacked and killed her other dog. The XL bully has been put down, so she is understandably devastated to have lost two dogs in one day.

I don’t know her very well as we work on different teams and our paths rarely cross, however colleagues who are closer to her are all fawning over her, talking about what a tragedy it all is.

Willing to be told I’m completely heartless here but I think she’s a fucking idiot to have owned one of those dogs in the first place and while it’s sad her other dog died (terrier type breed) I’m struggling to find any sympathy for her.

I think I would feel the same as you - XL bully owners are completely irresponsible and quite honestly if I were her I’d feel ashamed rather than going around looking for sympathy.

At least it was only another dog it killed and not a child.

I feel sorry for the terrier that died in the attack and that’s as far as my sympathy extends .

I agree, she’s an idiot to have had one in the first place.

The ‘it’s not the breed’ brigade will be along shortly.

I imagine it's very upsetting seeing one of your pets kill the other her one, but she's an absolute dingbat to have an XL bully in the first case.

Yes she was a fucking idiot.

Her colleagues can understand that and have sympathy for her.

If you can't then you can't.

I'm not sure what you want from this thread apart from the very predictable pile-on?

I feel sorry for the poor little terrier that he had such a shit owner. I guess your colleague is the "classy" type OP?

You don’t know her so why would you have any connection or sympathy to her plight? If she was a friend you would probably have a better appreciation of her situation and upset. But not surprise you couldn’t care less about a stranger you have the opportunity to judge

This.

I’d have no sympathy either expect for the other poor animal that was killed. As far as I’m concerned I’d happily see all of these types of dogs euthanised. Horrible things.

I would feel the same as you, and I am a dog owner. She’s lucky it was her dog that was killed and not someone else’s, or god forbid a child, or she could be facing criminal charges

It is a tragedy, poor dogs. One for being violently killed, and the other for being bred into existence. I would be lightly sympathetic that she was upset if asked, but couldn't fawn over her because this was her fault and it was predictable. The fact that she didn't predict it and indeed facilitated it would make me slightly sympathetic towards her for being not very bright. All in all, best to just stay out of it.

I wouldn’t go out a get XL Bully knowing what we know about them now but I have sympathy for anyone that already had one before it became apparent how dangerous they were. I can a see why she believed her beloved pet was different from the monsters in the media. Could you put to sleep your pet, one that you know and love?

She chose to trust her dog which up until then presumably hadn’t been an issue and it massively back fired. I have sympathy for her, very sad situation all round.

She's lucky it didn't maul her too.

Absolutely stupid to own a dog known for its tendency to be badly reactive and too big for a human to control. But to house it with any other type of dog - stupid stupid stupid!

The smaller dog must have lived in fear much of the time, too.

Terrible for the other dog and hopefully she won't have any other dogs for a long long time

I dont have any sympathy for her what so ever.
Poor terrier dog didn't ask for such a irresponsible owner. Rest in peace little one.

Yeah she's an idiot if she chose an XL bully as pet (whhhy??) but its a horrible way to lose her terrier & maybe there's probably a whole layer of guilt that this was predictable & feeling stupid that she maybe trotted out the old 'my dog wouldn't hurt a fly' etcetc.

I wouldn't be reaching out to extend sympathy but I can understand & have empathy that she probably feels like shit right now.

Yes she's an idiot, but I do have sympathy for her. I think the kind of person that buys these dogs is just not thinking straight when they do it. Ultimately I blame the government for allowing dogs as pets that can kill a human and are known to do so

The more XL bully owners that directly feel the consequences of owning these awful animals, the better. That poor little terrier is the only one I feel sad for.

This happened to a friend of mine. The dog doing the killing wasn't an XL bully breed and had lived with the dog it killed for 7 years. My friend paid for a post mortem because she was so shocked about how her dog behaved. The dog was found to have a brain tumour.

If your colleague witnessed the attack then she is no doubt traumatised by it. You don't have to have fawn over her but to have no sympathy and act as if she deserved it is a bit shitty. And then to start a thread .......

Like PP I'm glad it wasn't a child, or anyone else for that matter, and that the dog has been PTS.

Mumsnet seems to have become a place where people gather to gloat over others misfortune with a bit of snobbery thrown in.

Must be awful to lose both dogs, regardless of breed.
Depends alot on the circumstance for me though.

I don't see any gloating here, or snobbery.

A lot of well- deserved judgment, yes.

But you'd expect that from a group of intelligent women when told that (a) someone actually chose to own one of these genetically manufactured monsters and (b) housed it with a much smaller yappy dog and that (c) the big dog killed the little one.

ETA all my sympathy is with the little dog, and the woman responsible for its death should be banned from ever owning dogs again as she patently doesn't know what she's doing. I'd be inclined, in the OP's situation, to report her to the RSPCA to see if there's any chance of making sure she never owns a dangerous dog again.

Here's the snobbery:

I guess your colleague is the "classy" type OP?

The judgement well-deserved or otherwise is based only in the knowledge that she owned an XL bully breed. OP knows little to nothing about her or how she came to have the dog and neither do you.

Agreed.

I have a relative who has an XL Bully and honestly, it’s the sweetest dog, genuinely beautiful and lovely temperament, smart and well behaved. To date. Would I ever let her near my kids/pets or be alone with it . Big fat no. She’s massive. 10 stone apparently. Why would anyone have that in their house??