Yet another child mauled by a dog in the uk *contains graphic image*

I agree with you.

How does the law track down these people? How would anyone know who has these dogs. The full weight of the law is behind burglary and rape and yet fuck all gets done

@shadowchancesassy

you do realise there's hundreds of thousands of these dogs and not all attack and kill children right?

You could say exactly the same about hand guns.

Thousands upon thousands of people owned guns for sports/leisure use but it was the right decision to ban them completely so that there could be no ifs and buts around some people being allowed to own them and some not.

Quite frankly, your need to own a dangerous animal for your own pleasure comes nowhere near to trumping the publics' right to not be at risk of death or serious injury from it.

The public would readily report people for owning them and not handing them over.

Do you think? The people I've seen who have that type of dog look really scary. I'd be wanting too but wouldn't readily dob them in.

@SofiaSoFar but your condemning one breed of dog. Does that apply to all giant breeds? Rottweilers, German shepherds, mastiffs, dobermans, Great Danes? Where does it end.

Agree 100 percent.
Romanian “Rescues” we’re all the rage in lockdown- Locally they have all but disappeared, re- homed or euthanised?

Very dog aggressive and human aggressive too.
Overseas “ Rescues” were delivering them in stinking vans, dropping them off with novice owners who soon got in way over their heads.

The disease risk is a concern, Lungworm, Brucellosis &Rabies, and DEFRA temporarily banned dogs and other animals from Romania because of faked papers.

Romania needs to castrate and neuter dogs, not sell them to U.K.

Podencos from Portugal seem to be far less problematic, probably as not a herding / guarding breed.

Yes, all of those.

Another...

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/uk-world-news/boy-seven-needs-12-stitches-8383706

A dog rehoming charity where I live seemed to run out of local dogs needing homes, and started bringing in dogs from Romania. Pretty much straight from the streets into someone's home. No proper time for assessment etc. It was all about numbers and looking good on social media.

I follow Galgo Del Sol on FB, and they will spent months and sometimes longer with a dog to get it ready for rehoming. If international rescues are banned from coming into the UK, they will be fucked.,

This practice of importing problem dogs from Romania needs to stop.

Ffs. You lot know nothing about dogs at all. Not ALL Romanian dogs are aggressive. Some are some aren't. People , including me, successfully rehome from abroad (as well as UK). Dogs in the UK aren't commonly being shot at tortured and stoned to death or poisoned.

I loathe the dog haters here, especially the uneducated.

I don't think all (or even most) Romanian strays are dangerous but neither do I see why they should be imported to the UK.

Yet another attack.

FFS, something desperately needs doing about dog attacks.

Caerphilly: Baby in hospital after dog attack https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65441162

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65441162

another one.
tbh I’m amazed at the ignorance of even intelligent people. Two people I know recently have said they want to get a dog, they want the cheapest insurance, and a dog that doesn’t require too much work. They have no idea of chipping and vaccines- if these people who are seemingly educated and savvy think this way you can see how thickos with a penchant for violent dogs end up like this. A dog is not a soft toy ffs!

Horrendous, that poor child and family.

I like the idea of having a suitability check on potential owners (and intended breed). We've always rescued retired racing greyhounds - generally lovely, gentle dogs, although they do have particular needs. They're large, often with a high prey drive and extremely fast. We don't let our dog off the lead unless in our fully enclosed garden (with 6 foot fences) or we hire a field in which to do so. The greyhound rescue organisation were very thorough in checking us out before the adoption was agreed.
Unfortunately not all dog owners are responsible and neither are all dog breeders. Dogs bred for profit (particularly the breeds PPs have mentioned) often end up in the hands of the most unsuitable people.

Someone I know is involved in a type of defence/agility club for big dogs like GSDs and Dobermans. The involvement of the owner is key as ultimate control is so important if you’re instructing dogs to bite a padded arm.

He says they’ve had an explosion of Bully owners wanting to join and they’ve started saying no to the defence part. Firstly the owners see it as a way to train the dogs which it definitely isn’t - these dogs are already “trained” in the normal sense. Secondly the dogs aren’t predictable so with their strength they are bad candidates for it.

Licensing won’t work, the amnesty mentioned above won’t work.. I can only think that perhaps charities and dog breeders need to do extra home checking for dogs over 30KG or similar. It’s hard to know.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers this is the same one in the post before yours, isn't it?

How about we just ban dogs over a certain weight?

I wish we had a decent effective public health messaging system. Decent dog owners could educate the masses on responsible ownership.

At some point people need to recognise that this is a public health problem. That’s growing in size. These incidents are no longer isolated and we cannot adopt an ‘it won’t happen to me’ approach.

I stopped DD from going to a friends house as they had two massive Belgian Malinois dogs that were practically feral - the dogs scared the crap out of me as an adult and were bigger than DD at the time. I knew that if they turned on her, they could easily rip her to shreds and the owner didn’t have them under good control.

dog (and owner!) training should be compulsory for owning a dog - like a theory test before getting your license. It would help reduce the number of badly socialised or trained dogs and ignorant owners who don’t know what they are doing. Like driving, it won’t totally get rid of the issue but would help a bit…!

Another fatal dog attack this week:

Man, 37, dies in Leigh dog attack https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-65651152

It's getting worse and seemingly nothing been done about it ???

This is going to become an almost daily occurrence.
The feckless and irresponsible will always seek out the latest “ Bad” dog for status.
Years ago it was Rottweilers and Dobes and GSD’s
Now it’s XL bullies and Cane Corso -
I honestly don’t know what the answer is-

Chipping and licenses won’t work with the “Bad” owners , who are pretty lawless anyway.

The caring owner with their well trained dog will of course comply and be fully insured- but they tend not to have aggressive dogs as they select their dog wisely, either from a reputable rescue or via a breed club.
Never from social media or online ads.

Chipping and licenses won’t work with the “Bad” owners , who are pretty lawless anyway. They do work because not having s chip/licence is itself grounds for enforcement, meaning you don't have to wait for it to attack before it becomes a crime.

A licence scheme gives a lot more leverage to neighbours. Deregulation has left neighbours of problem dogs with no levers at all.

The law should be such that if a dog harms someone such that they need hospital treatment, the owner faces the same criminal charge as if they had inflicted the injury (or worse) personally themselves.

If your dog were to kill someone, you face a charge of manslaughter.

I'm a dog owner and I agree with this too. When you get a pet, you have a responsibility, not only TO them but FOR them. Their behaviour is your responsibility.

As a dog owner I made a commitment to them to give them a loving home, a good life and teach them right from wrong. They're like toddlers. Not much capacity from higher reasoning but you can teach them basic manners and link words to actions.

Most dogs are trainable. There is no reason for not doing so, just laziness or ignorance, neither of which is an excuse when you own an animal capable of doing serious damage.