A fourteen year old girl has been killed...

[JustGiveMeFiveMinutes]

...mauled to death by four dogs.

RIP

Single mother with disability type benefit with 5 children if the headlines are to be believed.

And yes, totally irresponsible and stupid but again - no real consequences regarding what she has done. I am sure she is very sorry. If she wasnt that would make her something else completely.

Seeker -I agree. Dogs do not carry around the fact that they will one day die. Humans know this but dogs live in the moment.

When they are taken to the vets for that last visit, they dont know what is coming. They slowly slip away hopefully being cuddled by their owners.

Blimey, I am filling up as I write this.

Some very sensible ideas in maisiejoe123 list.

The law needs changing, she should be prosecuted. Reading this thread with interest, however I don't understand how all these ideas would be paid for and enforced, it seems to me genuine good dog owners would be the ones who would follow any new law, pay any amount necessary, but the owners of the more unscrupelous cross breeds would probably not, the people not interested in the dogs welfare more interested in having the dog as an aggressive weapon, Who would be responsible for ensuring all these 'owners' complied with the law?

Maybe certain breeds would have to have a visible tag of some sort to show they had been through the process outlined by maisie?

If you were flagged as having a 'special breed' then the police etc could move quickly if there are any complaints. At present what can the police do about this feckless woman with 5 huge dogs that she clearly cannot afford and who are running wild. If she had to prove they had been training and microchipped she might think twice.

And I love BIG dogs.....

And of course - you arent forced to have a 'breed on the list'!

And of course those who have always abided by the law will continue to do so and those who have not will continue not to. Do you honestly think that the kind of people who own dogs who go onto to attack will be any less inclined to own them because of a list?

It didn't work when they banned the pitbull and it won't work now.

Tighter restrictions need to be placed on the breeding, sale and advertisement of dogs for sale. Ban the sale of dogs/live animals on public websites such as FB, Gumtree, Preloved etc. Ban unlicensed breeding. Place tighter restrictions on breeders who are licensed. Ban all breeding of the SBT for at least 5 years. Reputable breeders will not be effected as they don't advertise using sites like that anyway, they use breed associations.

Seeker. I understand what you are saying, but it still feels wrong to end the life of a dog or any other animal for that matter because the person who is supposedly responsible for it isn't up to the job. Probably the animal wouldn't know any different as you say, but that doesn't seem to me to be the point. It feels like such a let off and morally not quite right. Just to me anyway.

Bloody irresponsible humans.

There will be people who don't comply, but as Maisiejoe says at least the police will be able to call on them and question them or even stop them in the street or park before their dogs kill or injure someone which is how the law stands at the moment.

How anyone honestly thought having 5 dogs, breeds known to have particular tendencies, in a terraced house, with just a back yard was responsible, I have no idea. If this is all true.

Let alone breed them.

There were probably many people who thought it was irresponsible, but as the law stands at the moment it is not actually illegal so what could anyone have done about it?

When I lived in a HA flat you were not allowed dogs, and iirc council flats in my area was the same, i know so many people flouted it that eventually they called an amnesty and tried to stop anyone new having dogs, it didnt work, so many laws need bringing in and enforced, but I can't see the logistics of it working.

Speaking recently to a local policeman in my area as regard to some nuisance/scary owners and their dogs n my local park, he said that the dogs would attack policeman on command so they were scared confronting these people, very worrying really.

Can I just chip in and say that you absolutely should not leave dog faeces lying around in fields either! Farmers growing food crops get very upset about this as any pathogens will not have had time to fully break down in the short life cycle of a vegetable crop, meaning that there will be dog poo on your turnips and carrots. An arable field is a not an open-air dog loo.

I thought at least one of those dogs looked like a dogo argentino.

but with all these proposed measures to prevent these dog attacks, no-one has as yet come up with a suggestion as to how the government is going to afford to pay for them to be enforced.

In theory you make registered breeding only legal, with registered breeders having to microchip their puppies before selling them. the microchip would, in theory, then become the dog licence. but how do you enforce that? fact is you can't. There will always be people who will allow their dogs to become pregnant, even if you make newtering compulsory, because you shouldn't spay a dog until it has had its first season, and the recommendation now is to not newter male dogs until they are two. So the unscrupulous will still allow their bitch to get pregnant during her first season just for the cute puppy factor and there is absolutely no way to prevent that from happening. And there is absolutely no politician in this country who would bring in a law that said any dogs bred outside of licencing laws should be destroyed, that would never make it through parliament. So now you already have unlicenced puppies born to a non licenced breeder, except you can't necessarily prove it.

There do need to be penalties for owners whose dogs inflict injury on to people, but we simply do not have the financial resources in this country to bring in schemes which call for compulsory training/breeding regulation/licencing etc, and to implement such a law would just be paying lip service to the anti dog brigade, but it would never be enforced. in much the same way as the using mobile phones while driving law has on the whole been a worthless effort.

The trouble is, backyard breeding of puppies and kittens can be big bucks that go completely under the radar for of the tax man for people who are otherwise unlikely to have a decent job. It involves precious little effort or brains on their part, and even without KC reg papers a good puppy can go for hundreds.

Duchesse. I don't leave dog poo on arable land.

yes exactly. Just look at the designer dogs trade. none of those are KC registered because they are crossbreeds.

If I ruled the world newtering of all animals (cats included) would be compulsory as there are far too many of them. But reality is that this is completely unenforceable, because you can't legislate for animals that get out during a season or someone who has more than one who happen to breed before the female can be spayed and that's before we get to those who deliberately bring their animals together because they "want the dog to experience motherhood," (yes, I have seen this said on here, for instance,) or because "kittens are cute and it's lovely for the dc."

I've just been on the owner's facebook photos of her dogs, which she has unwisely left open to public comments. Some of her comments at the time of putting the photos up suggest that she was not deliberately breeding dangerous dogs, but more ignorant and a bit deluded about them. The large white evil looking one (the one I think is a dogo )is explicitly mentioned as having aggressive behaviour haha (albeit mild at the time- growling and "being a bully") back in September last year. There is a picture of an extremely wary looking staffie who apparently was looking like that because "he'd just woken up".

Not a dangerous woman, but a stupid and misguided one, yes. She is getting an immense pasting in her (open) comments on the photo of dogo.

TheRealFellatio makes a very good point, that I always wonder about when there's a report of staffies being involved in an attack. 50+ years ago, before they had any status as 'hard' dogs, my great aunt was a staffie breeder. When I was a child she had retired and just had her 3 which weren't replaced as they got old and died. Her staffies were tiny, stockier than my westie but no bigger. As a child (7ish) I could pick them up and carry them with one arm. I'm not sure that the huge staffies we see today are actually staffies.

DH was just out on a cycle ride in the country and came across two aggressive dogs (he said they were terriers of some sort, but not SBDs) in the road who chased him. He shouted as loudly as he could at them, climbed off his bike, shook it at them and they backed off. Then a little further along were two young girls walking their westie and they said the dogs wouldn't let them past so they were waiting for them to go. DH offered to walk back that way with his bike between them and the dogs if necessary. They went for DH and he yelled at them again and threw his bike towards them. Anyway, the owner came out of his house and had a go at DH and the girls! DH was fuming and said after what happened to this poor young girl in the news people like him should bloody well control their dogs and it isn't just walkers and cyclists, but motorists using these country lanes, his dogs shouldn't be on the loose. The guy walked off. Says it all. Makes my blood boil. However, the young girls (and their westie!) were really grateful to DH.

There are two sets of dogs near me who make me nervous. Two staffy type dogs always in the front yard who bark viciously whenever anyone walks past. Owner usually not there but if she is just grunts and doesn't seem bothered about anyone but herself. Other house the two big german Shepherds escape out their unfenced house and come running up and bark and anyone who happens to be walking past on the pavement. They snarl, circle and bark. Happened to me and the kids once we were terrified for a few minuted until finally the woman came out and shouted them in. :( I hate walking past these two houses, it is so unfair that people like this are allowed to own potentially dangerous dogs just so they can have a 'guard dog'.

jelly you're so right, the trouble is apathy with many dog owners. My parents have always had dogs, but they maintain they are just that and people come first.

We have farm dogs in the family. They sleep in the barn, run about all day and have a healthy, happy life. They are not cooped up in a house or small yard 24hours a day, with bugger all stimulation or other animals for company.

City/town dogs are, quite often, either pampered poochies or guard dogs kept by idiots who have no idea how to control animals.

They are not little people in furry coats!