Dog attacks boy

[GhoulsAreLoud]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8386023.stm

Sorry, this is a disturbing story. As a parent and dog owner is absolutely chills me.

I wonder what more can be done to prevent these kind of incidents?

Sassy -- s 1(2) (a-e) are the offenses. It applies to pit bull types. Anyone care to define pit bull?

thedollshouse - please report your relatives to SS.

They really need to be told by someone in authority, that they are putting their children at risk so they stop doing it. Imagine the dog biting their tongue off. What utter fuckwits.

ilovemydog surely the point is that the police have had the dog professionally examined as to breed and type and have ruled that it was actually an illegal breed?

I'll bet that they were breeding the dogs closely. I know a staff owner who owns a bitch. She sold her first litter but kept one of the puppies which she now mates the bitch with. So it's mother and son. She's now planning to keep a female from the next litter and mate her with the son. It's all getting very tangled. Although I guess that would happen in the wild anyway.

Shineynewthings, that is NOT what happens in the wild. In the wild there is one alpha male in the pack and he breeds with the alpha females. Non of whom he is related to.

Irresponsible breeding, such as what you have described leads quite often to serious health problems and occassionally bad temprements/pyschological problems. Just as inbreeding in anyu species would do.

Mama, it sounds cruel, but I'd consider taking matters into my own hands if I were you - by way of poisoned meat, for example.

The guy downstairs has a staffie/pit bull cross which he says was bred to fight.

I carry an aluminium baseball bat on me every time I go out, especially with the kids.

If it gets anywhere near my kids, I will quite literally smash the fuck out of it come what may.

Expat can't you report him to the police?

If it's definitely a pit-bull cross, then now is a good time for the police to be interested in investigating him.

How many more children are going to die like this before something is done about these people with an IQ lower then a sausage breeding and keeping these bloody dogs.

It is NOT the fault of the dog, the dog does what is does because it is an animal, the people who bread them and own them and fight them are vile.

I would never have a dog like this in the house and I would never leave a child in the same house as one.

I hope the police throw the book at the owner,

It is also not the police who are to blame here, the owner for having the dog, and the people who left the child with the dog are to blame,

They don't seem to care that he's dealing drugs, Her, much less about his dog.

He told me what breed it was. I saw it, too.

When I went to complain about the noise.

He never lets it out, either.

He screams at it if it goes to the door when his clients show up.

But he's learned to keep his clients/mates turn up at all hours, whereas before every night was a party, so as long as he keeps that up we can live together.

A close family member works in law enforcement. He meets many pitbulls in his line of work (not UK) and told me he has yet to come across a pitbull owner who was not dealing drugs - that is his experience (8 years in the job). A PBT is better than a house alarm in that particular line of business.

'I hope the police throw the book at the owner,

The law is an ass.'

Ellie's uncle only got 8 weeks in jail.

Snap, Oscy.

This chap's pretty open about it.

When I mentioned I have trouble sleeping as it is and have been prescribed temazepam and diazepam his only response was, 'You can sell that on, you know.'

Oscy, I know a few police officers and they all say the same. Pitbull = drugs.

You have to question why somebody would want to keep this kind of dog as a "family pet". There are thousands of breeds that do not have this reputation. It is a status thing.

it's definitely true for this scumbag.

If you have young kids, just never get a dog that has a big mouth and a jaw that can lock.
Ok, little dogs might bark more and nip, but they can't tear you head off.
Most of the animal charities seem to be full of pit bull/Staffie type dogs.

ripeberry - most dogs can do a lot of damage, i have posted earlier on this thread about my aunt being bitten recently by a labrador. it was a bad bite and if it had been a child i dread to think what may have happened.

i have a staffie and he has never shown any aggression in all of his 10 years, however i am always careful and he is always supervised around children. he loves people and in no way could he be described as a dangerous dog. it really annoys me that staffies get lumped in with pit bulls.

No dog can lock it's jaw. It is pysiologocally impossible. Think about it, in order to lock it's jaw, it would have to dislocate it, which would be incrediably painfull and then who pops it back in??? Some dogs have much stronger jaws, but they do not lock.

There is no such thing as a bad breed, even the dreaded Pit Bull is not a killing machine, laying in wait to tear apart your children.

There are badly bred, badly trained dogs that are a danger. But not one specific breed.

Instead of getting hysterical about certain breeds why not encourage the clamping down on irresponsible, back yard breeding of any breed?

It's my opinion that breeding should only be done by liscened, supervised and experienced breeders. No one should be allowing their dog to have puppies.

I adore the SBT, I am not a drug dealer or criminal of any kind. I just recognise an intelligent and loving breed that can make a loving family pet if it is bought from a responsible breeder and trained correctly. Just the same as any other breed.

Ceres i agree with you - a close friend has staffies - they are not of the same ilk as pit bulls- nothing like them. staffies are not a banned breed, and the only ones i know are gentle as lambs.
its such a shame they get bad press. i guess its because they look similar to pitbulls.

i would love for those involved to feel the full weight of the law in this terrible case.

expat - you should report your neighbour - they might want to investigate it now and if he is dealing im betting the police would welcome any excuse to search his premises. the more intell they get the better.

i already told the cops he deals drugs.

i mean, duh!

that was about a week ago. plus, i don't want to get a citation if they catch him out.

he's still got people coming and going all hours - he doesn't seem to sleep much because he's hopped up on who knows what - props the doors open so they can come in or they chap on his back door.

he's such a fucking loser i wish he'd pick a fight with the wrong person one day and just go the hell away for good.

of course, the guy next door to him says the last guy who was there was even worse (that flat is used as temporary accommodation).

Ceres, I agree. And don't get me started on Irish animal welfare law! (I've organised the release of many a dog from Irish pounds and got them into UK rescues).

Oscy, I'd argue that Policemen are more likely to meet PBTs which are dodgy by the nature of their occupation. Those in rescue occupations where PBT are legal are able to give the other side of the story where the majority they have met are perfectly pleasant dogs (backed up by Irish fellow rescuers known to me who own PBTs).

To those in the UK who THINK that a dog is a PBT I can only say that it is this sort of opinion, when offered as a complaint, which gets dogs seized for no other reason than what they look like. (I'm not speaking here of Expat's experience or anyone who has reason to KNOW and be able to prove that the dog is human-aggressive). This has happened on many occasions, and dogs have been killed, only later to have been acknowledged to be something other than a PBT - in fact this occurred during one of the "amnesties", where an innocent dog was taken from a loving family on the seemingly malicious complaint of an individual, whereupon he was kept in an unacceptable environment, became ill and was PTS because of his looks.

Its this kind of thing which makes me deperately unhappy and angry and is as wrong imho as the death of the little boy in Merseyside.

This month, as last December, I will be up til 5am on many mornings, trying to find rescue places when 99% are full to the brim already, for hundreds of dogs, particularly SBTs and SBT crosses, which have been unscrupulously bred and thrown out by uncaring "owners" to make way for the new puppy or save on dog food so the owners can have a new flatscreen TV. I do this every week of the year but December is always the worst and the credit crunch has put rescue on it's knees.

Many changes would help - a change in the Animal Welfare Act, a law to make ALL breeders licensed (at present one has to have at least 5 litters a year born before licensing is required in the UK), making ALL rescues assess and homecheck before releasing a dog to a new family, an increase in the amount of time a dog is legally required to be in a pound before he can be PTS (currently 7 days if a stray and immediately if surrendered by an owner), and an end to the Dogs Trust "cherry picking" only the young/healthy/non bull breeds... and not least a change in the public perception that SBTs and their like are dangerous and unsuited to family life. My quite extensive experience tells me that this latter is far from the case.

My friends dog looks like a mixture of 16 and 24 and 16 being a pitbul terrier is rather scary, it has the pitbulls face and number 24's structure and colour. Fair enough the dog in question may be fine with the child it knows but my 3 month old ds mixed with the scent of breastmilk just really makes me want thier dog no-where near him, add the fact that i have seen the dog rip a rubber tennis sized ball to shreds within 2 minuitesjust makes me feel a little uneasy around it

RFS , we have dogs in our local rescue who LOOK like PBTs, I owned one myself for 11 years (since my DC were babes) but they aren't/weren't. As I said, you can't just go by looks.

If its any comfort I've owned dogs (including a SBT cross and 2 GSDs plus fostered SBTs, Greyhounds and GSDs) throughout my DCs lives. My current GSD and my Lab X (the latter doesn't like certain men and can be stroppy with perceived threats to me) can shred a soft toy or ball within a heartbeat but are soft as butter with us and always have been.

Think of it this way... your DH/DP/Dad/brother/male friend can probably swing an axe and chop a tree down in minutes, demolish a wall or stand up to an equally big man in your defence. That doesn't mean that they are a threat to you or your baby son or that they would ever hurt either of you though, does it?

breed of dog is irrelevant, it's all down to the way the dog is trained, socialised and handled.

oops havn't changed my name back to just 'redsofas' after another thread yet . The dog in question is friendly but gets very excited and licks/jumps allot ect and it just takes a moment doesn't it?. This dog has always been good with my eldest (3.7) and we've known this friend 2 or so years but i supervise him near the dog v. closely, and yes, the axe chopping down the tree thing is true yet humans have faaaaaaaaaaar more controll of thier actions then a dog and i dont really think you can compare the two. I do like dogs just any big scary dogs i just see as a threat to my children. If other people think thats harsh fair enough but i dont think anyone with children should own big dogs as its too much of a risk in my opinion.

Really, where ones face is concerned, a determined terrier could do just as much damge as a larger dog. Some dogs can be completly trusted, you have to know the dog as an individual and also have some sort of understanding about the way dogs think. I know of a couple of dogs that I would trust 100% with any person, child or not, simply because under no cirumstances could I envisage them snapping. One of them is a cross of two "dangerous" breeds, would you believe, and the other a collie mix. Some of the most docile breeds are also giants, such as newfoundlands, st bernards etc. all renowned for having naturally placid and sweet temperaments.

I am a dog lover and always had dogs growing up, but these stories make me feel ill.

I believe it's not just any breed who is capable of such behaviour, although it does seem that certain breeds are more likely to attack than others. It's not just children who share their homes with these dogs who are at risk, but children in parks, on beaches etc. There needs to be some legislation to ensure responsible pet ownership and rules people should follow (both dog owners and parents) when children and dogs mix.

I'm not in favour of the 2 never mixing, but I do feel that parents should have areas in parks, playgrounds etc where they know dogs aren't allowed. I take DS to the Botanics in Edinburgh a lot and it's very relaxing to know I don't have to be on the lookout for dogs.