How many more killed babies do I have to hear about on the news before something gets done about these fighting dogs

[legscrossed]

I feel physically sick.

18 month old girl versus bull mastif.

Hideous

It absolutely petrifies me, we have a baby ourselves.

'my dog wouldn't...'

DH and I were out for a walk at the weekend when out of nowhere a large black labrador came tearing up the path, snarling and barking and ready to attack. I froze, terrified while it continued to bear its teeth right next to me and bark. The owners (nice, middle class couple since you ask) came tearing up, 'we're so sorry, are you ok, it's because he thinks this is his path, bad dog' etc. etc.) I was speechless with fear and my only comfort was that our children (aged 2 and 3) weren't with us. Spoilt my lovely day big time.

So, if a nice black labrador owned by a nice family can threaten to attack me then any dog can. The potential of what any dog can do to a small child scares me silly.

MissM

Though clearly they were neither nice, nor responsible. If they knew their dog behaved in such a manner he should not have been off leash and out of control.

I would put these people in the same category as the eejits I have been referring to.

But you are right, any dog can behave in a threatening manner. Any dog is capable of attacking. Which means banning breeds is pointless. Most dogs will not attack though. Most dogs are owned and trained by reponsible owners. Ban eejits instead. The world would much nicer and safer.

Think about it... No eejits with dogs they cannot/will not train. No eejits behind the wheels of cars they drive to fast, no eejits beating up their partners/children, no eejits commiting acts of racism and homophobia or raising ill mannered, violent children....

EggyAllePoe you can avoid horses if you want to. You cannot avoid dogs. They are running around unrestrained around my children most of the time we go for walks. They are in people's houses, on the streets, in german toilets! And anyone can own a dog - not so a horse. If dogs were as expensive and difficult to maintain as horses perhaps the problem would vanish.

Well yes Shiny. They did all the right things - after the dog had scared the living daylights out of me and I had seriously thought I'd be bitten. DH was furious - 'if the dog is territorial then it should be on a bloody lead!' My only hope is they'll learn their lesson and it won't happen to anyone else, or terrify some poor little toddler - mine would have been scared of dogs for life it they'd been with me.

Just to add, I went for a run this evening and trotting towards me on the canal tow path, no other person in sight, was an Alsatian. It had a collar on so clearly belonged to someone, but there it was, utterly alone, in a public place. As Pofaced says, you would never find a horse wandering randomly in that way.

I agree it's the owners not the dogs who are to blame, but how do you decide who's responsible or not?

I heard something recently about some possible legislation to make dog owners pay some sort of tax or insurance. I think that might be a good answer - responsible owners will pay what's due, chances are irresponsible owners won't and will be made to give up their dogs. If there is resource to police it that is. But as far as antisocial behaviour goes, hanging round on street corners with your aggressive looking dog is pretty near the top of my list.

Personally i wouldn't be sad if there was a mass cull of all these fighting dogs, but the above would be a good compromise.

It's a difficult one though isn't it - the people whose dog tried to attack me would, on the face of it, seem like responsible owners. And unless I reported what that dog did (and report to whom?) who would ever know except the owners themselves and me? What constitutes irresponsibilty I suppose is what I'm saying.

Our laws are pretty hard on dogs, normally if they are known they get put down after the first attack.

So how do you know if a dog is a danger or not until it does something you don't.

Dog license/registration/tax will make no difference, you seem to be making out that poor dog owners = irresponsible, it has nothing to do with income.

The things are running about highly populated areas and there are so many of them, other then an outright ban the only other things that wold work would be to ban them in parks and have designated fenced off dog crap areas, make it law they have to be muzzled and make it law they must be kept on a lead (and not those stupid retractable half a mile long leads old people use to try and trip people up when walking down the street).

The family live literally directly opposite.

Erfan, the owner was very responsible with the dogs and from what i saw he took very good care of them.

I woudl often walk my own dog with him and his dogs ( he has a few)

Erfan was indeed the little girls uncle but the rest of the family are there daily, and there are always children areound the house.

I cannot understand why they have charged him with manslaughter.

the family and the owner are all devestated.

That IS true. Of course most of the ones who maim someone have gone their entire lives without harming anyway.

They are only right if they say "my dog MAY never" because they don't know yet if it will.

Try out a few sentences with 'May never' in them and it doesn't sound okay then does it.

"oh don't be silly. My dog MAY never bite your child in the face"

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it does it.

Probably the better and more realistic phrase is "is unlikely to" Onagar. The post, I think by Eggy, mentioned our risk assessments towards dogs. Responsible dog owners accept that there is a possibility on the basis that they have teeth and are a dog, but "may" seems almost like a 50/50 possiblity which, in my view is bordering on hysteria where dogs are concerned as the vast majority won't, whether owned by responsible owners or otherwise.

MotherJack, you're right of course. I'm being extreme to counter those saying their dog never would.

But having said that I'm not sure how one can estimate the odds of a dog biting. Many of those that did were okay before that so just saying "it didn't so far" doesn't really tell us anything about the likelihood.

'Quite frankly, it would teach him a lesson if he got nipped.'

You are joking aren't you?

A dog bite is very, very likely to get infected. Hospital tend to save their strongest antibiotics for them, it's not just a matter of having your tetnus up to date.

Also, I'd imagine it would be very frightening for your ds if his playmate hurt him and a bite (not a nip) would hurt, a lot.