Who brings this to the park?

[MarcoPoloCX]

Was at Greenwich park a few days ago.
This young couple brought a rabbit on a lead to the park. They were sat down having a picnic when a dog caught the scent of it forty to fifty metres away. The dog looked around and spotted the rabbit and darted towards it.
The couple stood up and held the rabbit up while the dog was trying to get at it. The barking attracted some other dogs and a whole load of screaming went on before the dogs were pulled off.
Who in their right mind brings a rabbit to a park that's popular with dogs?

Sorry for typos

It's not something 'small and furry' - to a dog, rabbits are vermin unless they they live with them.

You can easily train a dog not to chase small creatures at home but not in the wild.

Or do you think it's ok for some idiot to take a pet pidgeon to the park on a lead and expect dogs not to kill it ? or a pet squirrel ? Rabbits are the same as a squirrel or a pigeon to a dog.

You're completely wrong. Rabbits are not animals to take to a park.

Well not if you want them to come home from a park.

And I also have to agree that they were being totally cruel to the rabbit. Having a pet is about considering it's needs.

Or do you think it's ok for some idiot to take a pet pidgeon to the park on a lead and expect dogs not to kill it ? hmm or a pet squirrel

Absolutely. Dog owners don't have some god given exclusive right to use green spaces. Talk about entitled.

If your dog doesn't have 100% recall, and hasn't been trained not to chase then it should be on a lead.

Why are dog owners so blinded that they think.it is OK for their dog to chase joggers or cyclists or go.imto.someones garden to bite their cat by the neck?

Yeah cos the park and someones garden is the same thing

My dog does not chase cyclists. My dog does not go in other people's gardens.

Neither of those examples are anything to do with vermin in a park

I have no idea why you can't tell the difference

greenwich park is 'dogs on lead at all times'

so the dog shouldn't have had the opportunity to get at a rabbit

No it's not Dogs are allowed off lead. I've spent the entire day there today.

Here you go

What if the rabbit identified as a dog?

love it!

Laurie and Poor

You train your dog based on things it commonly encounters. You can it to ignore cyclists. To desist from raiding picnics (well not my dog, but that's why he's on the lead any time it's picnic weather). To not bat an eyelid at motorised wheelchairs. You do that training by being in the situation often, and directing their behaviour it until it becomes 99% predictable. It's not about clicking your fingers and having the dog behave as an automaton because you said so.

You can't teach them not to chase a bunny in a city park because you'd have to traumatise a lot of bunnies to get there, and most people aren't clueless hipsters daft enough to take them to the park in the first place.

I see a lot of this kind of stuff.

Ferret walking seems to be more common around my parts.

My dogs go crazy for them. Only one would attack it (her breed, she can't help herself) but I do find it odd that small furries are walked.

And we have a winner!

🙄

There's a -loonie- lady who takes her cat for a walk in the nearby park, nodt on a lead, but she walks in front of it with her hands outstretched as if the cat is the Queen of Sheba.

Woe betide you if you are dog walking in the park as you get a mouthful of abuse from her.

What if the rabbit identified as a dog? Has me in fits. Love it!

Do rabbits benefit in any way from being taken to the park? This is all about the hipsters. It would have been carnage if the dogs had got at it.

Rabbits are prey animals. They neither need or will benefit from a walk. They're much more likely to be traumatised by a walk to a park.

What idiot owners!

Dogs, OTOH, are hunters and need to walk & run.

Anyone who's ever set foot in a public park in the UK would know it's going to be full of dogs. Particularly Greenwich Park!

But I do love the ferret man at Blackheath station - always cheered my day up seeing him. And I've wandered about happily with a rat in my pocket too.

Poor bloody rabbits. As prey animals they must be walking around in a state of absolutely terror wondering where the hell they are, why there is so much noise and confusion and how they're going get out of this bewildering, stressful situation with their skin still on their backs. Bet they really enjoy a nice bracing run in the park.

But hey. No doubt the owners think it makes them look cool walking their rabbit in the park so that's all right then.

Apparently the RSPCA has commented on people taking their cats for walks in cities: cats are territorial, they don't want to go to new places unless they are the ones in control. It can stress them and make them anxious. But again, idiots will go on doing it, just because.