Fatal Attack by a Staffordshire cross - trigger warning

[MabelMoo23]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9232029/Pictured-Woman-25-savaged-death-rescue-dog.html

I’m in the Midlands and this is local to me. For those who don’t want to read the link (it’s Daily Mail)

This poor poor woman. But also this poor dog as well. She found it dumped - a Staffordshire Cross - and rescued it and took it home to live with her. Who knows what kind of life had before he was dumped. I know the area of Birmingham where she lived and it’s not a a particularly nice area, in that I can well imagine that someone had it, treated it badly so it was aggressive and then dumped it.

She was asleep and the dog bit her arm, and died of her injuries at the house.

I can’t even begin to imagine the terror she must have felt when she woke up and she’d been attacked.

But this also serves as an example as to why rescues will not rehome to houses with young children, and why those people then shouldn’t try and get round those rules by adopting from abroad.

Any rescue, their background is totally unknown.

This poor woman. RIP

[quote Raindough]@lockeddownandcrazy

But we will never know why the dog attacked her.

🤦🏼‍♀️ What valid reasons are there for the dog to attack her then? There’s no evidence of the dog being abused by her, no injuries are noted on the dog by the police; police visited the house and didn’t comment that there were signs of neglect etc.

It’s not “anti-dog” to come to the conclusion that the dog may have been abused in the past and attacked the new owner for no valid reason.[/quote]
In several of these types of case the owner has had some sort of epileptic fit which has triggered the dog.

And as an aside for banning any toe of dog that can kill you, a woman recently got bitten by her Shih Tzu, got sepsis and died.

But she didn’t get the dog from a rescue according to the article. She rescued it from a garden?
My rescue dog was assessed, her medical problems treated, and her temperament assessed before she was put up for adoption.
You can’t just bring a dog home like that.

When I was a district nurse I was bitten several times, usually by the small dogs of very elderly patients who couldn't look after them properly.
But saying that my current cat hates men and will go for any man in the house due to abuse by a previous owner and was rehomed with me because I am a single woman. She's bitten me a couple of times, always looks really sorry afterwards but I've had to have antibiotics.
You just don't know what has happened to animals and cannot take any animal for granted.

An awful story.

Any rescue, their background is totally unknown.

That is simply untrue OP and you really shouldn't be throwing around lies as facts.
I work with rescue animals and a great many do indeed come in with a known history, often it's a case of owners having died or ended up in care or quite commonly when children come along and owners callously toss their pets aside. And a huge number just because the owner bought on a whim and didn't think about the next 15 years.
If that dog had gone to a rescue there is a good chance it would have been assessed as too dangerous to home.

@Costacoffeeplease
@rwalker
Complete bollocks

What ever I put my kids before any dog but thats just me.

@rwalker a round of applause for you

Still talking bollocks though

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 just back from taking DDog to the park for her walk and mentioned to a few of the regulars that they should be careful, she could turn on them any minute.

It gave us all a good laugh

And as an aside for banning any toe of dog that can kill you, a woman recently got bitten by her Shih Tzu, got sepsis and died.

So, she died of sepsis then? Nothing really to do with the dog, beyond it breaking her skin. Bleeding out from having your arteries ripped open by a dog tearing at you is a direct cause of death by dog.

"It gave us all a good laugh"

How horrible

**It gave us all a good laugh"

How horrible**

Completely agree.

My friend had a gorgeous staffie. Great fun and played happily with us as 12 year olds. Then it killed another smaller dog in the park. No previous history of aggression.

Very traumatic and I'm sorry but I wouldnt trust dogs of this breed and similar, definitely wouldnt let my child near them.

Blimey that's awful. It's like the fantastical stories Fanny Price makes up in the Mansfield Park film, one of which ends up with the heroine 'being partially eaten by dogs'.

This is exactly the kind of blindness I find abounds with dog lovers. I'm sorry her kindness and determination to see good in dangerous breeds has led her to this pass.

@Hibernatingnation

Any rescue, their background is totally unknown.

That is simply untrue OP and you really shouldn't be throwing around lies as facts.
I work with rescue animals and a great many do indeed come in with a known history, often it's a case of owners having died or ended up in care or quite commonly when children come along and owners callously toss their pets aside. And a huge number just because the owner bought on a whim and didn't think about the next 15 years.
If that dog had gone to a rescue there is a good chance it would have been assessed as too dangerous to home.

Actually it’s not lies. Whenever any rescue comes in you are taking their history based on what someone has told you. The rescue hasn’t been witness of it, and yes, very experienced people will be a able to do a solid assessment because that is what they are trained in. But no one really knows for sure how that animal has behaved in the past

Actually it’s not lies. Whenever any rescue comes in you are taking their history based on what someone has told you. The rescue hasn’t been witness of it, and yes, very experienced people will be a able to do a solid assessment because that is what they are trained in. But no one really knows for sure how that animal has behaved in the past
I agree.
Posts regularly come up on here where people will talk about aggressive dogs they have rehomed or aggressive dogs they have currently and posters will suggest rescues that will probably take them and threads about rescue dogs turning out to have issues the rescue didn’t warn them about.
MN bangs on and on and on about rescues but personally, id always go with a puppy

just back from taking DDog to the park for her walk and mentioned to a few of the regulars that they should be careful, she could turn on them any minute. It gave us all a good laugh
In the context of a young woman that's just been savaged to death that is vile. How could you think that is appropriate to post on this thread

I’ll never understand “normative” people who keep bull breeds as pets. There is also always “A staffie!” suggestion when some poor first-time-dog-owner soul asks for a breed that is “ good with kids”...

I know dogs well, I have raised a couple from puppies (dogs like huskies, border collies etc so not the easiest breeds), I also had an older rescue. I just don’t get getting a dog breed to maximize its bite power. Just why? Unless of course you do dog fights...

@XiCi

The incident that involved the woman and this particular dog is tragic. Some of the comments about dogs in general on this thread are a bit hysterical. Yes dogs are animals but they are not unexploded, ticking time bombs.

@Kishkashta

I’ll never understand “normative” people who keep bull breeds as pets. There is also always “A staffie!” suggestion when some poor first-time-dog-owner soul asks for a breed that is “ good with kids”...

I know dogs well, I have raised a couple from puppies (dogs like huskies, border collies etc so not the easiest breeds), I also had an older rescue. I just don’t get getting a dog breed to maximize its bite power. Just why? Unless of course you do dog fights...

Because the muscly dogs that you see often as the culprit in cases like this are not staffies. They are jacked up bully crosses.

Proper, breed standard staffies should only be maximum 16inches high. Proper staffies are quite dinky actually, smaller than spaniel size.

Like the ones in this clip

@XiCi

I don't think the comment was about the woman being attacked. That's awful. More about the sweeping statements on here that our rescue dogs are going to attack because we don't know their history

@XiCi Sorry if my last post came across a bit harsh. I know that some posters on here have had bad experiences with dogs. But it gets annoying when some people have clearly never owned a dog, just read a few horror stories in the news and think that makes them an expert and start tarring all dogs with the same brush.

@letsnotscaretheneighbours Sadly the media always say Staffie cross when they don't know the breed. It really annoys me as I know Staffies are wonderful dogs who adore children. I have two. Labradors have attacked more than Staffies but no one bashes that breed !!

Sadly the media always say Staffie cross when they don't know the breed. It really annoys me as I know Staffies are wonderful dogs who adore children. I have two. Labradors have attacked more than Staffies but no one bashes that breed
While it is true that labradors regularly top the bite statistics, fatalities, from uk statistics I’ve read, are almost exclusively Staffy/bull breed with a few GSDs.

I’ve never considered myself particularly breedist and indeed I grew up in an area almost all staffy/bull breeds - I never encountered a mean one and DH when I met him had a very sweet Staffy.

Imo, poverty is a major risk factor for dog fatalities, the fact dog fatalities are usually in deprived areas suggests that, and bull breeds are extremely popular in those areas.

Nonetheless, while I would happily fuss one in the street, i truly wouldn’t feel comfortable having one as a pet myself.
I can’t shake the fact that they are the one breed mix almost exclusively implicated.

“from uk statistics I’ve read, are almost exclusively Staffy/bull breed with a few GSDs.”

It’s mostly American bulldogs or pitbulls , a few GSDs, mastiffs, “staffy types” and then things like the odd malamute and jack Russell

But American bulldogs, pitbulls (in this country) and “staffy types” aren’t breeds... I’ve seen dogs described as staffies after dog attacks - on dogs I’ll add, they were lab cross Rhodesian ridge backs, that’s how bad the breed descriptions are.

Usually with a fatal attack, there’s a back story that makes the breed fairly irrelevant as well.

It’s breeding and ownership laws that should be put in place - that would stop horrible incidents much more effectively than trying to decide if some breeds are an issue.

It is a very good point that poverty is a major contributing issue but you still need a tenacious dog with powerful jaws that won’t stop attacking (as opposed to say a dog who bites once from fear). This is what this type of dogs was bred to do...
@ArcherDog I am pretty sure that your staffies are properly cared for and no more dangerous than my local cockapoo (at least to humans), as you sound like a responsible owner who knows the breed. Still I don’t know how you can in honest recommend them to a first time dog owner, say...