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Dangerous Dogs....
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
A five-year-old girl (Ellie Lawrenson) has been killed and her grandmother seriously injured by a pit bull terrier at their family home on Merseyside.
Should there be more to protect people from 'dangerous' dogs?
Have you had a bad experience with a dog?
I hate the fact that they keep saying that these breeds are like devil dogs...it's stupid. Labradors are more notorious for biting, if you want to look at it in that way.Villifying certain breeds doesn't help at all. It just allows the public to fall into a false sense of security. Beleiving that if your dog's breed isn't listed as dangerous under the law, then surely it will be safe. People always blame the animal, why not look at the people who own them and how they treat them?
Should there be more to protect people from 'dangerous' dogs?
Have you had a bad experience with a dog?
I hate the fact that they keep saying that these breeds are like devil dogs...it's stupid. Labradors are more notorious for biting, if you want to look at it in that way.Villifying certain breeds doesn't help at all. It just allows the public to fall into a false sense of security. Beleiving that if your dog's breed isn't listed as dangerous under the law, then surely it will be safe. People always blame the animal, why not look at the people who own them and how they treat them?
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But simple things like requiring a dog to be on a lead when it's on the streets would be a start. Other options would be a license for owning a dog, but I think that's going a bit far since there are already too many dogs without a home. But I'd be interested to know how complaints are dealt with, and what someone has to do for them to legally have their dog taken away. Can someone who has an ASBO as a result of violence still own a dog, for example?
eta: they're having a pit bull amnesty in N.I
Animals do learn behaviour from their owners in the same way children do, but it is the animal's fault, regardless of who else may be to blame. Dangerous dogs should be destroyed in the same way, IMHO, that dangerous people should be destroyed.
Might not be what you were going for, but my dog was attacked in the park by another dog last November, so I've a little insight into this.
The other dog is a breed known for aggression, although not on the dangerous dogs list (Japanese Akita). He was on a lead, although not muzzled, and the attack was serious (my dog was very nearly killed - only saved by her fat back) and unprovoked. He pulled away from his owner and the guy was not strong enough to hold on.
We tried to report the incident to the police on the advice of our vet, and they were totally uninterested. They wouldn't even take any details. So now there is a dog capable of attacking to the death and too strong for his owner to control when on a lead, walking freely around unmuzzled. Brilliant :thumb:
I have came across pit bulls, a lovely one called Baileys rings a bell. He was really placid.
In most cases its how you train a dog and what environment its bought up in. There is on the off chance sometimes mental health problems which sometimes cause them to snap.
Dangerous attackers (rapists, serial murderers, etc) should be destroyed, yes.
My dog has been attacked several times by 2 labradors, they pinned her down and almost ripped off her throat - the owner did nothing to stop them.
There are more agressive breeds than others - but it's rarely down to the dog type - it's the owner type. I think that before people buy dogs they should go on a short training course so they know what to do. More often than not people just get a dog because they feel like it, don't bother to give it basic training and after a bit can't be bothered with it anymore. So the dogs get stressed and stressed dogs = agressive dogs.
It is terribly sad and shocking when someone dies as a result of a dog attack, and especially when it is a particularly defenceless person as in this case. Of course I am not saying that it is a child's (or adult's, for that matter) fault if they are attacked by a dog, but I do think measures need to be taken to teach kids how to behave around animals... and as shown by this case even their own family pets, and that they need to exercise extreme caution as any dog has the potential to go nuts in the right (or wrong) circumstances. A dog is an animal at the end of the day and upon feeling endangered or irritated they do sometimes react in a very extreme way, as they may well in the wild. I'm sure the same could be said for some humans!
But any dog has the ability to snap and I dont think that because a dog is a certain breed, it is more or less likely to attack...
Staffs for example are considered "devil dogs" yet have yet to meet one that isnt mild mannered, you cant judge a dog by it's breed
As for the "who to blame" question...I suppose it's that old aged argument of nature v nurture
However, when you listen to stories like this you feel for the people involved and condem the dog, but when the story unravels, and you hear that the dog had been complained about, been in fights with other dogs, and attacked the child at 4.30am...you need to start asking questions about the parents and their role in it all
There's an old saying that dogs tend to look like their owners. Perhaps this is the same kind of thing.
For the former, I was under the impression it already was. if not it should be. At one point dog licenses did exist, what happened to them?
In this case a complaint had been made previously about the same dog. So it clearly wasn't dealt with that well.
:yes:
So you think that the owner is as much to blame as the dog? I agree with this.
but if my dog had been complained about before and was aggressive, i`d seriously reconsider leaving my child in it's company
Another dog bite. This time a dog was running around attacking random children. What it doesn't mention is why the dog attacked them, could they have been "boys" and intimidated the dog?
No dog which puts people around it at harm should be able to be kept as family pets.
No human which puts people around it at harm should not be able to live in day to day world
It really should be as simple as that imo
People should have to take exams, or training courses to keep pet dogs so they know how to look after them and train them. Too many people seem to over feed their dogs or not raise them properly, it's not rocket science really...
I just hope that they are more responsible and better at raising children than pets.
Pit Bull Terriers are prohibited under the Dangerous Dogs act for a reason, and ok so it may be "breed discrimination" or whatever, but they have been trained since the 1800's for bull fighting, and when that was banned dog fighting. They have an incredibly high pain threshhold and the will to fight to the death. They will also lock their jaws when they bite something, another thing they have been trained to do and not let go. I remember reading in the book written by the vet David Grant that pit bull owners would make their dogs hang on to a tree branch and beat them with sticks to train them to not let go.
ANY dog is capable of harming someone/thing, and it generally isn't one breed more likely to than another, but in this case it really is. Characterstics that have been bred into them for generations aren't going to be forgotten by the dog.
I do think that all dogs ought to be muzzled around children though.
There's a few around the town that have these dogs and they would only go for you if their owner set them on them, my mate got bit by one because the lad told the dog too and i've seen one of them kill a rottwieller.
The dogs are dangerous if people want to make them dangerous, all this hype is sometimes unfound.
It's a stupid bit of legislation, rushed through in the 90's after the media went to war on a few breeds. Pit Bull is a generic term and not a specific breed. Often the term is used (incorrectly) to mean the American Pit Bull Terrier, but Staffordshire Bull Terriers, English Bull Terriers and come under the title of Pit Bull.
And Ridgebacks were bred for hunting Lions, Alsations as guard dogs, Wolfhounds as for hunting deer. Never have bull dogs been bred for hurting people.
This is just a myth, and goes to show how easily people lap up this stuff
My dog hangs on to sticks hanging from trees and doesn't let go because she enjoys it, I don't have to beat her. My previous dog, A retriever did the same the same thing.
That's nothing more than you making an assumption. Can you back that up with science?
Guide Dogs?
I don't. They should definately be kept on leads in busy public places, but muzzling every dog is too much I think.
:yes:
Punish the deed, not the breed.
I'd like to see much tighter controls on owning dogs, the licences should be brought back, and people who are unable or unwilling to raise dogs that behave should have them taken from them.
These owners are the same charver filth that raise kids to trash everything, really, which says a lot.