Dangerous Dog?

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

What is it with this fooking country and the chavvy little bast@!%s and their 'shut it' staffy's and mastiffs etc? Was walking my 18 week old cocker spaniel and my dopey choccy labrador yesterday around the local council esate ( a route we take every day - even though we have to walk through Beirut) and across the road from us was a nasty looking dog (transpires it is a Staffy / English Bull Mastiff cross). Suddenly it ran across the road toward us and pitched into my Lab. The noise was sickening - the puppy was screaming and I managed to grab her and throw her over a fence and into safety. Meanwhile, the 'shut it' dog was mauling my choccy, literally trying to kill her. He was trying to rip her throat, and savage anything he could get of her. His attack was relentless. I kicked the dog in the head 4 - 5 times with enough force to kill a man - the dog didn't even feel it! After 2 minutes or so the dog went to attack another part of my Lab and I was able to scoop her up and launch her over the same fence I had thrown the puppy over. The 'shut it' dog still tried to get to them and this is when I thought it would be my turn! Luckily someone came out, hearing the noise and leashed the dog.

I found the owner and went ballistic. Luckily she was female as if it was her husband I think I would be in the nick by now! I took my dog to the vets and somehow - I really don't know how, but she hasn't any open wounds. She is very bruised and battered and has a couple of small puncture wounds but I expected to see chunks of flesh ripped clean off. Thankfully not. I have involved the police and went round to present the owner with the first bill for medication and check up and there may be more. I looked at his dog and it has battle scars all over it from previous fights. He has not had the dog from birth and doesn't know the history! Scarily, he has 3 children under 6!

The blessing as that on this one occasion I decided to walk the dogs - and not my 12 year old daughter!!

Patch, is there anything in law to have this breed removed from it's home and destroyed before it attacks again? The police seem interested but slow.

I'm sorry to hear that this has happened to your dog, I think that I'd have done exactly what you have TBH

If it were my dog which had attacked another or a person then I would be straight down the vets

Thanks Noz. The dog was lucky as I normally have a stanley knife in my work trousers and can honestly say if I did I would have slit its throat! Just so happened I had a new pair of trousers on and didn't put my knife in them. The attack was vicious, unprovoked and disturbing. They don't know the history of the dog as they were given it and it had old battle scars all over it so my guess is this isn't an isolated incident.

Wow. What an awful situation. Hope your dogs are ok?

I am not the right man to ask about legal advice. As far as I know a dog is classed as your property and therefore if someone damages your property you are entitled to have it made right, ie get them to reimburse you for the vet bill. The bit I do know (evil, money grabbing vet, you see ) is that if you take your dog to the vet YOU are responsible for the bill, you have to get that back later. There is the dangerous dogs act that would give some protection in these circumstances.

Do you have a legal helpline with your house insurance? They may be able to help?

It can be very difficult in these cases when the owner doesn't do the right thing and have the dog destroyed. I *think* it is only a court that can order such things.

Might be adviseable to contact your local council due to the fact that the owners are more than liklely to be council tennents and part of the tennents agreement is to keep dogs under control at all times.They can also apply to have an asbo aginst them to do so.

I have had in the past came across this and vet bills due to this..

Thanks Noz. The dog was lucky as I normally have a stanley knife in my work trousers and can honestly say if I did I would have slit its throat! Just so happened I had a new pair of trousers on and didn't put my knife in them. The attack was vicious, unprovoked and disturbing. They don't know the history of the dog as they were given it and it had old battle scars all over it so my guess is this isn't an isolated incident.

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That doesn't help the situation, it just makes it much more likely the dog will turn on you. You do know that by carrying a knife with a locking blade without a lawful excuse is a criminal act in itself!

I think that they would be his work trousers that he forgot to remove them from

Thanks. I paid the bill myself and took the bill round last night and the owner has promised to reimburse me (probably when his Giro comes through!). I am just so grateful I was walking them instead of my daughter or ten year old son as it would have devastated them and possibly ended up in the death of one of my dogs. We have now changed our route in the hope that we won't bump into any more 'escaped' dogs. Amazingly, there seem to be a lot of Rottweilers and Staffy's roaming about the council estate to the rear of us - with no owners in sight!

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I think that they would be his work trousers that he forgot to remove them from

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Exactly Noz. I forget to remove it every day lol!

Dog warden?

I guess not

Dog Warden is going there next week with Old Bill to see if dog is 'dangerous' and to see if the family need any advice on how to best look after the dog. Pathetic.

I'm sorry to hear about your dog, but I have one of those 'mastiff staffy' things and I can honestly say, it's all down to the owners and nothing to do with the breed. Mine hasn't got a bad bone in its body. Little dogs can me much more viscous, they just cant do as much damage .

I am by no means defending this devil dog that attacked yours , just the breed in general. Once again moron owners make any dog bad. Shame they just prefer staffies, they really are the most loyal dogs I've ever had

Nothing worst than when something attacks your dog though

I think that they would be his work trousers that he forgot to remove them from

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There was a farmer charged for this and a bloke who had a locking knife in his car glovebox. I don't make this up.

Disabled caravanner prosecuted for keeping penknife in his car to use on picnics | Mail Online

i am bad for it, i get half way round tesco and remeber my knife is in my side pocket half on show.

as for the dog, i see a few nasty dogs being walked around some not on leads some able to pull away from the people walking them. heard a few storys lately of smaller dogs getting ripped to bits and i think could be a small child one day.

I don't think the police or the dog warden can instruct the dog to be destroyed due to dog on dog aggression! I don't think you can even enforce that they pay your vet bill although any reasonable person would! If your child was attacked that would be a different story. You will have a much better standing considering your dogs were leashed

And theirs not therefore not under control.

The dangerous dogs act list 5 breeds I think from memory and staff english bull and mastiff are not one if those.

If the mix didn't break skin perhaps it was over exuberant play similar breeds can exert 180 lbs of pressure so they can cause serious damage. Dogs can make chilling noises when they are panicking and usually sounds far worse than it is.

Unfortunately sounds like mis guided untrained unsocialised un exercised dog with idiots for owners, I hope your 2 are on the mend. Let us know what decision the dog warden comes to in your council just out of interest. They will probably categorise the dog as a pit-bull type and remove and destroy the dog- pits are on the DDA.

All I will say hopefully they will have the dog put to sleep and if they don't hopefully if it mauls again it will be one of there family and not another persons dog.

I am a dog lover and have 5 dogs, all have the potential to kill as they are hunting dogs, having 5 in the house they behave like a pack and if on any walk they decided to attack to protect the pack they could cause serious damage. There is no secret recipe for ownership of any breed of dog, but there is a responsibility of the owner to acknowledge the potential in any dog. Dogs do not fight for the sake of fighting, and will in almost 99% of confrontation back down from aggression, its the owners who are at fault. I used to own one of the most dangerous breeds of dog ever known in the UK. I got him as a pup, and he was one of the most obedient and loyal friends I ever had. He was bread from a Rotwieler and American pit bull, and was known and described by the RSPCA as a bandog. I have no doubt that he could kill at any moment, but I also know that my children, my youngest is now 24, could pull him all over the house, poke him in the eye, and generally do what they liked to him without any aggression ever showing. Just goes to show its never the dog, its always the owner. I say shoot the owners not the dogs.

Similar type of owners on nice neach near me last weekend. their staffy was doing a massive poop on the sand, they didnt look like they were going to do anything about it, or even worse bury it in the sand (kids play and dig in sand on beaches) the stink from this massive human sized turd was gut wretching so I shouted at them "OY I hope you arent leaving that there" loud enough for everyuone else in the vicinity to hear and stare at them. Eveentually a carrier bag was found and the offending item removed. I dont think some people should be allowed to keep dogs.

Manator - in this case I have to respectfully disagree with you! I absolutely agree that there is no such thing as an intrinsically 'bad' dog and I do agree that how it is trained etc is more important than its genetics. That said some dogs naturally are more aggressive and most dogs carry the tendency. Once a dog has displayed behaviour like that described above then my professional opinion it should be destroyed. I may be a vet, but the welfare of people and other animals comes first. This particular dog is clearly dangerous.

As I said only a court can order its destruction. The owner is liable for damage to your property done by their dog. There is no getting away from that (assuming they have the money?)

I agree 100% with you Apache, if any dog showed such aggression then it should be destroyed. My dogs are very friendly to other dogs and people and show no aggression whatsoever, that said I know that they could if in a pack, and as a responsible owner am fully aware of this. If any of my dogs displayed the behaviour that this dog did, however much I love them I would have it destroyed simply because I would have lost trust in the dog, and would not be comfortable taking it on any walk. I see these type of people with dogs who are constantly pulled along a walk making the dog the leader, and not them, just asking for trouble.

Where is cesar(dog whisperer) when we need him?!

חשמלאי

p.s i really admire his show,have learnt more than few tricks to "control" my own dog thanks to this guy