Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Dangerous Dogs

This is the second report of a dangerous dog in Virginia in the past week in the WP. The first was the story of a woman whose cat was mauled in her front yard by a new neighbor's wandering dog. They did DNA testing to prove that this particular dog was, in fact, the culprit. Very lengthy story, very bizarre case. I'm not at all sympathetic to dog owner who allow their animals to roam free, so I do believe these owners should have been held responsible but the VA county disagreed.

This case is a bit different. First, it involves a child, not a cat. Second, it appears that the child entered the dog's territory. The dog was in his fenced in yard, the father of the child thought he had put his 3 year old down for a nap but the child possibly ventured out of the house (I'm not sure how the father could have missed that, but 3 year olds can be very smart!). It's quite sad, I doubt the owners of the dog will be charged with manslaughter, as might happen elsewhere. I did find this quote of interest:

The deputies entered the neighbor's yard, with the dog barking and threatening to attack, Smith said. One deputy drew his weapon, pointing it at the dog, which then withdrew into a corner of the yard.

What was the weapon?? When I read this, I assumed a gun. If a child is not responding, face down and an animal is acting aggressively, would an officer pull out a gun or a billy club? Either way, the dog responded. Now, I don't own a Rottweiler. Quite the opposite, I own a Maltese. Maybe larger dogs respond differently when they see a gun, but my dog would not have a clue what a gun is! He'd probably walk up and sniff it. This dog's reaction did make me a bit suspicious about the training and experience of this particular "pet."

We had an unfortunate dog even in our neighborhood back in the fall. Two new neighbors, both with dogs and children. One family has a Rottweiler, the other has a miniature poodle. The larger dog was being walked around the block by this other family's new home. The poodle, which remained in his yard, penned in by his electric fence, came up to greet the larger dog and ended up being mauled. This all happened while the larger dog was being pulled away by his adult owner and the smaller dogs owner and two 5 year old daughters looked on. It was very unfortunate, and left many questions for the rest of our neighborhood.

One question, how secure are those electric fences? They may keep your dog in, but they don't keep danger out. Another, how safe are large dogs who cannot be controlled even on a leash? Like animal control has told this family with the mauled dog (that survived! after surgery), as long as the owner keeps their dog on a leash and shots up to date, there is nothing that can be done. Finally, knowing this new, big, poodle mauling dog lives within eyesight of our house, how safe are my children, and the many others, playing outside with the possibility of it getting out? I must say, it has us all concerned. We don't want to be the next story in the WP.

This is a tragic and extreme story, one that I hope is rarely repeated. T has always wanted a large dog but they really do make me nervous. I think many are unpredictable and too large to manage. If your dog is walking you, then it's too big for you!! Fortunately it's a no brainer for our family - Kt and I are allergic, so we stick with the tiny dogs with hair, not fur. I doubt Calvin will make the front page of the WP for mauling anything other than his chewy toy!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a huge issue everywhere. I live in Oklahoma and in a short span of time Pit Bulls had mauled small children in three unrelated seperate occasions.
I am a animal lover, but agressive behavior is unexceptable. It is the responsibility of the "pet" owner to be aware of their animal's behavior and the possible result of aggression in any animal.
Putting a "Beware of Dog" sign in the window or yard is not enough. The owner has to take the responsibility to make sure the dogs are not accessible by ANYONE especially children.
My other issue with aggressive animals is the question as to why they are aggressive. What I have seen in my experience is that dogs are much like children.......they act out what they live.
In closing I will quote what my grandfather said in all his wisdom,"Any animal that gets the taste of blood will attack again and again so therefor for the safety of other animals and people, the animal should be euthanized." I personally don't care whether or not an animal has its vaccinations or was confined in a twelve-foot pen, if it injures a child it should be put down, no questions asked.

angela B
Norman, OK

deanna said...

Yes, I think I agree. If a dog mauls a person, extreme measures for dealing with that exist. That is really the concern about the dog in our neighborhood - what if that had been a child and even on a leash the owner could not control it? It's unfortunate and frightening that our county animal control refuses to recognize the danger that is present.