Sometime bads stuff happens and it's nobodies fault

"The dog's owner, a 29-year-old woman, was arrested and stands accused of "possessing a dog dangerously out of control"."

Quick something bad has happened, someone must be punished! Anyone! We must arrest someone quick, even if they had no direct influence over the bad thing, or any causal link to it.

TV presenter's girlfriend dies? Quick arrest him for man slaughter!

Mother loses her children in house fire? Slap the bitch in jail.

Lorry driver doesn't notice cars ahead and crashes? Man that is so a 'pound-them-in-the-ass prison time' offence.

Officer shoots mexican repeatedly, then leaks a bunch of lies about him to smear him.... erm no one's to blame, it's just one of those things, sometimes bad things happen.... maybe it will happen again.

There's nothing to indicate she had any warning the dog would go beserk, or any control once it had gone beserk, therefore she's not negligent. Sometimes bad things happen and it's not anyones fault.

I know Blair introduced the concept of eye-for-eye tooth-for-tooth, so someone must be punished wherever there is a victim, but he was an ass who hid his religious fanaticism because it would make him unelectable. It does not make sense to punish people who are not the causal link to a problem. Because punishing them will not fix the problem.

Reason

Perhaps it went on a rampage fuelled by the desire to find a small child with whom to share a packet of crisps? After all, I hear these breeds are normally extremely gentle and docile...

The owner is responsible

"There's nothing to indicate she had any warning the dog would go beserk, or any control once it had gone beserk, therefore she's not negligent. Sometimes bad things happen and it's not anyones fault."

There are always signs with dogs that the owners should pick up on if they are responsible dog owners. Very very few dogs "just go berserk" without any warning.

"If a dog is dangerously out of control in a public place - then the owner or the person in charge of the dog is guilty of an offence, or, if the dog while so out of control injures any person, an aggravated offence under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. In proceedings against a person who is the owner of a dog but at the material time was not in charge of it, it should be a defence for the accused to prove that the dog was at the material time in the charge of a person whom he reasonably believed to be a fit and proper person to be in charge of it."

I threatened to shoot a neighbours dog (if I saw it on my property again) after it escaped yet again from their garden and attacked and killed 3 of our chickens and he said "I was at work when it happened, how could I be responsible?".

Just about sums it up really!

Oh and By the way, I am licensed firearms owner and well within my right to shoot a dog worrying or attacking my livestock as per: The Dogs (Protection of Livestock) Act 1953 if I can't stop it by other means. And there is no way I am going to try and grab a staff that is running wild round my land as I will get bitten.

Cost ?

I wonder what the combined cost of all those armed officers being sent to the scene was ?

inbred mutants

Oddly enough some evidence from various dog clubs suggests that pure bred dogs are more likely to suffer the effects of brain damage due to cancer etc and "go wild without notice".

I have spoken to owners that have been savanged by dogs due to undetected cancers affecting thier blood checmistry/brains and making them attack people/thing with no warning whatsover. The dogs were put down, died in the attempt to kill the owner or died very shortly afterwards while being rushed to the vets.

So, I think "very very" becomes "happens quite a bit with certain breeds".

Jacqui

Back onto the IT angle - I offered to provide the database facilities (software, hardware and support services) to allow the kennel club to track births and deaths (and causes) information (for free!) but they declined.

@ abigsmurf

Well said - saved me the bother.

She owns it, she's responsible.

And the dogs name - 'Asbo' (pointed out in earlier post), says it all really.

The Dog's Wotsits

No Taser, no pepper spray or CS gas? Nah, our London bobbies are tougher than the Taffs who are just a bunch of sheep shockers. All that's missing is a big pile of cardboard boxes.

ps, AC -- is it just that 'Chav' is the last social grouping that can be slagged off and derided that allows you to point and feel so superior? There's a lot of dodgy doggies in parts of the black community (as well as others) - now, where would you be if it belonged to one of them?

Not necessarily the down to the owner.

ANY dog can "go crazy" or snap at any time. The notion that they cannot is foolish and naive as you cannot be sure what will set an animal off, unless you have a telepathic link with your house pets?

That's why only an idiot would leave a dog unattended with a child -- even one that "loves kids" -- let alone walk it off-lead in public.

In this case it sounds like a dodgy breed and an owner that didn't take enough care (or have the sense not to have this animal in the first place, though the description I read was that this person was fostering the animal) to secure it.

@ Sarah Bee

Good points made.

A well bred and well owned dog can be great whatever the breed.

We tend to forget that the large or powerful dogs have generally been developed as working dogs in some regard - guarding, hunting etc.

What do we really expect when chav breeders carelessly inbreed powerful animals then flog them to nobs who don't know what they've bought and care even less - as long as it gets them 'respect'.

The responsibility for owning a dog goes all the way from carefully selecting a suitable breed from a good breeder to ensuring the animal is properly socialised, exercised, disciplined and maintained. And clearing its' crap up.

Nice people you have in the UK

Unlike all our friendly, peace loving folk here in South Africa.

Of course, if a dog gets out of control here, we don't need no stinkin' cops to shoot it - we do that ourselves.

pah.

Yeah but no but yeah but no but . .

"Oh and Phud, that's a pretty skanky argument and I suspect you know it."

Not entirely skanky as there's no need to chuck labels on just for the sake of it. It leads to all sorts of assumptions and the inevitable 'well, you know what they're like' which leads to the usual sheep mentality. That's what I saw in the posting - the inclusion/exclusion game.

(although we know that all Apple fanbois are . . .)

But, yes, I agree that complete twats are classless.

When I t'were a lad...

...I remember we had dog licenses.

We don't have those any more. Oh no, far too intrusive, bureaucratic, expensive, etc. (or whatever)

BUT! I.D. cards, childrens database, road tolls.....worth every speculative penny!

re: Not necessarily the down to the owner.

But that's a very rare and specific circumstance.

We aren't going to stiff the owner, you know.

And in the general case, dogs act like we teach them to act. Small yappy pork-pie dogs owned by senile old biddies who dance to its every need are doing so because they think THEY are the boss of these weird two-legged dogs. Slobbery dogs are playing with their fellow puppies (even though they lack tails and walk on their hind legs for a laugh).

And you can have your dog dangerous because you like it that way.

re: oh, one more thing ...

Uh, she still owns the dog even if she's not there.

Else the dog pound would have things easy. Take the dog off you and you are no longer in possession of the dog and so it should be impounded. You can pick your mutt up later for a £50 penalty fee or give me £30 now and we'll call it quits.

Devil Dog?

While the events recounted in the story are tragic, the title chosen for the story gave me a bit of a chuckle, since the term "devil dog" is also the colloqual term for what is technically known as a Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispenser, part of the defenses of Castle Heterodyne as chronicled in the pages of the famed Girl Genius webcomic of Phil and Kaja Foglio.

Canis lupus familiaris

The main problem in almost all of these cases is that the critter in question is acquired as a fashion accessory. It's not allowed to be a dog. It's a thing, like a handbag or a pair of shoes or 24 inch rims and low profile tires on an SUV[1].

Unfortunately, dogs are not just things. They are dogs. A subspecies of the wolf. They can't think like humans, rather they are genetically programmed to react to given situations. They ALWAYS react the same way[2] ... When people try to get them to react in a manor which isn't dog-like, the dog gets confused. Thinking of your dog as family member, or a baby, or a child is dangerous. It's not. It's a dog. Remember that, and act accordingly.

Often that confusion leads to a "who is in charge?" situation in their fuzzy little minds. All dogs want to be a part of a pack. All packs need a pack leader. No dog WANTS to be "in charge", but if nobody else is obviously the leader, dog genetics kick in. The dog takes over.

Dogs are also extremely good at picking up on body language and "mood" (for want of a better word ... emotion would confer too much humanity on them). If an owner shows fear of their breed of choice, or fear of how the dog will react in a given situation, chances are good that the dog will become afraid. NOT afraid of the owner (who feeds and shelters the dog), but rather a fear of the world in general.

This is why dogs often become perceived as "vicious" ... They normally aren't actually vicious, they are scared, and attempting to protect what they view as their pack and territory from whatever they see as "dangerous". BECAUSE THEIR OWNER IS NOT THE JOB!

SO ... got an obnoxious yap-dog? Does your dog strain at the lead, and attempt to "attack" strangers and other animals? Stop jerking on the lead. Instead try to put a foot on the bight (to keep the dog's head down[4]), and maneuver yourself to put yourself between your dog and the perceived problem. Put your back to the "problem" (unless it really is dangerous ...). Tell your dog, in a quiet, calm, rational voice (and state of mind, if you can manage it) "It's OK, fido, I have things under control <sfsf>".

Do this EVERY TIME. Let your dog know YOU have things under control. Become the leader. Your dog will respect you for it ... and will become a LOT easier to train.

If the dog is prone to barking at "stuff" on the other side of the fence, I advise walking the dog on-lead in your own garden when he's doing his business and use the above. The younger the dog, the faster you'll get results. For best results, be monotonously consistent.

Not that I have an opinion or anything ...

--

[1] THERE's a good idea ... Make it ride even more like a truck ...

[2] The key to good dog training: Let 'em be a dog!

[3] Contrary to popular belief, wolves aren't vicious amongst themselves ... They rarely bite each other. When you think about it, this makes sense ... if one wolf bites another, it will in turn get bit. And in the wild, with no veterinarians, deep puncture wounds lead to death. Any viciousness is self-canceling. Dogs are the same ... What looks like horrendous fighting is usually just harmless threats, the snapping looks bad but rarely connects. All the dogs are doing is figuring out who is where in the pack hierarchy.

[4] Pulling your dog's head up is bad. To another dog, a head-up attitude, showing off the chest & demonstrating how big he is is an aggressive stance. I've seen far too many dogs get bit because their owner made them look aggressive to another dog ...

Wuff Justice

I can't help thinking that now British cops have a lot of guns, they tend to use them a little too often.

If the article is true and there were scores of cops and a chopper, they must have had enough time to consider a trank gun.

If, the plod are smart enough to have ever considered any thing like that in the first place. Fire arms in a public place are dangerous ( ask any policeman) as are armed cops ( ask any Brazilian). As such any use of firearms in public should be a definitive last resort.

Selected nicks having access to trank guns would enable a relatively safe response to dangerous animals and double up for intractable asbo s of the human variety.

I have had a little to do with the training of cops in the past and found most of them that apply to be a `shot´ are wannabe Rambos, so beware collateral damage becoming more common.

Spray Paint?

I recently painted the upstairs neighbors dog with half a can as they (the idiot owners) are too dysfunctional to control this rather alarming pooch (Rottweiler), I stopped short of dispatching it to oblivion as the poor thing could not see, smell or bite but I will the next time it's loose and unsupervised in the staircase as I do not appreciate meeting aggressive and unsupervised pets while half-awake on my way to work.

Disclaimer : I'm often very unsociable until the fifth cup of coffee.

@ Canus Lupus

Jake, you are clearly a dog lover who has bothered to truly understand dogs, how unusual!

@ Spray paint. You are a total arsehole, I hope the next time the dog meets you, it bites you in the goolies and that is less than you deserve. The problem is the owner, try sorting him out with a little forethought and if necessary a can of paint. If I had seen you spray paint a dog in the face I would have kicked you down the stairs.

A bus driver??

What was it doing on a bus?? Trying to make a get-away?