I don’t know how many more times this has to happen before we start to have a more effective discussion about keeping dogs, but it would be great if the answer was… no more times.
According to media reports, a 49 year old man was jogging in Liverpool Sydney yesterday, when attacked by three dogs who had escaped their yard. He received serious injuries to his arms, shoulders and chest and was by all accounts lucky not to have been killed. Two passers by helped the jogger and one of these men also received a bite injury to his hand.
Follow up media today has reported that the owner of the three dogs had been fined in January for not registering the dogs. The owner has now signed the dogs over to authorities to be destroyed.
Again the discussion has focussed on breed. The media says they are ‘pit bulls’. The Pit Bull club says they are ‘Australian Mastiff or American Bulldog’. A Liverpool Council spokesperson says they are Amercian Staffordshire Terriers.
But what no one is saying they are is… strong, large breed dogs who have been kept inappropriately and have been completely failed by their dropkick owner.
This is a dog ownership issue. This is a people issue. But again, it’s being treated as a breed issue.
And this is why safe dog ownership in our community continues to elude us.
Dog trainers and behaviorists are almost united in their call for better education on how to safely keep dogs. Not just school programs, but starting a dialogue with all owners to ensure their pets are safe members of the community.
Some people will never ‘get it’ and they should certainly be banned from keeping dogs at all. But for the most part dogs bite people they know, in their own home, especially the humans under 10. The kinds practices which keep people safe aren’t something you can legislate – or punish your way to – it has to be about people learning what dog’s needs are, how to socialise them, discipline them appropriately, and most importantly keep them from getting the opportunity to engage with the community alone (ie. stray or tied up in public) and make the wrong decisions (which they often do).
Simply punishing (fining) this owner the first time, didn’t prevent these attacks. Simply punishing him again (fining him again and killing his dogs) doesn’t prevent other attacks from future dogs he may get and treat in exactly the same manner.
These dogs are a reflection of this owner’s poor pet keeping practices, bad decisions and failure to keep his pets from being a danger to his neighbourhood. Explaining all of that away by simply labeling the dogs as ‘dangerous’ breeds will ensure any opportunity to learn from this incident will almost certainly be missed.
As always irresponsible guardianship, whether it be people who do not socialize their animals and have care and control of them as this man, clearly he failed society and failed his animals. The article poses the other aspects of dogs bites the under 10 in your own household… and like media always goes out of its way to blame a breed, with no indication whatsoever of the factors leading up to the incident. How many dog bites happen while a child and animal are unattended ? how many incidents are near food ? What is needed is not more finger pointing at breeds like this article demonstrates its this breed or that breed. It is the responsibility of the guardian to provide adequate training and guarantee society that they have control. Those who do not should not get a slap on the wrist just as the animals should not pay the ultimate price with their lives because of the faults of the guardian. Change the way we look at guardianship and make the people responsible with stiffer liability.
I couldn’t agree more – this is disgusting. The poor man who was attacked will be terrified of any dog that looks like those for no good reason. If people treated their “large mixed breed” dogs with love and respect as a part of the family, these kind of incidents would never happen – now the pounds will be over run again with these dogs as everyone runs scared and surrenders their loved pet.