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Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 9:37 pm Post subject: Owners of dogs who maul children |
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In the UK lately there's been a lot in the news about dogs who've mauled or killed children. When will people learn that their lovely pet can be a terrible danger to other people's children.
My sister walked past a house once, a dog ran at her and the owners called out "He's OK, he won't hurt you!" just as he sank his teeth into her leg. Years later she still has pain in that leg.
A few days ago, my husband walked past a house on his way to the shops. A big dog ran out at him snarling. Fortunately, my husband knew how to behave and therewas a stand off. However, we have often walked past this house with our 22 month old boy. Now we feel scared to take our little boy walking.
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Beware of the dog
Each year, 3,000 people are injured by dogs. In the past week alone, one baby has been killed by rottweilers, and another badly mauled. Is our best friend turning into our worst enemy? Michele Hanson reports
Thursday September 28, 2006
The Guardian
This morning I took my two dogs out for a walk feeling like a bit of a pariah. I have two big boxers and thought the woman walking by with her two toddlers looked nervous. No wonder. In the past week alone, a five-month-old baby, Cadey-Lee Deacon, has been killed by two rottweilers and a 14-month-old toddler badly mauled by a dog in Leicester, and every year, 3,000 people in the UK are injured by dogs. Since the attack on Cadey-Lee, a good friend of mine, who was bitten in the face by a dog as a child, has been ringing daily and ranting about dogs and what he would like done to them: have them all put down. All of them.
He is blaming the wrong species. A dog is an animal. To a dog, something small and squeaky is easy prey and dinner, not someone's beloved baby. It is not responsible for the tragedy that it causes. I'm not blaming the adults involved in these two recent cases: both were heartbreaking accidents. But they have revived the public fear of dangerous dogs.
All too many people don't know how to look after dogs properly. Round here, the fashion among boys is for hoodie or shaven head, hanging-down trousers and a Staffordshire bull terrier. A vet I know used to call such dogs a dick-on-a-string, and they are certainly butch dogs: compact, muscular, big enough to look macho, and their jaws tend to clamp shut on whatever they're biting, never to be prised open. You can often see the boys swinging their dog around in the air like a bolus, its jaws clamped to a stick or rope, as a sort of warning: "If my dog gets yours/you, it will never let go."
So far, I have only spotted one boy with a rottweiler in my part of London. It started off as a playful puppy, then spent hours on a short lead while its owner and other boys sat on a bench and taunted it. Within months it had turned into a snarling monster. Not because it was a rottweiler. A rottweiler, if treated properly, will behave itself, like any other dog. But there is one obvious difference. A rottweiler weighs eight to 10 stone. My dogs weigh four stone each; I weigh 10 and a half. I nearly always take them out separately because I can't physically control eight stone of dog. I never let them off the lead together - I take them to isolated areas of the heath and put them on the lead near toddlers and weedier dogs. Not that I am perfect. If I was, I would never have bought a second dog in the first place and would have trained them more effectively.
Anyone can have a nuisance dog. It doesn't have to be a working-class boy in silly trousers. Princess Anne has been in trouble for having an out-of-control dog. Claudia Schiffer and her partner Matthew de Vere have a German shepherd and an Irish wolfhound at their home near Bury St Edmunds which allegedly attack other dogs, terrify passersby and bite postmen. Whose fault is that, if it's true? A wolfhound is the size of a small pony. It looks tremendously impressive, if that's what La Schiffer wants - but how is she to hang on to it when it bolts?
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Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1882433,00.html |
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Boodleheimer

Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Location: working undercover for the Man
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Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:47 pm Post subject: |
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yeah, but if the kid was Muslim... |
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gang ah jee

Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Location: city of paper
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Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:52 pm Post subject: |
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The thread title had me expecting something completely different. |
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jinju
Joined: 22 Jan 2006
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Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:58 pm Post subject: |
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A dog that once bites a human while not defending a house or his owner, should be put down without any questions asked. |
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Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:28 pm Post subject: |
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gang ah jee wrote: |
The thread title had me expecting something completely different. |
Perhaps because I insist on using who as the relative pronoun for animals...when traditionally it should be that or which. |
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Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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Posted: Wed Sep 27, 2006 11:31 pm Post subject: |
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KWhitehead wrote: |
yeah, but if the kid was Muslim... |
I'm waiting for Junior to pipe up and complain about Rottweilers being influenced by that most diabolical of texts the Koran... |
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Junior

Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Location: the eye
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Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 8:03 am Post subject: |
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Most canine behavioural problems are caused by people not training or looking after them properly.A lot of people should not be keeping big dogs. Especially in urban areas.
I've been bitten as well. usually by dogs who's owners coop them up all day or otherwise neglect them.
A big dog belongs on a farm, or at least a big yard. Not chained up in someone suburban house while the owner works all day. Korea has just about the least understanding of animals of any country I've been in. Thats just stating obvious common sense.. a rare event on this forum apparently. |
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huffdaddy
Joined: 25 Nov 2005
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Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 3:31 pm Post subject: Re: Owners of dogs who maul children |
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Big_Bird wrote: |
Now we feel scared to take our little boy walking.
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That's exactly what the dogs want. You're letting the dogs win. |
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Big_Bird

Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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Posted: Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:26 pm Post subject: Re: Owners of dogs who maul children |
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huffdaddy wrote: |
Big_Bird wrote: |
Now we feel scared to take our little boy walking.
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That's exactly what the dogs want. You're letting the dogs win. |
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Atassi
Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Location: 평택
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Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:07 am Post subject: |
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Junior wrote:
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Most canine behavioural problems are caused by people not training or looking after them properly.A lot of people should not be keeping big dogs. Especially in urban areas.
I've been bitten as well. usually by dogs who's owners coop them up all day or otherwise neglect them.
A big dog belongs on a farm, or at least a big yard. Not chained up in someone suburban house while the owner works all day. |
This is the first time you make sense  |
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SweetBear

Joined: 18 May 2003
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Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:32 am Post subject: |
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I was bitten this week by a young dog. I live in Thailand but have K neighbors. Most days for the last six months I have been able to pet her. I knew that this dog was a potential problem. She's chained up constantly on a short ( maybe three foot) chain and is ignored 90% of the time, sometimes has no food or water, has to step in her own poop and is submissive to the point that she crawls over to you. Oh and they beat her for barking too much... Any sudden movement or noise and she yelps and runs back into the cage. This week something, I don't know what, set her off and she lunged at my hand. I know that most days the only attention she got was from me and now I'm too nervous to pet her. Very sad because she loved the attention I gave her and was always so sweet.  |
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red dog

Joined: 31 Oct 2004
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Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:43 am Post subject: |
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Atassi wrote: |
Junior wrote:
Quote: |
Most canine behavioural problems are caused by people not training or looking after them properly.A lot of people should not be keeping big dogs. Especially in urban areas.
I've been bitten as well. usually by dogs who's owners coop them up all day or otherwise neglect them.
A big dog belongs on a farm, or at least a big yard. Not chained up in someone suburban house while the owner works all day. |
This is the first time you make sense  |
Part of what he says definitely makes sense -- that a lot of dogs who attack people are the victims of neglect and irresponsible guardianship.
But there are plenty of terrible dog guardians and neglected dogs on farms and in homes with large backyards. And you can be an excellent dog guardian in a city or suburb, even without a backyard. I think the amount of space you have is a lot less important than your commitment to the dog and willingness to spend enough time with him/her.
Still, there are some dogs with problems that are hard to correct no matter how much time you spend with them. People have to think very carefully in advance about what a huge responsibility a dog is and whether they'd be willing and able able to pay a canine behaviourist if the dog ever developed an aggression problem. It's not something to take lightly, but a lot of people do, and not only Koreans. This is a universal human problem and it's always the animals who end up paying for it.
Last edited by red dog on Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:46 am; edited 1 time in total |
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red dog

Joined: 31 Oct 2004
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Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 1:44 am Post subject: |
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SweetBear wrote: |
I was bitten this week by a young dog. I live in Thailand but have K neighbors. Most days for the last six months I have been able to pet her. I knew that this dog was a potential problem. She's chained up constantly on a short ( maybe three foot) chain and is ignored 90% of the time, sometimes has no food or water, has to step in her own poop and is submissive to the point that she crawls over to you. Oh and they beat her for barking too much... Any sudden movement or noise and she yelps and runs back into the cage. This week something, I don't know what, set her off and she lunged at my hand. I know that most days the only attention she got was from me and now I'm too nervous to pet her. Very sad because she loved the attention I gave her and was always so sweet.  |
Yes, it is very sad. I wonder if there's a rescue group in Thailand that could get involved and maybe rehabilitate her? |
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SweetBear

Joined: 18 May 2003
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Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:06 am Post subject: |
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I've tried and am still trying to get her some help. Thai's tend to believe in non confrontational methods when dealing with things of this nature. So after getting no response from authorities I am going to try to persuade the villa manager to talk to these people. He's on fairly good terms with them and has said in the past that he would take her if they were to leave. |
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red dog

Joined: 31 Oct 2004
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Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:22 am Post subject: |
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SweetBear wrote: |
I've tried and am still trying to get her some help. Thai's tend to believe in non confrontational methods when dealing with things of this nature. So after getting no response from authorities I am going to try to persuade the villa manager to talk to these people. He's on fairly good terms with them and has said in the past that he would take her if they were to leave. |
I'm glad you're helping her. It sounds as if that's probably the best anyone can do in this situation. Let's hope her life will improve, at least a little. |
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