Allywil Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 All seems pretty straight forward to me, dog WAS NOT under effective control & dog was being aggressive towards other dogs. To not report said dog IMHO would be extremely irresponsible & could in the long run put someone else dog in danger. To me the dogs breed or how/why it got out dose not matter whether it is a declared dangerous or a restricted breed matters none to the decision to report the incident either. Of course it will make a difference to how the situation is dealt with but that's out of the reporting persons hands & should not have anything to do with reporting or not reporting the incident. I totally agree, except, what are they going to do when the dog's owner and residence is unknown? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyeopener Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 All seems pretty straight forward to me, dog WAS NOT under effective control & dog was being aggressive towards other dogs. To not report said dog IMHO would be extremely irresponsible & could in the long run put someone else dog in danger. To me the dogs breed or how/why it got out dose not matter whether it is a declared dangerous or a restricted breed matters none to the decision to report the incident either. Of course it will make a difference to how the situation is dealt with but that's out of the reporting persons hands & should not have anything to do with reporting or not reporting the incident. I totally agree, except, what are they going to do when the dog's owner and residence is unknown? Still report with details you do know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nawnim Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 It does depend a bit. In our council - you can only report dogs you have a rego number for. I did get some action - after getting the animal managment officer out to take a report in quadruplicate - with the old dog rego number... turned out it wasn't registered this year so they were up for a fine for that alone, and it bit me and my dog. So biting a human tends to get a lot more action than biting another dog. I had a recent discussion about dogs vs car accidents - and apparently if the car owner decides they want the dent out - they can point to any dog they like - and it's up to the owner to prove the dog could not have done it. In one case I got told about - the car owners pointed to a dog, the owner proved that the dog was at the vet at the time of the accident - so they pointed at the other dog. Ie the car owners had no clue which dog had done what, but they knew how to get an insurance claim paid. And apparently house hold insurance of the dog owner - covered the repairs to the car, and the insurance company said it was much cheaper to pay up than prove the car owners were scammers. We had an incident a few years ago where a dog up the road ran out and knocked a kid off a bicycle. The kid was shocked and had grazed knees but was otherwise ok. His parents made a report to council, the kid described the dog and the house it ran out from and the owner simply told council it wasn't his dog and at that time he was at his sister's place with the dog and had 4 witnesses to verify his dog's whereabouts at the time of the incident. Council said ok then sorry to trouble you? Sometimes people do get the wrong dog. Some years ago I was sitting in my lounge with my dog, a tall male brindle boxer, watching tv when there was a knock at the door. It was the ranger telling me that he had received a report that my dog had just bitten a child. I did finally convince him that my dog had not been out of my sight and he had the wrong dog but it was scary. Moral of the story. Some neighbours are dog illiterate and they do get it wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Rusty Bucket Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Apparently when it's the battle of the insurance companies (ie car insurance vs house insurance) - it's cheaper for the house insurance to pay up than fight it so they do whether they really are liable or not. Also the "innocent until proven guilty" only applies to humans hence the onus being on the dog owner not the car owner to prove. It does seem like a good opportunity for a scam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HugL Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 Not sure if off topic but due to having recently been on the receiving end of a bite, who do you report to? I can understand Council if on public land but what about private property? Should you contact police? Is there a difference between attack on human and attack towards dog where human was simply in the middle? This brings me to my most recent thoughts - what happens with dog bite at a sanctioned dog show on Association's ground? Does the ruling body investigate? Does council get informed? Should report go to police? I know the above will be different depending on circumstances but, in my case, it happened on private property and I was taken to hospital in ambulance before getting any names and am now at home over 200km away. (Note: the above is for information only and please do not make any personal reference to my incident due to current investigation) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greytmate Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Not sure if off topic but due to having recently been on the receiving end of a bite, who do you report to? I can understand Council if on public land but what about private property? Should you contact police? Is there a difference between attack on human and attack towards dog where human was simply in the middle? This brings me to my most recent thoughts - what happens with dog bite at a sanctioned dog show on Association's ground? Does the ruling body investigate? Does council get informed? Should report go to police? I know the above will be different depending on circumstances but, in my case, it happened on private property and I was taken to hospital in ambulance before getting any names and am now at home over 200km away. (Note: the above is for information only and please do not make any personal reference to my incident due to current investigation) Contact the club secretary of the show, and tell them you want to make a statement in regards to the incident. The secretary should have started an incident report and should know who witnesses are or have already taken statements off them. If this hasn't happened, yes I would contact council. If the club is investigating properly, then they are fulfilling their obligations but it's up to you if you want to take it further. All a club can do is ban a member, or require the particular dog to be muzzled at club events. Be wary of people lying, or witnesses who "don't want to be involved". If a club member witnesses something like this and refuses to give a statement, they are still a witness and can be questioned by police or council. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tassie Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 HugL Posted 21 November 2012 - 09:34 AM ... This brings me to my most recent thoughts - what happens with dog bite at a sanctioned dog show on Association's ground? Does the ruling body investigate? Does council get informed? Should report go to police? ... If it was a Dogs Queensland sanctioned show, then contact Dogs Queensland for their aggressive dog incident report protocol. If their regs are like other states, a report should already have gone in, and possibly a hearing already held at the show. But since you were not in a position to make a statement at the time, you should seek to make one now IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebanne Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 I was at a show recently in SA where a person was bitten and I know the SA rep was notified and and the police were also called and spoke to people. I was told that in SA if you call for an ambulance, the police are also called. If bitten in someones backyard I think the hospital you are treated at is required to make a report, but it would be hard to prove unless there were independant witnesses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silvawilow Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Report it. It's done something to be "declared" in the first place and now it's done something again. How lucky we're both owners that you helped Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Rusty Bucket Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 HugL I think in NSW it's mandatory for emergency services to make a report to the LGA anyone who comes in with dog bite injuries. And they may also make a report to police - depending what the injured person (or their parent) wants. I think this is mostly so they have more accurate stats on what is biting who and vaguely why. The 10 ten biting dogs - are not exactly what you'd expect. In SA - you can report all dog bites to the council which has jurisdiction over the land in which it happened, but you might have a hard time doing it at the actual time of attack - if it happens on the weekend or after hours - because there's nobody to take the report. But you can still report it. It really helps if you get the dog's rego number and address because it's hard for them to follow up if they can't identify or find the dog. But if it's injured a human they make more of an effort. Also if the dog attacks a human - call the police as well as the ambulance. That would probably work better than calling the council at the time of the incident. I don't know if it is mandatory for the emergency services/hospital to report dog bites or not to LGA or police. It is supposedly mandatory to report any car accident with an animal where the animal is injured (or an insurance claim is likely) but this can be difficult too if the animal nicks off or the owner prevents you getting id info. But I haven't actually looked that one up, I just got told by someone else. If the dog bite happens on private property - you can still report it to the council which collects the rates on that property. Just because it's on private property - does not mean the dog act does not apply - it's just slightly different in application eg if the dog bites someone who is there without permission (eg trespasser or burglar) the dog and owner are not up for any fines (tho the burglar might still sue for medical costs - house insurance might cover - at least they can afford a decent laywer). But if the dog injures someone who is there with permission eg the child of the house, or knocks over a visiting ancient relly and breaks their hip in the fall, or bites the meter reader or policeman with a warrant / invited in, etc - then the house holder is liable and all the bad bits of the dog act apply. Ie depending how bad things are - dog can be declared dangerous (required to be securely caged or muzzled at all times), or PTS. But for the law to be applied - the police / council need evidence. If nobody tells them - it didn't happen (no evidence). And that would be why they're having so much trouble convicting anyone from the bi ke gan gs for attacking each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HugL Posted November 26, 2012 Share Posted November 26, 2012 Thank you everyone for your thoughts. The stitches finally came out last Thursday and I went back to work today I have now contacted the council and am trying to get hold of local police to discuss this matter. Can't believe I have been around dogs for this many years and didn't know what to do. thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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