Dog Attack Ashcroft Today

[Dame Aussie]

If these are the dogs I saw on the news they are NOT freaking pit bulls. They look like some type of American bulldog cross. I am so over these "witnesses" calling any attacking dog a pit bull.

Doesn't matter what breed they are. They are dangerous dogs and should be dealt with accordingly,as should the owner.

Well tell all the people who's dogs have been seized and killed for nothing more than looking a certain way that. It DOES matter, for all pit bulls and their owners.

Also I never said they should be dealt with.

Huh. You never said they should be dealt with? I don't, in all honesty feel it matters what breed was involved. These dogs should be dealt with accordingly. I do sympathize with with the fact that innocent dogs are being taken away from their loving owners merely because they look like a pit bull type, but it can be said that this has come about by owners who couldn't give a continental what their dogs get up to, and so the it seems most pit bull types are tarred with the same brush.

That was a typo. Should have read "shouldn't be dealt with".

I never once condoned what these dogs have done.

I don't think claiming ignorance is acceptable either, but I'll give up now because people don't seem to see what I'm getting at.

If the name of the breed is such an issue why don't you change it? Drop the 'Pit' which makes people think of aggressive fighting dogs in a dog pit and call them American Bull Terriers or ABTs?

Because the name isn't the issue, people's ignorance as to what the breed looks like is.

[nawnim]

If these are the dogs I saw on the news they are NOT freaking pit bulls. They look like some type of American bulldog cross. I am so over these "witnesses" calling any attacking dog a pit bull.

Doesn't matter what breed they are. They are dangerous dogs and should be dealt with accordingly,as should the owner.

Well tell all the people who's dogs have been seized and killed for nothing more than looking a certain way that. It DOES matter, for all pit bulls and their owners.

Also I never said they should be dealt with.

Huh. You never said they should be dealt with? I don't, in all honesty feel it matters what breed was involved. These dogs should be dealt with accordingly. I do sympathize with with the fact that innocent dogs are being taken away from their loving owners merely because they look like a pit bull type, but it can be said that this has come about by owners who couldn't give a continental what their dogs get up to, and so the it seems most pit bull types are tarred with the same brush.

That was a typo. Should have read "shouldn't be dealt with".

I never once condoned what these dogs have done.

I don't think claiming ignorance is acceptable either, but I'll give up now because people don't seem to see what I'm getting at.

If the name of the breed is such an issue why don't you change it? Drop the 'Pit' which makes people think of aggressive fighting dogs in a dog pit and call them American Bull Terriers or ABTs?

Because the name isn't the issue, people's ignorance as to what the breed looks like is.

I would have thought it was easier to change the name than educate the public.

[kelpiecuddles]

Bull breeds in general share a lot of similiar facial characteristics which can make it hard for some people to distinguish them. If people can't tell what my basset hound is they have no hope of accurately identifying a pit bull. They do have an acceptable name, it American staffordshire bull terrier. The generl public thankfully doesn't understand that they are essentially the same animal otherwise I'm sure they would be tarred as well. We get a fair few people in at work asking if we ever get amstaffs and we always tell them to go to a registered breeder and get a papered dog because apart from the BYB aspect it's not worth the risk of having a dog that could be identified as a pitty

[raz]

Poor guy. How terrifying.

[Rottshowgirl]

That poor man, the attack sounds brutal

http://www.dailytele...2-1226650933922

I was impressed with the ranger handling the dogs with the pole, he did a super job on the footage minimising extra stress on the dogs

eta According to the article, the dogs had gone TWO BLOCKS from home, imagine how many people were put at risk. A child or an elderly person would have died with those sort of injuries

Edited May 27, 2013 by Rottshowgirl

[Santo66]

The breed does matter in the eyes of the authorities in regard to community safety to determine what breeds are more likey to attack on a hair spring trigger........unfortunately whether we like it or not, the most severe attacks and maulings continually feature the same style of dog, not necessarily Pitbull's but dogs based on Bully type breeds. There are odd attacks from other breeds also of course, but not the amount that seem to be happening with these Bully type of dogs. Most are probably cross breeds and more than likely bred for the yobbo market from aggressive ancestory, big strong Bull breed type dog for protection/deterrent factor and the tough dog image?.

I am sure that if German Shepherd's for example were continially featuring in savage maulings at the rate these Bull breeds are, they would be after GSD's in that case, but then again, a good GSD that is capable of being protection trained, by instinct are not living on a hair spring trigger to attack without provocation.......the genetics on these Bull breed mixtures which could be anything are not fit for the community when they can't instinctively determine threat.......they are by no means a well balanced animal IMHO.

[kelpiecuddles]

I once came across a link to the website of a 'pit bull' breeder and was shocked to see the descriptions he had on his breeding dogs. Referring to his sires as 'awesome savage beasts with bad attitudes' and the like. It's guys like that who have ruined what was originally a good breed unfortunately.

[Santo66]

I once came across a link to the website of a 'pit bull' breeder and was shocked to see the descriptions he had on his breeding dogs. Referring to his sires as 'awesome savage beasts with bad attitudes' and the like. It's guys like that who have ruined what was originally a good breed unfortunately.

Yes, they did the same with GSD's and Rottweilers, selecting breeding pairs of dogs with weak nerve on the false impression that fear aggression meant protective instinct and sadly because they have no idea how to train a protection dog from quality stock, a spooky dog having a protective appearance to the untrained eye is how the wrong dogs are being bred and of course the yobbo can buy one and have a protection dog in the back yard with no further training. It's these dogs getting out into the street who will attack people for no reason. The GSD and Rotty were saved a bit from this type of breeding after unstable dogs were rejected by professional protection trainers, police, military etc, the breeders realised that producing dogs like that was to their own detriment.........the Bully breeds not used professionally is a bit of a free for all popular with the yobbo factor who want seriously aggressive dogs by nature.

While I agree the dogs should not have been on the street, the issue I have with joggers is their arrogance in putting themselves in greater danger by continuing to run past a dog despite it being common knowledge that running stimulates a dog's prey instinct.

That's absolute rubbish......I have a Belgian Malinois here with more prey drive than any Bull breed dog could come close to matching......he wouldn't chase and attack a jogger, infact the jogger could stop and pat him as anyone could if he got out onto the street.......I totally disagree that dogs high in prey drive means they will instinctively attack people in prey drive?

Edited May 27, 2013 by Santo66

[Odin-Genie]

I wish the media could be convinced to crucify the owners instead of the alleged breeds when broadcasting this sort of news. Almost all the articles seem to be dedicated to breed guessing and rehashing the gory details, nobody has even mentioned that the owner should face punishment for failing to contain his dogs. Everybody has speculated whether they are pitbulls, bulldogs or freaking Marsians and nobody has even dropped a word wondering if they were socialized, vet treated and exercised regularly. Nobody wondered what kind of set-up they were kept in. How came they to be loose on the streets? Do they live on chains or loose in a backyard? Do they have indoor access? How tall is the fence meant to contain them? Is there a fence at all?

People really need to start looking for answers (and demanding them off the investigators) rather than just calling for dogs to be put to death and and disposed off ASAP. They should be temp assessed by a behaviouralist, vet checked for medical issues, autopsied after death and the premises they are kept on should be searched (as often times people owning offending dogs seem to have other issues like drug and violent crime offences behind them) and it should be determined exactly how and why those dogs were loose and what may have triggered the behaviour (poor temperaments? pack mentality? prey drive? high vale items? don't laugh, children have reportedly been mauled to death after walking into a backyard full of dogs whilst carrying a meat pie or other food).

+1

The headline says "Police wants these dogs destroyed". How about the police demanding serious consequences for the owners?

[icedmice]

In the heat of the moment, many people couldn't differentiate between a Nissan Patrol or a Toyota Land cruiser in a hit and run. Funnily enough if people can't identify them the media doesn't report that all 4WDs are Land cruisers, just because it's a large vehicle fitting that description and that's why I hate the term pitbull being applied to a particular appearance. Not all people that drive 4WDs own Land cruisers, not all people that own bull breeds have a 'pitbull'. Not all people that own one of both of these things are irresponsible.

Large cars like that do more damage in an accident, even though the road laws are the same owning a big car comes with added responsibility.

Owning a big dog, especially a bull breed comes with added responsibility.

True fighting pitulls aren't really a dog with one definite look about them, they range in size, conformation, colour. Unless you know the dog's origins even someone from the dog community would have difficulty positively identifying one.

I worry when people start calling them nanny dogs and getting all defensive about how their pitbull is gentle, reliable and great with kids. Because not every individual one will be great with kids and it's not necessarily how all about how you raise them. You may raise them spot on to be a family pet, but they still may not be great around kids. It's about knowing your dog and knowing it's limitations and only putting it in situations where it will never be a risk. Some people that defend pitbulls are doing them no favors by making inaccurate generalizations.

I have a staffordshire bull terrier that is not dog park material, she gets on fine with our other dogs, cats and small animals is even doing off lead exercises at training. But the dog park excites her way too much to keep her under effective control. You put any random breed in a situation that excites or frightens it you are setting yourself up for failure.

[OSoSwift]

I agree the dogs should be destroyed.

The rangers seemed to be handling the dogs in an effective yet calm manner, which under the circumstances was great to see.

Any dog in a pack, especially one with inadequate boundries, has the potential to inflict harm and inflict great harm as seen here. Many people have a pack with no understanding of what that means and the extra responsibilties that comes with. You have more than on you have a pack. You have a large powerful dog you have added responsibilty, you have a pack of large dogs and you need to make damn sure they have effective boundries and control and there is no room for error.

The fact that no-one died is amazing and a testament to the very brave souls that went to this mans aid, the did not give up or back down in what would have been a highly charged, very distressing and very dangerous situation.

The dogs should be euthed and the owner dealt with extremely strongly. there is no place in society for these dogs.

[ruthless]

We get a fair few people in at work asking if we ever get amstaffs and we always tell them to go to a registered breeder and get a papered dog because apart from the BYB aspect it's not worth the risk of having a dog that could be identified as a pitty

What industry do you work in?

The breed does matter in the eyes of the authorities in regard to community safety to determine what breeds are more likey to attack on a hair spring trigger........unfortunately whether we like it or not, the most severe attacks and maulings continually feature the same style of dog...

Not true. This is what the media has taught you to think because they don't report other attacks. Or if they do they don't name the breed.

[kelpiecuddles]

A large warehouse type pet supplies shop, I'm not a fan of the whole puppy side of things(and do often quietly steer people towards rescue if possible :p ) but at the moment it's the only job I can get. We do have welfare league cats in though rather than just selling byb ones and it's more pet supplies, we don't have zillions of apuppies all the time if you know what I mean, I just try to avoid that side of things as much as possible.

[Katdogs]

Latest report in the Tele says the owner was fined recently for having unregistered dogs. I wonder what brought these dogs to Coucil's attention then? I hope the police/authorities find a way to make a strong example of this owner, if there's a history of complaints.

Poor jogger. One bite by a SWF is painful enough, I can't imagine being mauled like that.

[ruthless]

A large warehouse type pet supplies shop, I'm not a fan of the whole puppy side of things(and do often quietly steer people towards rescue if possible :p ) but at the moment it's the only job I can get. We do have welfare league cats in though rather than just selling byb ones and it's more pet supplies, we don't have zillions of apuppies all the time if you know what I mean, I just try to avoid that side of things as much as possible.

Fair enough. I was just hoping you weren't going to say you work at a pound/shelter.

[kelpiecuddles]

No, I'd like to work at a ppound or shelter though, it's somewhere I think I could actually make a real difference. It's quite amusing really because obviously the owner is quite happy to have puppies for sale there but there are a couple of us staff who are involved in rescue and try to ensure that things are done relatively responsibly. The other chick got the welfare league cats in there and will quite happily refuse to sell a pup to someone if she doesn't think they'll gt it desexed, etc, and tried to organise for people who bring pups in to get the parents desexed at welfare rates, it's not perfect but it's probably better than would be happening if we weren't there.

[MalteseLuna]

It's really scary that the dogs did so much damage to the poor guy that his heart was in danger of being punctured and they had to administer IV drugs via his feet/foot. The paramedics said it was the most horrific dog attack they had seen.

Wonder how the dogs all got back to their house - apparently they were picked up from their house a few hours later. Also wondering if they were desexed - if the bitch was on heat it might explain why it escalated so badly. The fact that the owner was recently fined for having the three dogs unregistered suggests that possibly someone complained about them recently - bringing them to the attention of the council.

Hope that the owner gets fined/jailed and the dogs are euthanised humanely.

What brave guys for trying to help the jogger - hope those injured recover quickly with no lasting damage.

[juice]

Its saying the owner says they are Amstaffs, look more like bulldog mix to me, and they will be pts today or tommorrow.

Why can't they hold them till they can do some research into why it happened, then pts, it makes no sense to me to just keep killing dogs without finding out why it happens.

[kelpiecuddles]

Surely finding out why it happens would make no difference to whether these dogs would be put to sleep.

[Loving my Oldies]

I wish the media could be convinced to crucify the owners instead of the alleged breeds when broadcasting this sort of news. Almost all the articles seem to be dedicated to breed guessing and rehashing the gory details, nobody has even mentioned that the owner should face punishment for failing to contain his dogs. Everybody has speculated whether they are pitbulls, bulldogs or freaking Marsians and nobody has even dropped a word wondering if they were socialized, vet treated and exercised regularly. Nobody wondered what kind of set-up they were kept in. How came they to be loose on the streets? Do they live on chains or loose in a backyard? Do they have indoor access? How tall is the fence meant to contain them? Is there a fence at all?

People really need to start looking for answers (and demanding them off the investigators) rather than just calling for dogs to be put to death and and disposed off ASAP. They should be temp assessed by a behaviouralist, vet checked for medical issues, autopsied after death and the premises they are kept on should be searched (as often times people owning offending dogs seem to have other issues like drug and violent crime offences behind them) and it should be determined exactly how and why those dogs were loose and what may have triggered the behaviour (poor temperaments? pack mentality? prey drive? high vale items? don't laugh, children have reportedly been mauled to death after walking into a backyard full of dogs whilst carrying a meat pie or other food).

Sometimes I wonder how many brain cells the public really have between them, to not even demand answers past the usual "it's a pitbull, that's why" and calls for more stringent pitbull laws, when none of these dogs ever come labelled with a pitbull stamp on their ass. Nobody knows for sure what is in a cross bred.

I was agreeing with this post until the last paragraph . How do you know whether or not councils are being deluged with requests from the brain cell lacking public to look into the owners of dogs who attack? Bit of a leap, frankly. How do you know that there aren't people working at this very moment gathering the statistics on dog attacks and the owners of dogs who attack?