"Something would at last be done........protected from canine teeth".
Do you know the facts of that sad incident?
Because of one incident, involving an Italian who had brought in several pittbulls a matter of days before, who had kept them in cages, who had never had other human interaction, who had even attacked each other in their tiny cage pits, got loose? The guy was an absolute idiot, and disgrace of a human. The dogs had known no other life. I feel for the boy and his family, but I also feel for the dogs who know no better.
But so now all dogs are child killers?
Are all cars child killers too? I saw one of them crush a child and spread its guts all over the road? When are we going to get rid of them?
I have lost several friends to cars and bikes. I don't want them near me either. But I see them everyday and quite obviously do not want them banned and everyone elses life affected because I don't like them or because one of them killed someone once.
Dogs can kill, sure. But not all dogs running free are mad dogs.
Smoking and passive smoke can impact our health. Just stay downwind and all is good.
I don't think banning anything is the right way to treat adults and mature people.
So until people can be adults and mature, bans are still the tool of the society.
Yes, another sad story regarding the 14 year old girl, and also the poor dogs who were again abused by evil humans. But for the sake of saying it, 30 children under 10 died in a coach crash the other day, and I still saw 3 coaches on the road today, it's disgusting they're allowed to still be on the road.
The science has already proven passive smoke scare mongering is all lies and statistics. But this has been discussed in depth, at least 10 times on this thread in my existence here. If you want to educate yourself, go read them. This is about dogs.
Take a look at the statistics of dog bites in CH which are available - in a surprisingly somewhat meagre form I admit - but we are talking about thousands of reported incidences each year. And these are the ones which are reported. The available figures do nothing else for me other than show that my irrational fear of dogs has a good fundament.
The figures of road accidents don't frighten me irrationally.
Just because I am a dog owner does not mean I am unable to understand what it means to be afraid of dogs. There was a black labrador, not on a leash, who was along my school route and that dog was anything but friendly. I was relieved when the family moved.
But the incident that I have never forgotten, and at the time was too young to understand what the dog was doing, took place near my home one afternoon. We heard screaming, and my mother opened the front door and not far from the house on the sidewalk was a dog, a huge brown dog, on top of a young boy. My mother grabbed a broom or shovel, I don't recall which, and ran across the road. I think she would have killed the dog if she had to to get him off the boy.
I imagine that boy could very well be scarred for life.
Yesterday I was walking our dogs (always on a leash) and a neighbour with 3 kids was also walking near me. One of her children was just terrified, I am guessing he is about 4 years old. The younger ones (twins) weren't bothered. But the boy was screaming and he was only making matters worse by frightening the dogs. I crossed the road, and he was still carrying on.
I asked the mom if anything ever happened to him involving a dog and she said no. She said she has no idea what's up with him. I told her that if she thought it would help, at some other time, if she likes, I was happy to come by with one dog alone, she's the dog who loves being stroked, and is 100 % trustworthy with kids.
The dogs were on a leash, under my control. There was nothing for him to be afraid of.
If a child is ahead of the parent, and I see this often with a parent pushing a stroller and a toddler on something with wheels, the parent may not be quick enough to stop the toddler approaching a dog.
The Tagesmutter in my neighbourhood is doing a brilliant job teaching the children in her care about respect for dogs. I think she has 5 kids she walks with, 2 in a stroller, 3 walking. Not one is out of line and would dare approach without asking first.
Also, on way down on forest track came across a girl (20s, who smiled ever so sweetly) & her parents, w/ a freerunning dog -I say 'freerunning' but s/he was a gentle old lassie. Nevertheless, the da put her on the lead as I was approaching. I slowed right down, 'danke vielmals & frohe ostertage' exchanged. warmed me heart & had to report it here
happy season of eastern promise to one & all
fb
But Grandmum, already when I was about 4, told me
A) not to confront a dog straight from the front
B) or with a stretched out hand
C) to slowly approach him from "side-forward" while speaking with him
D) and to retreat if the dog rejects
E) allow the dog to "sniff" you. It is his way to check you up
usually however, dogs are eager to make contact with me, so that I just have to place me, by accident, beside them.
F) you however have to respect that dogs have their private personality and are not all the same, even those who "look" the same
Reminds me of the Grandmum of a schoolfriend who after the sudden death of her previous dog went to a dogshome to get a new one. While she was looking round, a small black poodle followed her permanently. She enquired. "Well, he is a very nice small poodle, but not an urgent case, but if you want we can check up" and in the end "Nano" WAS her new dog
HE had chosen his new owner. He, after her death, lived with one of her daughters and became 17 years and 6 months old. Everything was right with him, but than within two weeks everything got into trouble. The woman stayed with him until he had passed out and kept him in her arms until it was over
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It not only is your responsibility but it is also to protect your dog against the unpredictabilities of those human beings
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I fear you ask for too much. Many of those parents have not the slighest idea about how to deal with any kind of animals, be they dogs or cows or donkeys
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That's rubbish - it will have and your irrational view that you can give up when you want is also bizarre. Most smokers don't want to smoke. Most find it really difficult to give up.
Anyway, back to dogs....
Kids can be a real nuisance around dogs yes, but a danger? I don't think so.
This is why it is vital not only for dog owners to train and socialize their dogs properly, but for humans to behave properly themselves and teach their children to do so as well.
Correct to some extent. But the real number of kids "mauled" by dogs is almost irrelevant, even if such incidents get reported in the media extensively. The number of kids who throw stones at dogs hopefully has receded over the decades but in the 1950ies and 60ies WAS a real problem.
Rather a problem is the sharp teeths of dogs. But in reality, looking back, we had dogs all around relatives and acquaintances and nobody was ever really bitten. So that even dog-bites are very rare indeed.
I did not ever have any schoolfriend or adult friend or colleague who was bitten by a dog, but a schoolfriend who died as a consequence of having been run over by a truck
The figures of road accidents however are seriously frightening. And the death quota of road accidents is terrible. And this particularily if you look at the figures in regard to people of below 20 years of age.
Cheers,
Nick