Need guidance: Where do you stand with a dog attack.

[markshere2]

I had a similar situation a few years back. I happen to have off during the week and was in my garage and heard a women frantically screaming. I looked up the road and saw a pit bull attacking both of her Golden Retrievers. She was screaming for someone to help. I ended up just running up the street (without firearm) but as I approached thankfully a very brave neighbor talked the pit bull down and got control of him. The women was out of her mind crying and the owner soon after pulled up in her car and stated very quickly, "Sorry, He's never gotten out of the yard before and has never bitten anyone or any dog before". The lady with the two golden's ended up leaving the scene without saying anything to the owner but I was compelled to tell the lady that if I saw that pit bull off leash in this neighborhood again, there would be a huge issue as there are many, many dogs and little children running around. I almost called the police but the pit bull owner was clearly beside herself, and extremely apologetic so I let it slide. I also felt that I was way to angry to continue the conversation and didn't want to say anything I might regret.

In hindsight, not sure I should have gotten involved in the minimal way that I did but then again, I haven't seen that pit bull around anymore.

What about tomorrow, next week, next month? That dog is a liability, created by the owner.

The lesson is: call the authorities in every dog attack, unless you choose to SSS. (Shoot, Shovel, Shut up)

[clarencecoffee]

Sorry but no matter how upset or apologetic the pit bull owner was, that dog needs to be destroyed. Some of these pit bull owners believe these dogs are saints. When they bite they blame the owner or training or even the victim. If this dog kills or injures a kid the owner will cry that it's not the dogs fault.

I say if the dog attacks, kill it.

[rmagill]

Animals are a lot more like people than I think we want to admit. A dog's breed makes that dog more likely to be prone to certain behaviors, but does not guarantee particular actions. Even the best animal trainers cannot completely train all behaviors out of an animal - depending on the animal.

With dog attacks - as with people attacking people - sometimes it is in the animal's nature (think psychopathic person), sometimes it is the way it was trained (think of soldiers carrying out orders - rightly or wrongly), and sometimes the animal was provoked (think the soccer mom whose child is being attacked and beats the attacker).

Each situation is different and needs to be judged on a case-by-case and animal-by-animal basis. Would you want to be convicted of murder for defending yourself? Of course not, you would want to be judged on the merits of the case, so why not for each instance of an animal acting aggressively/assertively?