Columnist to irresponsible dog owners: "I will end your pet"

A few weeks ago a little girl got bit at our dog park. Apparently she went to pick up a ball that a golden was playing with. Parents are going to sue the town and dog owner.

Town has thankfully decided to institute a "no one under 16" allowed in.

Too many mothers were using park as playground.

 

More dog bites are the human's fault than most humans (and zero mommies and daddies) will ever admit.

This was one of them.

 

You've been bitten by children at restaurants?

 

as a dog owner/lover, the entire tone of this column was off-putting. much more effective ways to make the same point and a point i agree with: whenever outside of the home and not in a confined space, dogs must be on leashes. plenty of gentler ways to make this same strong point without looking live a raving lunatic.

 

Medium and large dogs don't belong in residential areas, but you'll never convince dog owners otherwise.

 

That may be the single strangest thing I've read on here.

 

The tyranny of dog owners has to end. Honest to god, put the thing on a leash. When I am running on a bike trail I don't like a dog coming at me barking. I also don't like having to navigate land mines that those dogs leave.

Dog owners get appalled when I say I don't like dogs. It's not like I said I don't like children. Give me a crying kid over a barking dog that slobbers any day of the week.

 

Probably because most dog owners live in residential areas.

French Poodles would never make it in rural areas. They would be gang raped by packs of inbred mutts.

 

While I don't condone the harshness of the column, I'm really surprised by some of the responses on this thread. Of course dogs should always be on leashes. Of course not everyone is going to be as enamored with your pet as you are. Of course dogs can scare, maim or even kill children and adults.

Maybe the tone is off-putting, but I certainly don't fault the idea behind it. And she certainly got her point across.

I love my pug Edgar more than most other people. I think he is the cutest, sweetest, most loyal animal I have ever known. I think anyone who doesn't see my point of view regarding Edgar is an idiot.

Just a few days ago I was walking him through the neighborhood, on a leash. A little girl and her babysitter were walking on the opposite side of the street. Edgar took
notice of them and started straining on his leash and pulling his 23 lbs body toward the
little girl. This kid started bawling and running away from him, looking over her shoulder in terror. Edgar wasn't barking, he wasn't being vicious, he was just curious. At first, I was offended. He's so cute! He would never hurt her! But, after I thought
about it, I realized I have no idea where this kid is coming from or what experiences with dogs live in her past. I'm just really glad I had my dog on a leash so he didn't frighten her more.

Yes. Kids and their parents can be annoying, but children rarely propel themselves out of their strollers to attack pedestrians. And I generally find that kids are very well-mannered when it comes to Edgar. Children almost always asked if he is friendly or if they may pet him. Unrestrained dogs don't generally ask first before they launch themselves into your personal space.

I just read an article about a pit mix that killed a five-month-old in Richmond. This stuff truly does happen, and I don't see a problem with reminding people that their
animals are not perfect creatures and may scare or harm other people or children. You just never know. You may not like it when someone questions their safety around your
dog, but you have to respect it.

 

Nothing wrong with writing about the topic of leash laws and the community.

But why couldn't she find a source from the community to lead us into the topic? Surely, she could have found someone who was bitten by an unleashed dog or has a child who was bitten. Maybe someone who is suing a dog owner or a dog owner being sued. Ever tried going to the court and looking for pending criminal charges against anyone?

Nope, instead she gives us her self-righteous, juvenile rant. To much of her personal bias is evident in the "column" for me to take her seriously. Just write a damn news story next time.

 

Kids and dogs both wander off the path and do things from time to time that the adults in charge of them can't foresee or prevent, despite their best intentions. When they do it at the same time, the kid is going to get the worst of it, so the dog owner does have extra responsibility to make sure it doesn't happen. Also, the kid is the one who needs to be out in the world learning how to function for a lifetime, as well as the one who can't be left alone at home for a half-hour if there are going to be too many people around.

For me, any time I see a dog off a leash and jumping up on/frisking people, I assume it's a poorly behaved dog, because the owner that would let its dog run free like that is also the owner that wouldn't have trained the dog in the first place.

And also the world would be a far better place with mandatory execution of all chihuahuas.

 

You basically said the same thing she did in her article. But you said it in such a way that people will actually listen to you, unlike author of the artcile. The way the article comes across is more of a personal rant to a close friend, not an article to get people's attention.

Of course, I firmly believe in leashes, and my dogs never, ever leave our yard and venture to the park without one. And we pull them back from children until we get a go ahead from the parent that the child has permission to pet them. Which is OK with the dogs, since it is the job of everyone they see to pet them, in their opinion.