dogs & licensing

Aldaniti

Aldaniti

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Dec 21, 2005
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Wickford
apologies for the grammer in this post but i am doing a one finger wonder this morning!

i have just arrived back home after spending 6hrs in a&e, i was walking one of my dogs in the park last night when a large staffy came hurtling over acting very aggressivly, luckily my dog did not react to it, i asked the owner to call the dog in which his reply was 'he's alright he would't hurt anything' i then went to walk off which is when the dog just launched itself towards me & got my hand/wrist, the chap then called his dog & walked off leaving me on my knee's is agony :mad:

got home thankfully only a few mins walk & OH took me to hospital, i have several deep puncture wounds to my hand & wrist, i currently have no feeling in my thumb this may or may not be permanent, dr said i was lucky as one wound in my wrist was so deep it just missed an artery,

I love dogs & own four but i really think we have got to the stage where something needs to be done, bringing in a licence to own a dog & to attend some kind of course involving training etc, i don't think too many real dog lovers would be against this & a severe fine if caught without one, if it costs say £100 for a licence it surely would pay for a local council to have a new type of dog warden who would be on the look out for people with dogs & to check they have a licence

Helen
 
Ooo, nasty - sorry to hear this, Helen. You must report this to the Police if you haven't done so and give a detailed description of owner and dog, in order that they can find and deal with this. It was bad enough it was you this time but next it could be a child and the dog needs to be put down.

As to licencing - it's another tax I don't think targets the correct people. Those who look after their dogs properly would pay up and those who don't - won't and I for one am getting fed up of paying my taxes while so many around me don't. Obviously, breeders or in fact anyone with more than two (I think?) breeding bitches does have to pay licence fees to the Council.

Having to pay £100 per dog would mean we'd see a lot more chucked onto the streets and one or two people I know genuinely would not be able to afford the additional expense, as finding that amount in one go is beyond them but they can and do look after a couple of dogs very well, so why should they be denied their pets ?

Not sure there is an answer on this one, other than the rest of us being less tolerant of neighbours who do not look after their animals properly and report them to the correct authorities.
 
Yes, you have got to have this particular dog destroyed. It could've ripped the throat out of a toddler and the owner clearly doesn't give a toss. Do everything you can to make sure this mugger's taken off the streets.

As for licensing, I don't see any problem with it provided it's cheap. What needs to be done is that every single dog leaves its breeders with a microchip which is NOT embedded in an ear - there have been well-publicised cases of greyhounds having their ears cut off before being abandoned. It needs to be in the neck, like racehorses, and for all animal pounds/rescue centres to have readers, so that the last known owner - the one registered to the chip - can be located. This would be helpful when dogs are stolen and then abandoned, or just plain lost.

The fee could be minimal, say a fiver. Even pensioners like me can afford that - the cost of a packet of fags or two cold drinks at Goodwood. All pets should be issued with passports, again like racehorses, giving details of their appearance, DOB, etc. and when animals are presented at the vet's for treatment, the passport handed over and checked.

When we had dogs in Africa, they had to be registered with a local vet so that they could have their rabies shots updated annually. If you missed the call-up, you were required to state why the dog was missing its inoculation - for example, it had died since its last jab. If you lied and just didn't get your dog jabbed, you could be fined heavily if the dog was later found uninoculated, and your dog would definitely be put down.

In Saudi, we had a branch of the American Kennel Association which formed the basis of the veterinary clinic in Dhahran. All of our dogs had to be registered with that clinic - ownership was supposed to be traceable and accountable, and it plainly isn't in this country.

I don't mind it being a tax on pet ownership - it would help to ensure that those who owned animals were mindful of their responsibilities towards its behaviour, and it would possibly assist in stopping the moronic breeding of so many animals which merely end up abandoned, on death row, or waiting endlessly for a decent home. The RSPCA's last figure for thrown-away dogs was around the 150,000 p.a. mark, cats around 50,000. 200,000 unwanted or neglected pets every year does not point to a 'nation of animal lovers' - quite the opposite, in fact: narcissistic, reckless, careless, to brutal. Pets need protection from humans, and you represent the other side of the coin - humans who need protecting from other people's untrained and badly-behaved ones.

Get that dog stopped as soon as you can. I hope you were given a tetanus shot.
 
Hope you get the feeling back soon Helen, and the rest of your injuries repair quickly.

and agree with Songy and Kri - you need to report this and let the relevant authorities deal with things as they see fit, it could well have been far far worse.

as for a dog license - its a good plan to bring it back - but I also think all that will happen is whats happened with horse passports, with it being the good, law abiding owners that do it - and them not really being worth anything at all...
 
I'm with them - report this guy and get the dog put out of it's misery. No dog that behaves like that is a happy one.

And, be sure that you have not got anything dreadful from the bites too.

Totally scary for you, poor you.

I adore dogs but admit that I have begun crossing the road when I see some of these things. A v young girl with a babe in pram trotted past me on tottering heels today with 2 bull things dragging her and pram up the road. It's an accessory that is very dangerous.
 
PS Forgot to say that in the US, from wince I came, dogs must have a license. Know how it works? NOT.

Bad guys don't bother, little old ladies do. Solves zero.

Has to be another solution, like finding the bad dogs and bad owners and stopping them from having animals for life. Or jail sentence and hard labour. :mad:
 
If the Staffie was using a municipal park, Aldaniti, it's Council property. It would be worthwhile informing the Council in writing that it is permitting uncontrolled and dangerous dogs to use its facilities and that you expect them to do something about putting up signs that dogs must be on leashes or have their owners face prosecution. Tell them about the attack on you, and that you've also informed the Police. Get their animal control officer's mobile number. If you see the Staffie again, phone the Police immediately on your mobile to report it and keep the animal control officer's number available, too, and phone him or her to come and deal with it.
 
Totally agree with the others, Helen.

Hope the damage to your hand is not too serious, but do seek help if you haven't got feeling back within a few more days. Get your GP to refer you to a hand specialist or DIY through the Choose & Book system. If that won't work, go via A&E. (I never said that!)

What a horrible experience for you. Enough to make one wary of dogs ever after.

While one can pity the dog for being so badly "brought up", it really is a danger to people, not to mention their dogs. I do hope that your report to the police brings about the proper result.

It is so sad that certain breeds have been "outlawed" solely because of the mismanagement of their owners, who see ownership of such dogs as demanding some kind of "respect" amongst their peers.

Poor dog.

Poor you.
 
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