Posted on 11/19/2009 9:17:47 AM PST by Chet 99
This is the shocking video of a Labrador guide dog being savagely attacked by a pitbull-cross dog in a railway station subway.
A 57-year-old blind woman was walking through Cricklewood station when her guide dog, Neela, a brown Labrador, was attacked by another dog.
Transport police today issued the images in a bid to trace the violent dog's owner.
Detective Constable Gerry Griffin said: “This dog was not muzzled and was dangerously out of control.
“The woman was extremely distressed and feared for own safety. What made this awful incident even more harrowing was the fact that the man made no effort to assist her or to check that she was alright once the attack was over.”
Her guide dog suffered a deep puncture wound to the neck and is still receiving veterinary treatment after the incident on Sunday, 4 October.
Police say the attack lasted around three minutes.
(Excerpt) Read more at thisislondon.co.uk ...
A neighbor (who I like) raises pit bulls and Rottweilers. Occasionally they get out and come over on my property and chase the wild turkeys and deer. When I see this happening, I will walk outside with a shotgun. If the dog immediately turns and runs away I will let it go. If the dog keeps chasing the animals or turns to me I will kill it and drag the carcass down to my neighbor. He prefers me killing the dog vs. calling fish and game and getting a $800 fine per animal that was chased, the turkey flocks generally number in the 60’s or so.
How long do you suppose it will be before someone comes along and says it isn’t the dog’s fault, but the owner’s. (It is never the fault of the darling warling precious wecious pupiewuppiekins)
A long time ago I had a female friend who owned Irish wolfhounds. She was walking with one of her hounds near campus when a punk/gangbanger walking a pitbull intentionally let go of the leash and sicced it on her wolfhound from about a block away. She yelled at him to call it off, and he laughed. So she let go of her leash.
Short fight. The wolfhound broke the pitbull’s back with one whack, then calmly returned to her. The punk started to go ape. That is, until the woldhound bared its teeth at him.
Great dog, BTW. Very gentle with people. Except it thought it was a lapdog. Oooffff.
Too bad this story didn’t end that way.
That is horrible, but the man did attempt to get the pit bull off of the poor guide dog. He did have his dog under control until the guide dog came around the corner.
If they find that dog, the dog will be put down. England is very strict about dogs that bite. They are always put down which is why they breed pretty gentle dogs, as a rule.
I hope the Guide dog recovers, although I imagine that its future usefulness as a service animal is compromised. This is really sad.
He raises, trains and sells the dogs. He prefers me killing the occasional stray, rather than paying a $40,000 fine and having all of his dogs confiscated.
No way is a dog under any kind of “control” if it jumps a guide dog because the guide dog rounded a corner.
Sorry, this pit was a disaster waiting to happen. Just lucky it didn’t attack the woman as well.
My dog was similarly attacked by a pit for no reason in a dog park. All the owners except the owner of the attacking pit bull were doing everything possible to help and diffuse the situation. My dog’s neck was slashed and her shoulder broken from the dog pouncing on her (she is a 48 lb. Australian cattledog). But this attack never made the papers or any statistic.
My dog went through the gate into the dog park and the pit came charging at her from about a city block away’s distance.
I just wish I’d had a gun.
“How long do you suppose it will be before someone comes along and says it isn’t the dog’s fault, but the owner’s. (It is never the fault of the darling warling precious wecious pupiewuppiekins)”
I’ll bite.
It is up to the owner of any dog to keep the dog on leash when off their property. There’s the first strike.
In the UK, pit bull-type dogs are restricted to the extent that all dogs of this variety are to be muzzled while in public. Strike two.
It is also the owner’s responsibility to train and socialize their dog to prevent bad things from happening. This includes being aware of the dog’s weaknesses, such as dog aggression, fearfulness, etc. so that extra precautions can be taken. Strike three.
Dogs are not capable of making human decisions, nor are they capable of demonstrating morality. They are just dogs, and attributing human feelings or logic to them is ridiculously unsafe. They don’t keep themselves on chains, don’t “forget” to get neutered, and do not have the ability to train themselves. How exactly is it ever any dog’s fault if they are simply living as dogs? Dog fights happen with every breed, and in every breed there are dogs that are stimulated by this, and therefore extremely persistent as it is somehow gratifying for them. They don’t know that we consider this behavior abhorrent. They just do it, and there is no thought process involved. If you believe this to be true, as most rational people do, including animal behaviorists, then you understand that this is the reason behind requiring responsible dog ownership.
Having said all that, if you look at the video closely, it appears that the dog may be a pit bull mix, or it could be a boxer. In the UK, tail docking is illegal, so many boxers have a full tail. This dog has a short muzzle and long flews, along with drop ears. These are much more characteristic of boxers than pit bulls, which are supposed to have a square muzzle with tight upper lips and rose or half-prick ears. I would not be surprised to find this dog is not a pit bull at all, but that would require finding the owner, which I hope to God they do. But it could be a poorly-bred, out of standard pit bull too.
Dog parks are horrible for dogs in general. When my dog was only a puppy, she was attacked by an Old English Sheepdog. The owners did nothing, and my dog went home with a nasty wound. People there commented on being scared of the wrong dog (my pup is a pit bull-type dog), and after reading about many incidents like this happening, I have decided to only take my dogs when no one else is there. It would be nice if they could all just get along, but they are dogs, and some of them are not dog-friendly. Too bad their owners don’t know or care, because dog park dogfights happen all the time, often by breeds you would not suspect.
My brother is a veterinarian and he says dog parks are great places for your dog to pick up diseases that they otherwise would not be subject to.
Oh I agree. But two points if they're just dogs, then they should be promptly killed if they display this sort of vicious behavior, and we know that rarely happens and 2.However, most police department do not agree with you and me. They call their dogs "canine officers" and woe be unto anyone who defends himself against a "canine officer"
Dogs are the sacred cows of the USA (and apparently the UK too)
Did you watch the video? The young man had his Pit on leash and walked back and forth a couple of times. Then he put his dog in a down sit and set something down on the floor (coffee? tea?) and fumbled with his keys to open something (locker?). He corrected the dog once to keep him in a down sit. At that point the lady came around the corner with the guide dog, and all heck broke loose.
The reason I said the dog was “under control” was because he was on leash and was minding his owner until the other dog appeared. I probably should have said, “appeared to be under control”.
The man beat and kicked his dog furiously — starting and stopping a couple of times. There is no sound to the video, but I imagine that he was yelling for help and the dogs were making all kinds of noise too. The man was quite agitated. The woman disappeared during all this action. I suppose he told her to get away from the fight. At least, I hope so.
This is a terrible event. Of course he should never have let go of the leash, although that would have hardly mattered because the Pit looked strong enough to have pulled it right out of his hands and would have gone after the Lab in the close quarters of the corridor even if he had been holding on. The dog owner should never have had that dog out in public unmuzzled. This is definitely NOT the way good English dogs behave.
Good English dogs regularly accompany their owners to tea in fine hotels where they sit docilely while they are served water and dog cookies in silver bowls by the hotel staffs fussing over them. It is not unusual to see a room full of tea partiers in a fine hotel with a dog at each table — all behaving impeccably. White linen, fancy sandwiches, biscuits and hats — the whole deal. No misbehaving dogs — all of the dogs tolerant of all the other dogs in the room.
re: He did have his dog under control
Did he? Looks to me like he let go of the leash and was doing something when the dog bolted. “Under control” means having hold of the leash in such a way that the dog can not run away and chase something or attack something. It’s obvious he did not have the dog under control since he couldn’t catch up to it until the dog got busy attacking the guide dog.
“Oh I agree. But two points if they’re just dogs, then they should be promptly killed if they display this sort of vicious behavior”
I agree. Any dog that exhibits human aggression should be euthanized, and any dog that is that dog aggressive should be only owned by people that can keep things like this from happening. Otherwise, there is no reason the dog should be alive since the owner is not capable of controlling it. There are far too many great dogs in shelters to try and save the damaged ones. Of course, if the dog is defending the owner, or acting on behalf of the police or armed forces, that’s a different story.
Good story, I love a happy ending....:O)
He was holding the leash. Dog was relatively calm — not pulling. He put the dog in a downstay while he fiddled with keys (?). He corrected the dog once and put him into another downstay, and the dog seemed to accept it. In Basic Obedience that is consided “having your dog under (voice) control”.
Of course, if your dog is unpredictable and liable to bolt, that is NOT under control. If your dog is a Golden, or a Lab that will stay put when told, that IS under control.
The key here is that we do not know the owner’s past history with that dog. And the other key is that the lady and her Guide dog were nowhere in sight throughout most of this video. The incident looked like it took everyone by surprise. If the owner has had his dog run off on him and attack another animal previously, he should have never let go of the leash.
My Golden, for instance, is more dependable off leash than on leash. He responds to voice and whistle commands. When he’s on leash and meets another dog, he likes to pull and has yanked free of his leash in the past. He’s a gentle and friendly soul, but he’s big and people who don’t like dogs are (understandably) frightened of him. If I have to walk him in public in a strange area, not only is he on leash, he is wearing a prong collar too for better control. But, without the distraction of new animals to meet, he’s very dependable with just voice control.
One thing that has not been discussed here is why the owner seems to have disappeared after the attack. That seems like guilt to me. Or, not wanting to have his dog put down which is what surely would happen in England.
A group of well-meaning folks in this town tried to get the County to open a dog park in my neighborhood adjacent to a golf course. It certainly wouldn’t be used by the people in my neighborhood as we all live on 5 acres, or more. These were all folks who lived across town. In any case, a number of us banded together and stopped it. We did a lot of research on dog park problems, zoonoses, runoff (the area floods), filth, etc. The County stopped it, but we had to go to about 5 meetings to get this done.
In our research we uncovered hundreds of stories like solo describes, eminating from dog parks all over this nation. It makes me wonder who likes these things? The acreage around my house is my dog’s park. He knows not to leave the property. He has no restraints when outdoors. It took a lot of attention to train him, but he’s very dependable after 7 years.
I looked at the video again, and he is not holding the leash, it’s on the ground in front of him, by the dog. Also looks like he doesn’t have a choke chain on the dog. A choke chain would have let him render the dog unconscious very quickly. You are very correct about the previous behavior though.
We won’t be going back, I can assure you.
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