Has 'paranoia of dogs' gone too far?
From KC DOG BLOG, in America, but so familiar here:
Two 'pit bulls' in Crawford County, MI are on death row -- but not for reasons you might suspect.
It seems that six months ago, a man, James Gardiner was riding his bike near the residence where the dogs lived. Somehow the dogs got loose and approached Gardner in a manner in which he felt threatened -- he jumped off his bike, put his bike between himself and the dogs, and squirted water at the dogs. After about 10 minutes of squirting the dogs with water to keep them away, the dogs' owners came out, called the dogs, and the dogs went home. The dogs never bit or touched him.
Gardiner says he felt fortunate that he was uninjured and when he pressed charges, a judge agreed and ordered the dogs to be euthanized -- calling them "dangerous animals" in his ruling.
The dog's owners, Ken and Dawn Minard, have appealed the decision. This is the first ever complaint about the dogs and the dogs have never bitten anyone. The dogs have been evaluated by two different trainers -- one called the dogs "extremely loving and not aggressive in any way" -- while a second one said the dogs "have shown some very dangerous behavior patterns". Huh? Wow. Not sure how two trainers can get completely different indications of the two dogs.That said, the second trainer said he believed that almost all dogs are dangeorus if let free in the community. Wow. Uh, no. Not that they SHOULD be allowed to roam free in the community, but by and large, most dogs would be fine in such a situation.
So the dogs await the decision on the appeal as it goes to circuit court.
And all of this begs the question -- has the paranoia about dog bites gone too far? Seems very much like the answer is yes.
Comments
I think the work paranoia is
I think the work paranoia is misleading. I think a member of the public genuinely feared for their safety when an irresponsible dog owner caused (in one way or another) to allow his dogs to be out and they threatened someone. No-one else is to blame for this but the dog owner!!!!!!
As we have seen in recent days, there are a lot of irresponsible dog owners in NZ, and the Councils that are paid to enforce the provisions of the Dog Control Act are not doing their job adequately. The dangerous and menacing dog provisions, along with registration should be rigorously enforced. THEN we would have less of these incidents. Blame the dog owner, not the victim. I'm not anti-dog, just wanting ALL dog owners to act responsibly and for the pro-dog lobby groups to accept that dogs DO cause damage and fear, and not everyone likes dogs. Oh, and I'm a dog owner.
There is a roaming dog here
There is a roaming dog here in Papakura.I know where the dog lives.The so called "animal control" have been there many times yet the dog is still allowed to roam.It proves that the barstard animal control people pick on certain people who don't deserve it and leave others alone