Thursday, April 22, 2010: The 9 year old red Shiba Inu was tied to a tree outside his owner’s home when the two dogs next door escaped through the front door. The dogs, who had previously been involved in aggression towards another neighbour dog on March 9, went straight for Kody and attacked. The larger one “broke the chain holding Kody and dragged his limp body two houses down.”
I don’t know what I would do if this happened to me. When our friends’ dog “Buddy” attacked Tierce, I was frozen and luckily, my friends were able to control him. That was also a case of owner error – Buddy had been attacked before and I should never have let Tierce just rush up to him, even on leash. Both dogs were on leash and were easier to control – which you can tell was not that easy if you read that post.
But in this case, when the dogs were just allowed to rush out the door after being at large previously and showing aggression? I’m pretty sure they would have to restrain me from going after the fucker who owned them. When I read Kody’s story, I really wanted to take a trip to Woodbridge to beat her until she lived the rest of her life in pain.
Extreme? Yeah, to a person who isn’t as bonded to their pets as I am, it might seem extreme. However, despite all of these people bleating about vicious dogs and oh, what do we do, the population at large – in Canada OR the States is not rising up as a whole and demanding that people be held responsible for their dogs’ actions. Note that this waste of skin was claiming that this was ‘the first time her dogs had done something like this’ when another resident of the area tried to testify that the dogs were running loose before and behaved aggressively towards her dogs.
When are we going to stop whining about this breed and that breed and hold people like Kari Baker responsible for setting them up so that they are in the position to harm others?
You might note that I didn’t make mention of the breed of dog that attacked. That’s because the breed shouldn’t matter. When we go of on tangents of “oh, this breed is evil!”, we ignore the fact that a human CHOSE to own this dog, a human CHOSE not to socialize and/or train it, a human CHOSE not to confine it properly.
I am so tired of the concept that people are somehow incapable of comprehending that their dog could cause trouble when allowed to run uncontrolled. I am sick of the idea that people are allowed to drive cars and have children, but can’t be expected to know dog behaviour or the potential of their dog to hurt someone. I am absolutely sick that someone can allow their dog to run loose habitually and not be at risk of anything more than a minor fine and a waggled forefinger.
You want things like this not to happen? Educate people in the schools. Teach children how to deal with dogs as part of their curriculum. Make the laws for uncontrolled dogs harsher. Make the laws for uncontrolled aggressive dogs on the level with manslaughter. Make irresponsible dog ownership so unpleasant that people avoid it because they don’t want to lose their homes, their livelihood and all their assets.
I completely agree with you that we as a society need to become more active in protecting our pets/children/selves from the stupidity and laziness of other dog owners who feel that just owning a dog is considered taking care of it. They need to be penalized for the aggression, fear and death that their dogs cause other people. If the laws were harsher and actually enforced I’m sure there wouldn’t be as many cases of aggression and if you are going to own a dog that is prone to that type of behavior it should be a law or part of the breeder’s(if possible)contract that you must go through all the steps, socializing, training etc. to ensure that you have done everything humanly possible to prevent this type of behavior from happening. It makes me sick to even imagine what Kody’s owner is going through, I’d be completely devastated if anything were to happen to my shiba, she’s not just a pet she is as much a part of my family as my daughter is, more people need to understand that type of unconditional love and stand up for it.
While I don’t agree with leaving a Shiba tied up unattended, I do agree that the Pitbulls had to be put down for that vicious of an attack upon another.
I also know that I would be completely traumatized if this ever happened to me.