Chew Toys

Yet another child has been attacked by vicious dogs and severely injured. The dogs have been destroyed but the owner, unfortunately remains very much alive and able to own more dogs. Sure, he will be banned from owning dogs, but seeing as he is unlikely to have microchipped or licensed his previous dogs, this will not deter him. It is also a bit rough on the dogs who were merely behaving like the animals they were. On the other hand, perhaps the owner was behaving like the animal he is. He was certainly behaving like a moron, letting loose large dogs he clearly had no control over.

I am a responsible dog owner. I have two well-cared-for and much loved large dogs – a German Shepherd and a Husky:

They are great guard dogs. Virtually every house on our street has been burgled at some time but not ours. Sensible burglars. I appreciate the value of dogs both as companions and as protection. I also appreciate the responsibility of an owner. These are not pictures of furry humans, they are pictures of animals. Both have very nice natures. Both are quite capable of seriously harming someone if cornered and provoked. As responsible owners, the MacDoctor’s have firm control over them at all times. Unless you are a rat, in which case you are dog tucker.

The trouble is, most people seem to get a dog because of how it looks rather than how it thinks. Little old ladies buy fox terriers because they look cute, little realising that they are high-energy dogs that are very difficult to control. Men wishing to appear tough buy Pitbulls and Drogos and their mongrel crosses, not appreciating that these are pack hunters with easily excitable natures. Owners have been killed by these animals because they have not known how to handle them. These sort of dogs need vast amounts of exercise and rigid control. They need to know who is boss at all times. Instead, they are often kept chained up or in kennel runs where they become intensely frustrated. Their owners have no more control over them than they know how to fly a Jumbo jet.

What is needed is a way of insisting on responsible dog ownership. This would entail a very beefed up dog control department with bona fide animal experts and significant powers to enter properties and assess dogs. Clearly neither licensing or microchipping makes any difference. Every significant (not a playful nip or a cut from a single fang) dog bite I have every treated either comes from a police dog (because the crim tried to pull away) or from a large unlicensed, un-microchipped dog owned by a moron with fewer brain cells than toes. Occasionally, I hear from a colleague of some child who has been bitten badly while teasing an animal but the vast majority seem unprovoked like this one.

Perhaps it is time we started talk about owner licenses rather than dog licenses. And perhaps it is time the penalties for poor ownership became a real deterrent for idiots who think that dogs are some sort of status symbol or accessory.

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