Racing Turtles

the follow up here is absolutely fucking vital

There are other witnesses to all of this too at a park near us and just holy SHIT. The outright mocking of a little kid for being scared. A dog isn’t a person. It’s an animal with jaws that can rip open a throat. Literally every year there are people, especially children, killed by dogs that were “always so well behaved!” It’s an animal. I love and respect dogs like I do spiders, sharks, snakes, jellyfish, cheetahs, crocodiles and tapeworms but hey, guess which animal here actually causes the most deaths? Owning an animal of any kind isn’t something to be flippant about.

I love seeing things I can reblog and add to, so here goes:

Dog owners are some of the most ignorant, uneducated pet owners in existence (but especially in the United States). I understand that in the modern world, dogs are seen more as pets than what they really are - working animals.

Every dog should be on leash in public, at all times, regardless of how well you think you know your animal.  I would go so far as to say, if you don’t have proper canine handling training, then you should also have your dog on a muzzle when in public.

I know you’re probably thinking that its cruel and ridiculous to expect people to muzzle their dogs - but my dog isn’t aggressive - you say. To which I respond with; every canine is predisposed to aggressive behavior. Granted that the majority of aggressive behavior in canines is reactive, that is to say, they only act aggressively in response to stimulus, but again, read the bolded statement and get used to it.

Aggression is natural for dogs, it is typically used as a defense mechanism either in defending themselves or their owners, but it is natural and it will happen at some point.

Children are incredibly vulnerable and dogs are incredibly aware of this, dogs know exactly how we are feeling at every moment - in fact, most kids will be harmed by a friend’s dog due to them not knowing the rules of the friend’s house and the unspoken rules that dog has placed on the children in his/her home. Do not ever let your child into a house that has an unfamiliar dog, no matter what the pet’s owners say. Most children will be afraid of dogs until they have a good experience with one, because our instincts will tell us to fear predators, which is exactly what dogs are.

Again, dogs kill more people in the United States a year than cows, who kill more than bears, who kill more than snakes, spiders, alligators, sharks, and mountain lions. Deer are the #1 killer purely do to accident related deaths, but dogs attack and kill more people in the U.S. than any other common animal.

That’s statistically factual.

The dog in this photo appears to be a Samoyed, which is a relatively friendly breed - but had it been a cattle mix, it probably would have smelled the child’s fear, its owner’s irritation, and it probably would have attempted to herd or attack the child. You’d be putting a cattle dog exactly in it’s working field. Something small and fearful? Guess its cattle.

We have this notion that dogs are man’s best friend, that we need them and they need us, but people always forget that dogs were bred for a purpose, and denying them of that purpose and failing to give them an outlet, is fatally irresponsible. You will either end up with a bad-mannered dog who is acting out in frustration, a bored dog that grows lethargic and depressed over time, or you’ll have to put your animal down because after years of neglect, they act out due to breed standards and do too much, too fast, and hurt someone.

As a personal anecdote, my mother (who has worked with dogs for over a decade) was recently attacked for the first time, by an unleashed pit outside her apartment complex. The dog’s owner had his back to my mom and had NO control of his dog - he could have killed my mom. This dog did not stop attacking my mom even when his owner started punching and kicking his dog, he had to wrap his arms around him and pick him up to get him off my mom. The best part is that this dog had a history of offensively aggressive behavior, the owner even had a muzzle for the dog - but thought he knew his dog well enough to take him out without both a leash and the muzzle, and it could have gotten my mother killed.

Fuck dog owners, fuck ignorant, uneducated, holier-than-thou dog owners.

I’m sure there’s people who will get angry and defensive about the above but it’s real-talk advice. Any medium to large dog can be dangerous. Even some small dogs are dangerous and for that matter even a weak, shallow bite can cause a serious infection, there’s almost no such thing as a 100% harmless dog and that needs to be respected for the dog’s safety and well-being as much as any other people or animals.

ONE CORRECTION:

Snakes world-wide do cause more deaths than dogs. However, domestic dogs do kill more humans than the rest of those animals. The top four killer species are mosquitoes, fellow humans, snakes, then immediately dogs.

Just to add on to these good points here. There is in fact an fenced in, off-leash, dog park at Mt Tabor. Let your dog off the leash there and quit being an asshole.

This past summer I was bitten by a dachshund not on a leash in a rest area on the highway. (Yes, you read that right…a dachshund) We were strolling along a path, minding our own business, when three dachshunds charged us from 40 feet away as their owners sat and watched. The dog nipped and barked and got my finger before the owner came over. I could go on about how shitty these owners were, but sticking to the point of the post, you should always keep your dog on leash. It’s your responsibility as a pet owner to manage interactions, not the other way around.

Oh there’s nothing unusual about that; nobody takes Dachsunds seriously because they’re the “weiner dogs,” but they’re literally the most aggressive dog breed, my spouse was around hundreds of dogs growing up and only has a scar from a dachsund, which happened clear out of the blue from one they’d known all its life. They were bred to hunt badgers.

I love dogs. But keep theem on a fucking leash.

My cousin was bit in the face by a dog when she was a kid and has permanent scars.