Dog Community

Deed not Breed?

Posted : 1/26/2007 7:27:28 AM

There was an article in a newspaper this week about a smooth mini Dachshund who was facing being PTS because she bit a man on the ankle. From what I could gather, the owner's point of view seemed to be that a dog so small could not possibly be realistically considered "dangerous"; the man could hardly have even noticed the "bite" but as a result of the incident she was facing a court summons, her beloved family pet was facing being euthanased and her children were distraught at the idea of losing their best friend.

Has anyone else heard this story or similar ones? What are your thoughts? Taking "deed not breed" too far? Or would it not be fair to ignore the incident?

I do agree with the idea of judging by "deed not breed" and I'm heavily against BSL. I would just be interested to hear others' opinions on this.

spiritdogs

Posted : 1/26/2007 8:56:57 AM

Small dogs can do damage, too, so I'd be interested in finding out the severity of the bite in terms of damage to the person's ankle. It's one thing to take a little herding nip, and quite another to sever a tendon or something.
Rarely do dogs face euthanasia here if they have only one minor bite incident, so perhaps that jurisdiction is overreacting, but maybe they know more than the article stated about the number and severity of incidents with this particular dog.
I don't think size should be the determinant.

dasher

Posted : 1/26/2007 9:30:35 AM

I agree with with spiritdogs. I think punishment should be relavent to the severity of the bite. Size/breed shouldn't matter. Dasher is a mere 15 lbs. but his jaws are a force to be reckoned with!![

] The few times he has nipped me during agility class it hurt like heck!! And he does serious damage to even the toghest toys so I know he packs some punch behind his bite. [

]

sillysally

Posted : 1/26/2007 9:56:37 AM

I would agree with Anne on this one. I have been biten badly by my mother's cat (who has jaws smaller than those of an mini dachshund) twice and BELIEVE me I noticed it. Both times I had horrible puncture wounds and the finger that was biten swelled up badly. One bite was so bad blood spurted all the way up my forearm.

snownose

Posted : 1/26/2007 10:01:26 AM

We all have heard the comment" Little ankle biters", it sounds more cute than dangerous.

jennie_c_d

Posted : 1/26/2007 10:03:00 AM

Cat bites are not even comparable to dog bites. Cats' teeth and jaw structure is very different, and they have scary bacteria in their mouths. Cat bites can end very badly, with lost limbs and such, much more easily than dog bites.

Teenie is a mini Dachshund. If she bit someone badly (badly being they required medical treatment beyond a quick cleanup and an all clear) it'd be fair if the law required that she be euthanized. I'd want to do it, myself, though. I'd want the neighbor's vicious Labs to face the same penalty, along with every other dog who bites someone badly. I think it's fair, if the bite is serious.

That sounds so horrible, LOL. Oh, well.

rwbeagles

Posted : 1/26/2007 10:07:24 AM

I dunno...what is dangerous anyhow? What's NOT dangerous to a full grown person...may be mortal to say (the following is hypothetical)...my son who's 2....my grandma who's 80....or my brother who has HIV and can die from infections resulting from even small bites...

In those people... bites or actions resulting in serious injuries to AVOID being bitten or being bitten again...costitute danger to them. Regardless of the size of the dog and it's supposed "damage causing capability" to a full grown healthy person.

Less than the bite itself (how)...what matters to me is.."who" was bitten..."why" they were bitten (own fault? stupidity? really not their fault at all?)...and "what" the history of the dog is and "what" the eventual sum total of injury's both mental and physical to the person are.

Chuffy

Posted : 1/26/2007 11:41:30 AM

I tried to look up more about the incident and can't find anything on bite severity. The implication is that it was a nip... such as herding breeds are notorious for for example.... but then all I can find is from the owners point of view and how ridiculous it is so of course it will be played down. Call me cynical, but if she's getting it into the media in a bid to help try to save the dog by showing everyone how daft it is, it's going to backfire if she admits the man was hamstrung! Plus, as rwbeagles said, what might not be dangerous for one person could easily be very dangerous for another.... tricky one to untangle.

rwbeagles

Posted : 1/26/2007 12:07:51 PM

Case by case is the only way to sort out a dog bite IMO, because like with anything else...there's two sides, and then the truth [

]...a good judge or arbitrator and evidence presented on both sides.

Margaret Tyler

Posted : 1/26/2007 12:15:23 PM

My father in law has recently been bit and took the incedent too far. I won't get into that. I posted it a couple months ago.

But, I do know that if the dog was up to date on his shots when he bit the guy, he wouldn't have to be PTS.

labcrab

Posted : 1/26/2007 1:34:49 PM

I'm with Gina on this one. It sort of has to be decided based on the unique circumstances for each dog/situation. IMO, only a dog that is fairly deemed "dangerous" should be a candidate for euthanasia. And sure, a small dog can be dangerous. Actually, better yet - we should be able to deem certain dog OWNERS as "dangerous" and they should be prevented (legally) from ever owning a dog again.

Chuffy

Posted : 1/26/2007 2:25:30 PM

ORIGINAL: labcrab

Actually, better yet - we should be able to deem certain dog OWNERS as "dangerous" and they should be prevented (legally) from ever owning a dog again.

Good call.

bunni

Posted : 1/26/2007 3:31:45 PM

Less than the bite itself (how)...what matters to me is.."who" was bitten..."why" they were bitten (own fault? stupidity? really not their fault at all?)...and "what" the history of the dog is and "what" the eventual sum total of injury's both mental and physical to the person are.

This is my feeling too.

The guy who delivers my gas said (while we were yelling at each other) that Dixie bit him. He had come into the puppy yard (accessible via doggie door), after I'd told him to leave, left the gate open and walked through the yard. He was wearing shorts and had no blood or other visible signs of a bite but even if he had I would not have been too concerned. I wanted to bite him myself and since we'd both been yelling at each other at the other end of the house I can see why my dogs would be protective.

On the other hand... I don't think the size has anything to do with appropriate action. Some dogs are biters. If a dog bites without provocation I'd be very worried regardless of size. If my three pound Jazzy had a mind to bite she

robably wouldn't get your jugular vein but she could destroy an achilles tendon.

Chuffy

Posted : 2/2/2007 7:31:08 AM

Isn't it weird how when you stop looking for stuff, you find it accidentally?

[linkhttp://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_headline=dachshund-from-hell-%26method=full%26objectid=18516519%26siteid=94762-name_page.html]http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_headline=dachshund-from-hell-%26method=full%26objectid=18516519%26siteid=94762-name_page.html[/link]

Anyway that was the story.....

chewbecca

Posted : 2/2/2007 7:43:21 AM

Odd, still, there aren't enough details about WHY it happened. And we aren't getting the guy's story.

Any dog bite can be dangerous and it kind of ticks me off that she's so focused on the fact that because of the size of her dog that her dog cannot be dangerous.
Her dog may not be dangerous, we don't really know, we haven't seen the bite.