The police showed no concern
Monday 20th October 2008, 2:59PM BST.
From Carol Porter.
I FEEL compelled to write to you with regard to an incident that happened to my daughter while coming home from school today.
She was walking with her school friend when a dog approached them on an extendable lead. The owner did not give my daughter any warning not to touch the dog, and, as the dog seemed friendly, my daughter stroked it and it bit her badly. The owner of the dog left my daughter distraught with no apology.
I took my daughter immediately to the doctor, who prescribed her antibiotics, as the skin was broken.
I complained to the police, who did not want to know about the incident, saying that if I didn’t know who the owner of the dog was there was nothing they could do.
I did not want any harm to come to the dog. I simply wanted the owner to be given a warning to keep the dog on a tight leash or to be muzzled when out walking. My concern is that this might happen to another child and the consequences could be more serious.
I am a dog lover and own a dog. I was appalled that the police showed no concern at all.
6 Clos de la Ville,
Clarke Avenue,
St Helier.
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A similar thing happened to me a while back but on the beach. I was walking my dog on her lead when a bull terrier (Not on a lead) flew towards us and started attacking my dog. She was petrified and hid between my legs so I had to try and push the dog away using my feet as best I could and screaming for the owner. During which time the dog tried several times to grab me as well – thankfully I was lucky. The dogs owner, who was a significant distance down the beach casually strolled up to fetch his dog. Again, police were not interested as I could not identify the owner !
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I’m a dog-owner and a parent.
Obviously dog-owners have to be careful, but so do parents.
Most people, dog-owners generally, have no idea about dog-psychology on even a basic level (as offered on many dog programmes on TV recently).
A dog sees hands of people like the mouth of another dog. Dog to dog they always have a bit of a sniff/nip as part of the “who’s the boss”, but even the most timid dog (and usually them!) will react when it feels frightened and when it’s on a lead it has no flight option so may well bite.
Dog-owners should have to pass a test to prove themselves as responsible owners, like motorcyclists have to undergo compulsory basic training.
And parents need to take responsibility too – dogs=danger. So don’t let your children near them unless you’ve agreed with the owner and are prepared to accept the risk. I wouldn’t and when she’s near our dog I am very careful even though “he’s a big softy”.
Finally, anyone who suggests banning dogs needs banning themselves. They’ve as much right to this world as us, perhaps moreso since they’re not busy polluting it much worse than we do (even their tiny poos if left would have zero impact by comparison to humans!).
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Pherhaps the owners need to learn to look after their children in a resosable way.
In my veiw dogs have more rights than children have.
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Yes parents have a responsibility to their kids but unknown dogs should not be allowed to approach their child in the first place! It is the OWNER’S responsibility to keep its dog away from strangers NOT the parents. The parents presumably chose to not have a dog so they shouldn’t have to deal with other people’s dogs.
In my experience dog owners think they are above the law and they also care more about their dogs than their fellow human beings. The number of dogs that are off their leads at the resevoir is atrocious, but you get verbally abused if you ask the owner to put the dog on its lead (as the signs clearly state it MUST be!)
I avoid dogs as much as possible as I am allergic to them and become very ill if I have contact with them. Why should I have to stay indoors just to be away from dogs? I shouldn’t, the dogs should be on short-ish leads and should be trained to stay completely away from strangers. Also, the beaches are large so the dogs should be kept to the less populated areas.
Also, unless you can speak ‘woof’ you do NOT understand your dog and you can say your dog is ‘friendly’ as much as you want but it has the potential to attack someone (usually kids) and you don’t know what will make it do that.
Dog owners, please be more responsible and considerate and remember that your dog CAN attack people and that there are people out there that are allergic to your dog! These people pay their taxes and have more rights to walk about public places than your dog.
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Dogs should be on short leads when on the streets, narrow paths, at the resevoir etc. If you don’t have a garden (and all responsible dog owners should) then they can run around on the less populated parts of the beach or parks, but they should be muzzled at these times. Dogs should never be out of their owner’s sight in public when not on a lead, not for even one second. Your dog is YOUR responsibility, NOT the rest of societys! Also, all dog owners should be required to be licenced, the dogs tagged (so police can easily track the owners) and obliged to take lessons in training and handling their dog.
If all dog owners followed these simply rules the no-one would get hurt, kids and adults would be safe and dogs would still get to run around freely. It’s not rocket science, it’s just common sense.
Actually dog owners should petition the States to have fenced off areas in all parks that dogs can be let off their leads in. Then they can be on short leads at all other times.
Bridget, dogs do NOT have more rights than humans. No wonder so many people hate dog owners when they say this kind of thing. Dogs have a right to live, to be treated well by their OWNERS and to not be harmed by the rest of the human race. That is as far as it goes frankly. I do not run at and jump on you or your dog therefore your dog has absolutely NO right to do this to me. Unfortunately this issue is due to bad owners rather than bad dogs.
You wouldn’t let your child out of your sight for one second for fear of it being injured or killed, yet dog owners regularly let their dogs out of their sight while they stop to chat to people or to rest. Does it cross their mind that while they are doing this their dog could be killing or maiming someone else’s child? No, it doesn’t, because their dog is ‘friendly’ and a ‘big softie’. Well so were almost ALL the dogs that have gone on to attack and kill people (mostly children).
Think about that next time your dog runs off and jumps on a kid… and don’t bother shouting ‘oh, she’s friendly’ because if it’s my kid the dog runs at I won’t be stopping to find out whether it’s friendly or not, I will assume it’s not and protect my child above all else!
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Slight change of subject. The police also do not seem to concerned with people, including babies, getting hurt by cars on the island.
My wife and I have recently had a baby. We walk to town often on the pavement of Val Placant towards David Place. The pavement on this road is very narrow and often cars have hit me on the shoulder with their wing mirrors, and once I saw a car hit another persons pram – fortunately the baby was not hurt. I have had a sore arm for a day or two, but thankfully no major harm (yet)!
I have reported this to the police on a number of occasions but they are not interested, saying that the pedestrian must take more care.
Will they only care once someone has been seriously hurt.
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I have been in 2 situations with the police (car was broken into & car accident) the police and the woman who answered my call were very rude to me. Their attitude makes me feel like I don’t want to call them when something happens. They seem to be too power happy and especially when you’re in a vunerable position – you need sympathy – but instead they were rude & joking at my expense. I do not find them a great deal of help and it makes me angry just thinking about the Jersy Police.
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I would love to know how many cases of dogs attacking anyone there actually are I think that parents should be far more concerned with letting their kids wander the streets alone – because of the danger to them from some of the weirdos that wander around and because of what the kid does to a member of the public! My peraonal opinion is if you want to keep naughty dogs on a leash then those kids who behave disgustingly shoukd also be kept on a leash with a mussel perhaps it would stop them screaming and swearing at each other in the middle of the street!
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It seems, if the contemporary press is to be believed, that the modern police “service” is all too ready to divest itself of responsibility.
If you believe that action should be taken, contact the police [in writing preferably] and request details of the complaints and/or escalation procedure. A senior officer should be assigned to deal with the matter. Failing that, a letter to the Attorney General might provoke a proper response. Keep a note of time, date, place and any description or other details.
For all you know, what you were told might have represented the opinion of the particular officer concerned and may not constitute proper police procedure.
Ask yourself this question; what do you think the response would have been if one of the Bailiff’s children had been bitten?!
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Ab, I agree about kids, except for the leash and muzzling them! These things aren’t necessary if they are raised properly. The main problem is bad (in some cases absent) parenting!
But at least you can talk the same ‘language’ as the kids so the States could fine and punish the kids, or the parents if the parents were neglectful. Dogs you can’t talk to so you can’t know what they might do and when, and you can’t fine them, only their owners.
The States could take a hard line with nuisance kids and bad parents and they should take a hard line, but they don’t.
As for public shouting and bad language, I can assure you that the problem here is mostly drunk ADULTS! Again, they should be automatically fined for breach of the peace and I should be allowed to get some blinkin sleep for a change!
And the problem with dogs is not only attacks… problems due to allergies are far more frequent. I cannot physically stop a stranger’s dog running and jumping on me and I shouldn’t have to either! It makes me ill and the owner needs to be more considerate.
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Children should be taught at a young age not to touch a dog without asking the owner first. its common sense for a start. You can’t blame the dog and the owner all the time, although at this point yes the owner should have had the dog on a short lease and muzzled if its inclined to bite
but complaining about the dog biting would mean it would have to be put down whether you wanted that or not.
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if a dog badly bit my daughter, i would have absolutley no hesitation in attempting to kill it on the spot. if you don’t understand that defensive reflex as regard protecting your family from an attacking animal then bad luck. By the way animal lovers … i’m a vegetarian.
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Surely the whole point of this story is that regardless of whether or not the child should have approached the dog, the owner left a child upset without seeming to have any concern for her.
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I have two small dogs and they go out on a lead when they are out. If a bull terrior came up barking and yapping at either myself or my dogs I would not hesitate in pinning the dog to the floor with force. This is not cruel to the animal but is a show of strength so that it knows who is the boss.
With that in mind, would it be acceptable for me to do the same thing to someone’s child as they often approach uninvited and feel the need to manhandle, pick up and rough up my dogs due to their size.
I am all for not allowing dogs to attack children but please bare in mind that a lot of the time the children approach the dogs. I know my dogs don’t like the treatment many children give them and it is only down to the fact that I am not scared to make my feelings known to the parents that it stops. Keep children on a lead when in public as well (preferably until they have a full time job) and the island as a whole will be a much better place.
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There are some very sad comments on this story-is Jersey now full of people who seem to detest children and want them on leads and muzzled-how bizarre.There are SOME obnoxious children about I agree but look at the parents and you’ll usually see why.There are also some nasty dogs about-look at the owners and you’ll see why.Children should not approach dogs but I agree that the owner in this case should have apologised at the very least.Even if they thought the child was in the wrong-which is questionable-it would have been the decent,caring thing to do.
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Yes dog owners think they own the planet, recently a dog aproached me snarling whilst I was on holiday in England, it looked like it was going to bite me so i wasted no time and hit it. The owner called me names and seemed to think I should have waited untill it bit me before i het it. I disagree if I think if you feel threatened by a dog you should be pro active. Owners of dogs have a duty to protect the people, if they own a dog that bies thats it no morwe dogs ever. Its too late when someone is badly injured, oh and can I have a pet aligator, or a big cat like a puma. Yes thats my point.
With love for my fellow man.
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further to my previous comment …
Firstly I would like to extend my heartfelt and sincere sympathy to Carol Porter, her daughter and family after what is basically a vicious assuault upon them. I hope that your daughter and family recover soon. Perhaps alot of these comments, much like the Police (who generally do a great job) have failed to see that there are victims in this case.
It seems to me that there is a fundamental misunderstanding on the behalf of dog owners aboout the level of rights we should apportion to dogs (or indeed any animal). A dog is a dog, a human is a human. Fundamentally human rights come first. I am sick and tired of hearing about how we should accomodate dogs who run off out of control barking and jumping up at me, my wife and four year old daughter (who is incidentally the BIGGEST dog fan on the island). Sorry folks, but when I’m out and about, I don’t want to have to think about how I should stand still, not show fear, be authorative and all the other rubbish spouted by dog owners when dealing with what is basically a badly controlled menace.
It has been a fairly constant theme over the last four years of taking my daughter to the beach or park, that we have to adopt a ‘dogwatch’. Invariably a dog will come up to us barking and leaping about (great stuff … except my little girl is just that … little) my wife picks up our daughter … and I have to shoo the dog away, much to the annoyance of the hopelessly inept owner. On more than one occaision dogs have FOR NO REASON become aggresive and the situation has rapidly escalated to cause me real concern for the welfare of my family. I don’t say this lightly … I can be very frightening.
I love dogs, one day soon we will get one as a family pet … we’re just not ready yet. But you owners have really got to get back into the real world about where you live and the reality sorrounding you. You cannot expect any sympathy for a dog that is clearly out of control, or for the times you can’t be bothered to clean up after it … I dread the inevitable day my little girl falls head first into a fresh pile of dog excrement (incidentally selfish dog owners how would you feel if I relieved myself outside your front door … if you’re okay with this, it can be arranged).
I re-iterate my original point that I would have no hesitation in killing any dog that attacked me or my family.And if Michael (in his comment) felt it necessary to somehow manhandle myself or anyone if my family … and god help you if that was my daughter … over an altercation as regards a dog, I would have no problem in turning that strident defensive power against you. The idea that you could even joke about assaulting another human being over the rights of a dog shows how funamentally removed from reality you (and other irresponsible dog owners) are.
I’m sick of having to watch out for dog poo on the street and in kiddies playparks.
I’m sick of having to be careful around dogs.
I dread the inevitable day that I will have to resort to defensive violence as protection for my family over this issue.
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Bruce,
extremely well said! I second everything you’ve written.
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In fairness to the Police, if they have very little information to work with what can they do about it? As long as the child is okay then there is nothing much more anybody can do.
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I too was bitten by a dog without provoke. Although it happened quite a few years ago.
I was walking down the street back to work one afternoon having bought a jep. I was reading it as I was walking and just a few yards from my workplace when the lady next door came walking up the road towards me with her golden labrador. As we passed the dog lunged at me without provocation or reason and nipped me on the arm. I voiced my displeasure and the owner blamed me for provoking the dog!!
It caused me the inconvenience of having to go the the hospital for a tetanus shot.
I now give all dogs a wide berth.
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