As I’m sitting here typing, my dog Lydia is lying next to me sleeping peacefully here on the couch. She’s perfectly fine now, and hopefully having some pleasant dreams as her feet twitch every few seconds. A few weeks ago though, we were nursing some aches and pains from a dog attack.
We went out for a walk, on the route we’ve walked for years. She was on a leash, walking quietly, minding her own business, when all of a sudden a dog lunged on top of her. Neither of us saw it coming. There was no warning whatsoever – no growling, no barking – absolutely no warning at all! As it attacked, there was just a flurry of dog, and a lot of yelping and growling mostly by Lydia. It was nearly impossible to know what to do and left me feeling so absolutely useless. There was no way I was going to reach down and try to pull them apart so I just yelled for help and tried to pull Lydia back. It was useless though because the dog had a pretty good hold on her. Eventually someone came and pulled the dog off of Lydia and I was able to check her neck to see if she was bleeding. There wasn’t, thankfully.
The dog owner, who saw the attack, is an idiot. He didn’t check to see if my dogs or I were ok. Nor did he apologize. And, after taking Lydia to the vet, the guy wasn’t interested in paying the bill. After talking to a couple of the neighbors though, none of this is surprising. The guy has had a few complaints to animal control because of the dog getting out and doing the same thing. Animal control won’t do anything though since there was no permanent damage to either one of us.
The way the current vicious dog ordinance in Austin is written, this type of dog is not considered vicious, and therefore all animal control can do is to give the owner a little ‘dog owner responsibility’ speech. In other words – nothing. There’s a new vicious dog ordinance being worked on though, which I’ve posted about before. Many people, including me, are unhappy with some of the language in it because it makes the ordinance too vague. Once the ordinance is finished though, hopefully animal control will be able to take some type of action when something like this happens.
The good thing is that Lydia is feeling a lot better now. She was limping for a few days, and had some scratches and small puncture wounds on her neck, but she’s going to be OK.
Technorati Tags: dogs, vicious dogs, dog attack
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
My toy poodle was attacked by our pitbull. It just happened 2 days ago and my toy poodle’s lower jaw was almost ripped off. I ran to the vet fearing that he can’t make it. When they saw his injuries they told me not to worry and they will operate on him as soon as possible. Today, i just visited my toy poddle and he’s doing great but his jaw is no longer the same and the vet said that he may not close his mouth like before. I still cry everytime I’m reminded of the attack. Can someone help me or send on what I need to do to help my toy poodle’s recovery be quick. I’m just thankful that he’s alive. God is so good. Please send me an email about jaw therapy. Thank u in advance.
my email: verns.boncan@gmail.com
My 11 month old Rottweiler was attacked by a Pit Bull yesterday at a dog park. I hadn’t even gotten the leash off my dog, when the Pit came up and started antagonizing my pup. I decided to pull my Rottweiler away from the situation. As we were walking away the Pit stalked and followed continuing to start a fight. The pit had no collar on, I saw the owner walking behind me w the collar and leash in his hand. I asked him to get his dog away from mine as we kept walking further towards the other side of the park, the man let his dog follow. Finally his dog lunged at mine, grabbing him by the neck. I still had my dog on his leash which was wrapped around my hand. With the Pit lunging over my thigh to get to my dog I was right between the two dogs. My dog, having enough puppy loose skin on his neck was able to turn and latch on to the Pits face to defend himself. The Pit owner just sat there while I was right between them. Trying to save my dog a woman grabbed a stick and started beating the pit and another man ran over w a bucket of water and dumped it over me and the two dogs. They both released. The pit owner said nothing, just leashed his dog and walked out of the dog park. No, is you dog okay? Are you hurt? Nothing. Everyone rushed to see if I was hurt or if my dog was injured or bleeding. This is the second time my dog has been attacked by a pit bull at a dog park. My dog has been socialized properly and is very dog friendly. The first time he was attacked he didn’t even know how to defend himself. Was shocked really? I fear now that he will be aggressive having to have been defensively aggressive twice now. He is a 100lbs already. Both his parents were Ranch hand dogs and were very social and friendly. I just feel I can now not bring my dog to dog parks, not cuz he is on the offense but that I have no idea who and what type of dogs are there. How do I continue to socialize my dog but protect him from becoming an aggressive, unfriendly, pup?
My dog had a similar situation though he was “killed” by a pit bull according to my neighbors but his body hasn’t need found (happened yesterday) please help email me at looney108@gmail.com
My pit was just attacked by a psychotic Boston terrier and might be blind because of the incident….just because there was a pit involved in your incidence don’t give the entire breed a bad name…people like you are who are responsible for deaths of innocent dogs with bad reputations because of horrible owners!!
Dito! My pit bull was attached by a psychotic Yorkie today. No injuries, and I hope your dog is better. My dog was ready to defend herself, but I jumped in an ended the other dog’s rage in a hurry. Completely unprovoked. We were just walking down the sidewalk when a woman was chasing her off-leash yorkie through her yard (of course it was out of control and untrained). My dog and I just stopped to wait for her to catch it, and the yorkie came at my dog with no other intention than to attack my dog. No sniffing, no nothing…just full speed attack. My dog could have killed that dog, but she didn’t. She just let me handle it, and the yorkie gave up. My dog and I both got bit a couple times. But, the yorkie went unscathed. The woman apologized at least and made sure we were ok.
me and my wife was walking are small dog just playing with ball when a man with two staffes was there with a ball the man stapet on is dogs ball so his dog got my dogs ball when my dog went to pick it up the staff went started biteing at my dog the man just stod drinking is tin of boos i said thats it now with that the man said something to is dog and it stoped some time after the staffe came runing back across the walk and started again on my dog .july 7 2013
my dog sadie,(doxan-terrier mix) loves to lay on the patio pulling weeds while I plant flowers, on this paticular day this is what we were doing, she wasnt a foot away from me, out of nowhere this huge muscular dog appeared, towering over sadie (she is my service dog,7yrs. old) I told sadie no in my native tounge ” Ojibiwe” she laid still when i reached out topick her up this other dog bit down on my wrist, she suddenly let go and my little girls head totally disappeared. i started screaming my neighbor ran over to help, he was able to get sadie away I grabbed her got her in home as fast as i could, neighbor continued trying to get this mean dog off of him,lasted about 15mins. we got back in the house to check on my dog, her left eye was hanging out of her head along with part of her brain, irushed her to vet hosp.she underwent a 5 hour surgery,but she pulled through… this turne out to be the 3rd vicious attack this dog has done, even when i came home from the vet hosp. towait for dr.s cal this dog was still here and tried to attack me again. 2 police reports were made, we have been to court once the owner was fined $300.00 for court costs we go back on the 24th for sentencing and hopefully the money i spent. being disabled I have gotten behind in my bills as of what i spent to save my baby girl. The problem now is she wont go out to potty unless i carry pepper spray and my cane of course, but the past week i have to keep her locked up in a cage in our home as she keeps trying to hurt KK our cat, they always plyad and slept together before this happen to her…KK is terrified of her now and i have tried everthing i can think of to get her to stop, shes not that way towards any other animals she has even tried attacking me!!! I dont know what to do, am i going to have to put her down? this wi break my heart she has been wity me since 7 weeks old her 7th birthday is coming up!!! any suggestions from anyone? PLEASE HELP US…PLEASE???
thressa do the right thing for your beloved dog. she must be unhappy so many times people are thinking of themselves. i think your vet was wrong to do the op to her knowing your situation. sadie will never bethe same and it will be hard for you to be reminded of how she was and what she is like now. put her to sleep and she will be at peace and thank you for being such a wonderful caring owner.
fay reckless september 29 2013 I just finished reading your comment about my Sadie, the owner of the horrible dog that attacked my baby girl and myself have been to court now 4 times and this woman is unbelievable, she told lies everytime we went to court and when ever I would try to say anything the Judge would look at something he had in front of him and then look at me and put up his hand and wave at me in such a way that he KNEW she was lying and also tell me that I need’nt say a word. on our last day of court, (Trial) her husband came, SURPRISE I finally got to speak, but needless to say they got outrages fines have to pay Sadies vet bills. as far as your comment, YOU ARE WRONG!!! Sadie is doing great, its taken some time and lots of LOVE but she is back out there in her yard doing her buisness starting to pull weeds again and the hardest part was keeping her from chasing off the stray cats we have in the nieghborhood, they always played together before and just the past few weeks they are playing again as far as the cage its sitting in the backyard as her and Katie our cat are best of friends again…LOVE CAN CONQURE FEARS even in animals…. my kids have paws, and im HAPPY TO SAY YOU WERE WRONG!!! Thanx for your comment though:)
My 27 lb mutt doodle was attacked by a great dane than almost ripped her in to across her stomach and bit one of her back legs. It was two weeks ago and she has had two surgeries on her wound and still does not walk on her back leg. The We were simply walking down our street on a leash as we have done hundreds of times and this beast attacked. My dog had a foot long gash across her belly. I thought she would bleed out in my arms. I feel like I am a victim of someone HUGE mistake with this great dane. The owner was suppose to be moving in across the street with this monster. When the dog saw us, it was on a leash, broke free and went straight for Catherine. For a week I heard her screams and saw this dog running for us. The dog owner is paying for vet bills and has to have shoulder surgery and I feel sorry for her, but her HUGE mistake in having a dog she could not handle has totally ruined my life at present. My sweet pet never hurt anyone or anything. It’s pathetic that people will subject others to this kind of cruelty because they are so totally stupid and cannot control their own pet. I am angry, I want my beloved pet to be as she was. I hope she survives and will walk again. I would really like to find some peace with this event somehow. The owner is paying for my vet bills and put her great dane down, but the damage has been done.
My 1 year old Pit/Lab/Cattle mix was attached in our front year by our neighbors pit and bull mastiff. this isnt the first time the two dogs attacked another dog or human. the cops were called to the scene because m dog lost so much blood. by dog is getting better after his ear had to be put back on and he has a drain coming out of his stomach. he lost a lot of blood and will be in a cone of shame for 3 weeks. the vet said his ear most likely will not make it and need to be taken off. the two dogs are back living without a fence. the neighborhood needs to take legal action to get these dogs removed because so many childern and dogs live on the the street and thisi ste 3rd time this happened. it took 4 men to get the one pit of my dogs ear. if anyone knows any legal acton we could take so this stops i would love to know.
My 1 1/2 yr. old rat terrier, Mimi was attacked by a larger dog as I walked her on a leash down our street as usual. The dog was out of his fence and despite my best, desperate efforts trying to get him off of Mimi he shook her to pieces. Finally the people keeping the dog came out and the guy beat him with a cane to make the dog let go of Mimi. I rushed her to the vet and they rushed her to critical care for surgery. She died early in the morning the next day. As it turns out the attacking dog was given up by his owners to a rescue because of a past aggression incident and the women in charge of the rescue placed him temporarily with her elderly in-laws. No one even called to see how she was and animal control said they just said they weren’t the owners. We are heartbroken. Animal control said they were looking into giving the attacking do a “vicious dog” label. Great. We presented bills to the people at the house where the dog lived, but were just told that dog did not belong to them. Animal Control said we can take them to civil court. Meanwhile I get to relive this horrible attack and mourn the death of our little Mimi until this is over. Where is the justice in that?