omg just caught this thread well done,defo hero of the day
an incident like this happened up the road to me a couple of months ago.
i walk to work every morning,through a heavily populated muslim area,my two dogs i take,yes are large(csv and sibe)they walk perfectly to heel and do not show interest in strangers,but every morn i get screaming running children(one women put her own child INFRONT of herself?????) now my csv is a pup and wants to join in with the children,but luckily hes a calm fellow and doesnt try for long,i explain to the parents that thats not what to do,they just smile and continue on till the next morning it starts again(on a nice note,there is about 3 children that make sure they get a cuddle before school,the parents tell me its coz of them thet they get to school on time.lol.)also,it is not actualy true about them being 'unclean' i have talked to many a dog owning client of different religons this very question,most have said to me,its because in their home countries dogs are treated differently(in most cases) and are either guards or semi feral,as in pretty much left to their own devices.
at work my dogs have cured many a phobic childs fears,but it only extends to these two dogs and sadly in my area the main dog you will see in the highstreet we walk down are off lead,sbt's their crosses and the odd pit.
what do you do
poor dog,poor child.so sad.

HI,

I really hope the little girl and the rest of her family (a it must have been horrific for them to see) are all OK in time.

I can't see them getting very far if they tried to sue as they can't prove who the owner of the dog is/was or unles someone dmits to it. Even the drunk whose house the dog was in may deny having repsonsibility for the dog if it wasn't his.
Althogh I can understand they want some recompense for their little girl. I would if it were Oscar but I'd get more satisfaction out of giving the owner a beating!

Steph - I hope you and Pat are OK. And Bradley too. He's only young and nobody, particularly children shouldnt' have to witness things like that.

The KC do a scheme type thing where school children can learn what to do/not do if htey're approached by a dog (although a full blown attack like this would be different). At Oscar's school I'll be going there at differnet times with my dogs and there are teachers' notes provided too. It's a shame all schools don't follow this as standard. It would only take a couple of hours per academic year to teach and reinforce and many more children would be more confident and safer around dogs, knowing what to do in certain situations.

Laura xx

I am not sure how far etc they are taking it....papers maybe!!! they ran over after the attack and took photo's of the dog, I foster as you know, and we have had Muslim training (just incase we took a Muslim) but they wouldn't come to us as we have dogs, in some cases they say this and say that if the dog comes near them/touch they have to wash in a special way afterwards...whether that is how next doors see them I don't know
Very sad indeed, I feel sorry for all (except the idiot who owned it) concerned.
Thank you, a owners test would be good, but would it cover those that buy from ''indesirable places'' and don't let on they have the dog....
This is the second attack I have witnessed/unlatched, the first being a Rotti in kennels, which managed to bite me too, this time I tried to remember what mistakes I made 1st time and not repeat them again, although a much different breed to the Rotti. Still say though this dog was in the wrong hands, as for the Rotti, that was brought in as a stray, so who knows what life that had beforehand
It is sad, because once the dogs adrenalin had subsided he became almost managable, apart from the tugging on the lead when he got interested in my neighbours dog the other side of the gate. However the bad news apart from killing thier friends dog, we now believe it has killed 3 cats too, which isn't helping the mood of our neighbours, who seem to be crying ''revenge''

They know the owner, he has admitted to it being his, plus admitted to it being a illegal American Pitbull, he's already made his statement to the police and said he got it due to ''macho'' status. The drunk is the father of the guy who's dog it is, the owner being 20yrs and out at the time of attack.The mother has been round with a get well card, but was ordered off by the family of the child.........the tension is building between them, so hopefully it won't spill into something nasty

this is all so scary,i worry that 'all' dogs will become enemy no1 and will lead to the dogs ,well trained and socialised with responsible owners paying the price (after all ,the law of one of my dogs breeds has only just been changed by defra)

I think you and yours did an amazing thing, well done!!!
I hope the little girl recovers it must have been terrifying for everyone.

Poor dog, at least he's free now. I hope to God that the guy doesn't go out and get a new puppy and I really hope the family don't go to the papers.

UPDATE...........We have not had any of the childs family speak to us today, we have been totally ignored.........why because my other neighbour (who kindly let me put the dog in his porch) tells me that .....they are annoyed as you wouldn't let them beat it's head in till dead, whilst you held it, and you took it away into my porch they are saying you thought more of the dogs feelings....well thats that then

That is unbelievable! So they are completely ungrateful to you and your family, because you got the dog away from their child. It may just be shock talking, and that they don't mean it.

At least everyone on Dogsey thinks you are a hero YS!

Unbelievable, do they not realise that they might not have got a daughter today if it wasn't for the three of you.

Don't let it upset you x

omg what an awful experiance you have just went through. i really hope that the child is ok and that your ok too. the child is so lucky that you were there as a lot of people wouldnt have done what you did. i just want to say 'well done you' and that your right its the child and the dog who suffer again because of numpties who want to own this breed. will people not learn