Nothing causes me to step up on my soapbox faster than reading about dog attacks. Media sources in the Cayman Islands report, “Dog attacks on the rise.” It makes you wonder if dogs are suddenly becoming more violent. That doesn’t make sense, so the only thing left is pet owners are becoming dumber.
A few days ago someone videotaped a dog attacking a mail carrier in Detroit. I love that the only assistance people offer is to videotape incidents. Actually, I think that after getting sufficient video tape, the person actually did step in. But, I am not ranting about the videotape. This is all about the owner.
After being told about the incident, the dog’s owner, asking to not be identified, said, “He’s a big clown, he’s friendly. He’s not vicious.” He made it sound like it was the mail carrier’s fault for delivering mail to his house; after all, it is “a dog’s job to defend its home.”
Detroit’s animal control department took possession of the dog and according to the dog’s owner, they plan to “kill the dog.” The dog does what dogs do. The mail carrier does what carriers do. The fault of this incident falls on the dog’s owner for not confining his dog.
The problem with society is that not enough dog owners are sued for the actions of their dogs. The dog is killed, problem solved. People like this dog owner should suffer sufficient financial loss to be convinced that he should never own another dog. He is not smart enough to see the role that he played in putting the mail carrier at risk. Usually when something like this plays out, we walk away shaking our heads thinking, “Thank God that it wasn’t a child.”