The Kids Should Go To Jail... But, What About The Dog?

Four children between the ages of 11 and 15 used a pit bull to attack two women in SeaTac on Sunday evening after one of the victims questioned the group's treatment of the dog.

There's something seriously wrong with a bunch of kids that would command a dog to attack an innocent woman. These aren't "children", they are thugs! These fools, if convicted, should go to jail of some sort, and be forced to do counseling and community service. But, what of the dog? It is now being held by Animal Control. The dog was being abused, was taunted by the kids to the point it was ready to attack, and then it bit an innocent person. The dog is innocent, and unless the dog has been wrecked by abuse and is now vicious, it should be given to a good home. We'll see what the courts do with this dog.

Dog & Cat Bites

Dog and cat bites make up about 1 percent of emergency room visits in the United States.

Some facts presented in the journal:

* Women and the elderly are most at risk of being bitten by a cat.
* Men in general and those aged under 20 of both sexes are most likely to be injured.
* Most bite exposures occur in young children, involve unrestrained dogs on the owner's property, and about 20 percent involve a non-neutered dog.
* Risk is highest in young boys aged 5 to 9 years, due to their small size and lack of understanding of provocative behavior.

Severe infections can occur in about 20 percent of all cases, the researchers state, and are caused by Pasteurella, Streptococcus, Fusobacterium, and Capnocytophaga bacteria from the animal's mouth, plus possibly other pathogens from the human's skin.

In other words... don't do things that will cause an animal to bite you. or someone else Too often we blame the animal, when instead, we should look at what we are doing to the animal.

Three Dog Rule At Off Leash Parks?

Six months after the city passed a law limiting each person to three dogs at its nine off-leash dog parks, scores of dog walkers far exceed their legal mutt max.

How many dogs should you be allowed to take to an off leash park at any one time? I think this is an interesting question. I think this is a question that must balance freedom, reasonableness and legal liability. The freedom argument would say that you'd be able to do whatever you wanted to, wherever you wanted to. For the most part, I'm a live and let live kind of guy: be responsible and take care of your own business so it doesn't affect others, and leave me alone so I can do my life. Then again, I'm an experience dog trainer and behaviorist. I have worked as head trainer at a doggie daycare, and at a certain point, you get to the point where you need a reasonable dog handler-to-dogs ratio in order to ensure the safety of the dogs. In daycare for kids, you need a certain number of supervising adults per child. There isn't any similar kind of regulation for doggie daycares or kennels, but common sense tells you that at some point, one individual can't supervise an unlimited amount of dogs. I have seen a number of homes with 5 or more dogs, and the management of the dogs gets pretty difficult at that point. I can't imagine taking 32 dogs, from different homes, to an off leash park. Lastly, there is the issue of liability. The more dogs you have to supervise, the more potential that something could go wrong in an unregulated environment. I think that the 3 dog per handler rule is a good balance. I am of the opinion that these dog walkers are using the off leash parks as a kind of doggie daycare, where they get use of the premises for free, and are transfering most of the cost and risk to the public. It is therefore unreasonable and isn't what these parks were created for.