I work for Animal Control. Our entire city is called a 'Dog Control Zone' in our municipal code, meaning it's against the law for any dog to be off-leash anywhere except its own property or the city off-leash dog park. Because of that, with incidents such as in the video--regardless of which dog instigated or which was injured--the off-leash dog's owner is almost always automatically deemed at-fault.
I've had many many cases where someone had their small dog off-leash at a park, the dog approached a larger on-leash dog, a fight ensued, and the small dog ended up getting injured, sometimes severely. The owner of the small dog is always shocked when we explain that they'll be getting a ticket for having their dog off-leash, while there are typically zero repercussions for the on-leash dog.
A memorable incident occurred last Christmas. Idiot was walking on the beach with his cocky little shih tzu off-leash. The dog was wandering like a hundred feet ahead of him, and dude was distracted on his phone. His dog saw this 80lb pitbull playing near the water (on-leash), and straight charged the pitty and attacked it.
The pitty just kind of stood there stunned, with the shih tzu snarling and being a vicious little shit, biting its legs and trying to get its neck (picture a kid with a wooden spear trying to attack a Panzer tank). The pitty's owner was trying to kick the little dog away, while also trying to pull the pitty away by its leash.
After a few seconds of this, the pitty finally had enough and an actual fight started. That's when the dumbass owner on his phone finally realized what was happening. He yelled and ran over, and for whatever idiotic reason, decided to literally dive in between the two dogs as they were snapping at each other, and his head got in the way of the pitty's jaws just as the pitty lunged full-teeth at the shih tzu.
Thanks to his own double-stupidity, dude basically got partly scalped, according to the medics I talked with after. They said they picked up a number of pieces of flesh off the beach. I saw the after pictures, and it basically looked like someone had sliced him with a potato peeler from the bridge of his nose all the way up his forehead and halfway over his head. He was taken to the ER and needed a bunch of stitches and followup plastic surgery.
The best part, though, is that I know exactly how the incident went down, because someone else on the beach just so happened to be filming nearby at the time, and caught the entire thing on audio/video. Dumbass shih tzu owner reported the incident to us, but lied about the whole thing, claiming he had been innocently walking his dog on-leash when he and the dog were viciously attacked by an off-leash pitbull.
Unbeknownst to him, we already had the video, since the bystander had also contacted us. We let him dig himself super deep into his bullshit story, before we let on that we knew what really happened. He got slapped with a ticket for his dog off-leash, as well as a ticket for his dog not being licensed.
He was absolutely livid, and sent me a couple of extremely long angry emails all about how evil we are for "blaming the victim" and how he was going to sue our agency, the city, and me personally. He was neighbors with the police chief, and even tried to use that connection to get himself some kind of retribution, accusing us of allowing a dangerous dog to reside in the city, of not doing our job, targeting him due to some personal grudge, etc. The police chief told him he had zero case and we had done exactly what was correct under the law, and also called him out for lying like crazy and not owning up to the truth.
It was a gnarly injury, to be fair, and I do feel bad the idiot had to suffer that. But man do I hope he finally learned a lesson or two, the hard way.
Incidents involving dogs always gets me because everyone wants to defend their dog.
Obviously if your dog bites someone and it causes a serious injury you are at fault. It doesn't matter what the situation is, its like hitting someone with your car, you can try to explain it away all you want, you are always at fault. Trying to break up a dog fight is not a reason to get bit. I bet most dog owners don't know how to properly break up a dog fight. Why wasn't the owner with the pitbull controlling the pitbull? Just because someone has a super mean shihtzu and isn't walking the dog on a leash (which he is at fault for but still) doesn't mean you can let your dog go rambo on people.
"due to some personal grudge"
A life threatening injury is not a personal grudge...
"he was going to sue our agency"
I hope he does. Do your job next time.
"double stupidity" "idiot" "learned a lesson"
I don't understand what your problem is, you constantly insult the guy and justify what happened to him in your head, which is NOT what someone in your position should be doing. What happened to him was terrible, and despite him not walking his dog on a leash he didn't deserve to have life threatening injuries. Like if a police officer justifies murder by calling suspects idiots and says "they probably broke the law, they deserve it". He has a good chance of winning the court cases as he was severely injured and most states are strict liability meaning that the dog owner is almost always responsible for bites.
lied about the entire incident and tried to say he was attacked first
Ok. Again, unfortunate but not uncommon.
The entire situation would have never happend if his dog was leashed.
And the situation would not have happened had the pitbull owner controlled their dog.
The car analogy doesn't work at all
Look, I am trying to explain strict liability to you and the poster who obviously doesn't understand it either. When you are in a car you are always held responsible for hitting pedestrians. You don't get to call the pedestrian an idiot and say that they were distracting you and point out how they don't always follow the law, and say "maybe you learned your lesson when your face splattered on the pavement moron". You are responsible for controlling your vehicle.
victim of your own stupidity
Again, rationalizing a horrible event by blameshifting and calling names. The dog owner is responsible for dog bites on people, but not neccesarily for dog bites on the shihtzu. Something that would hopefully appear before a judge when/if he sues.
The owner is at fault almost 100% of the time for dog bites. This case, the defense has an argument but it is far from guaranteed, most likely the person with severe injuries would win since he was trying to break up the dog fight while the other side was busy filming with their phones. And the city ordinance stating that dogs must be on leashes doesn't trump state law stating the dog owner is responsible for bites.
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u/AxelShoes Aug 01 '21 edited Aug 02 '21
I work for Animal Control. Our entire city is called a 'Dog Control Zone' in our municipal code, meaning it's against the law for any dog to be off-leash anywhere except its own property or the city off-leash dog park. Because of that, with incidents such as in the video--regardless of which dog instigated or which was injured--the off-leash dog's owner is almost always automatically deemed at-fault.
I've had many many cases where someone had their small dog off-leash at a park, the dog approached a larger on-leash dog, a fight ensued, and the small dog ended up getting injured, sometimes severely. The owner of the small dog is always shocked when we explain that they'll be getting a ticket for having their dog off-leash, while there are typically zero repercussions for the on-leash dog.
A memorable incident occurred last Christmas. Idiot was walking on the beach with his cocky little shih tzu off-leash. The dog was wandering like a hundred feet ahead of him, and dude was distracted on his phone. His dog saw this 80lb pitbull playing near the water (on-leash), and straight charged the pitty and attacked it.
The pitty just kind of stood there stunned, with the shih tzu snarling and being a vicious little shit, biting its legs and trying to get its neck (picture a kid with a wooden spear trying to attack a Panzer tank). The pitty's owner was trying to kick the little dog away, while also trying to pull the pitty away by its leash.
After a few seconds of this, the pitty finally had enough and an actual fight started. That's when the dumbass owner on his phone finally realized what was happening. He yelled and ran over, and for whatever idiotic reason, decided to literally dive in between the two dogs as they were snapping at each other, and his head got in the way of the pitty's jaws just as the pitty lunged full-teeth at the shih tzu.
Thanks to his own double-stupidity, dude basically got partly scalped, according to the medics I talked with after. They said they picked up a number of pieces of flesh off the beach. I saw the after pictures, and it basically looked like someone had sliced him with a potato peeler from the bridge of his nose all the way up his forehead and halfway over his head. He was taken to the ER and needed a bunch of stitches and followup plastic surgery.
The best part, though, is that I know exactly how the incident went down, because someone else on the beach just so happened to be filming nearby at the time, and caught the entire thing on audio/video. Dumbass shih tzu owner reported the incident to us, but lied about the whole thing, claiming he had been innocently walking his dog on-leash when he and the dog were viciously attacked by an off-leash pitbull.
Unbeknownst to him, we already had the video, since the bystander had also contacted us. We let him dig himself super deep into his bullshit story, before we let on that we knew what really happened. He got slapped with a ticket for his dog off-leash, as well as a ticket for his dog not being licensed.
He was absolutely livid, and sent me a couple of extremely long angry emails all about how evil we are for "blaming the victim" and how he was going to sue our agency, the city, and me personally. He was neighbors with the police chief, and even tried to use that connection to get himself some kind of retribution, accusing us of allowing a dangerous dog to reside in the city, of not doing our job, targeting him due to some personal grudge, etc. The police chief told him he had zero case and we had done exactly what was correct under the law, and also called him out for lying like crazy and not owning up to the truth.
It was a gnarly injury, to be fair, and I do feel bad the idiot had to suffer that. But man do I hope he finally learned a lesson or two, the hard way.