Blatent irresponsible dog ownership. The owner unleashed his dog to ATTACK this guy, and THEN there is a crowd of people egging the dog on!
Still baffles me that the victim didn't see this as a case of BAD ownership. *shakes head*
(This is not a recent attack, but the media is going to town, so you know...)
It turned my hand inside out
The pressure for tighter restrictions on dangerous dogs increased yesterday as it emerged that more people had been mauled. Lindsay Jennings speaks to two poeple with opposing views about rottweilers - a father who was savaged by one and a breeder.
JOHN Mothersdale had nipped out to move his car at around midnight on March 7, 2004. He thought it would be a two minute job. But less than half an hour later, he was in agonising pain, his military career in tatters.
John, son of the Rev Paul Mothersdale, had been sitting in the driver's seat near his parents' home on Middlesbrough's Easterside council estate when Steve Downing wrenched his door open.
continued...
"He said something like 'my dog's f***ing crazy' and then the dog went straight for my throat," recalls John, 30, of Middlesbrough. "I managed to get my arm up and really I'd have been dead if I hadn't because the way it got hold of my hand there was nothing I could do. It just sank its teeth in.
"He (Downing) had the dog as a weapon and a status symbol. It was expected to be aggressive and if you expect it to be like that then eventually it will."
Downing's muscle-bound rottweiler weighed eight stone. John himself weighed 14 stone and was a driver with the Royal Logistics Corps, but he found he was powerless to stop the dog from savaging his hand.
It dragged him out of the car by his right wrist and ripped his hand apart. As blood poured from his dog's mouth, Downing walked away with a crowd that had been egging the dog on.
"Short of shooting it I knew there was nothing I could do," says John, who had served in Basra, in Iraq, with his unit prior to the attack. "I knew there was no point hitting it or kicking it because it had locked on and making it angry would make it shake my hand harder. It was a game to it by then anyway and it was a powerful dog.
"I think because of my training and having been brought up with dogs, it allowed me to keep calm. But the pain was excruciating. I've never felt anything like it. It pretty much turned my hand inside out and as soon as it let go I went into shock."
Fortunately for John, two police officers on patrol came across him as the rottweiler was attacking him.
They eventually got Downing to call the dog off. Downing, then of Chippenham Road, Middlesbrough, was later jailed for three years at Teesside Crown Court. The dog was destroyed.
But John needed 55 stitches to his hand and wrist, and 13 internally.
The dog had crushed the carpal tunnel in his wrist, which the tendons - controlling movement of the fingers - pass through.
He needed three operations and underwent two months of physiotherapy with the Army. He saw some movement in his hand return, but ended up having to be medically discharged in March last year.
BUT the mental scars have taken longer to heal. "I'm very nervous around rottweilers now, especially when I have my son, Joshua, who's six, with me. If it had got hold of my little lad he would be dead," says John. "I've got no sense of pressure or pain in my right hand. I can't write for long or type for long. I drive trucks for an agency because I can't work full-time."
John says he was not surprised when he turned on the news and heard another child had been mauled by a rottweiler.
It follows on from the savaging of a five-month-old girl at a pub in Leicester at the weekend. In that case, the dogs had been taken on to guard the property.
But rather than there be restrictions on dangerous dogs, as some people have called for since the girl's death, John believes they should be banned as pets altogether.
"If you want a pet, buy a labrador, or if you want a guard dog, buy an alsation which are known to have softer mouths. That's why the police have them," he says.
"I think rottweilers just snap. It's not about them being nasty dogs or good dogs, they're just doing what comes naturally to them. I think it's very difficult to train that out of them. I know what they're like, and it will have an effect on me for the rest of my life."
ROSALIE Meaby breeds rottweilers and is a championship show judge.
She has judged across the world. She believes the reason some rottweilers snap is down to irresponsible breeders not passing on information and advice when they sell their puppies, and if the dogs are not socialised with people as they grow up.
"If a dog is not socialised and hasn't gone to training classes then its like having a wayward child thats totally out of control," says Rosalie, who has six rottweilers of her own.
But unlike John Mothersdale, Rosalie believes that rottweilers can make good pets.
"In the 35 years that I've had the breed, people have had puppies from me which have grown up with adults and some people are now on their third or fourth dog from me," she says.
"But if a dog is bred up in an out house or an old coal shed they might not know right from wrong and revert to primal tendencies.
"All sorts of dogs have turned on adults or children but there are reasons other than it being a killer instinct."
Rosalie says she would not put a rottweiler in a room with a child but that the move would be in order to protect the dog.
She points out how some children could taunt the dog and cause it to snap and for this reason believes children are more unpredictable than dogs.
She also believes Britain should follow New Zealands efforts by having a licence for owners which would mean training a dog would be compulsory.
Dogs should not be allowed to go to "irresponsible owners".
"Rottweilers are great dogs. They're clowns. They can track things for miles and can adjust to situations very quickly," says Rosalie.
"They need to know who's boss and interact with people and other dogs, and if you dont do that its like denying a child going to school."I get really upset (when rottweilers are given a bad name) because it is a minority of people who not only put their dogs at risk but their children too. But sadly so many people just haven't got a clue."
DANGEROUS DOGS AND THE LAW
Section 1 of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 bans four types of dog:
* the pit bull terrier
* the Japanese tosa
* the dogo argentino
* the fila brasileiro
It is an offence to own or keep any of the above types of dog, unless it is on the Index of Exempted Dogs and is in compliance with the requirements.
In any event it is an offence to breed from, sell or exchange (even as a gift) such a dog, irrespective of whether it has been placed on the Index of Exempted Dogs.
The 1991 Act was amended by the Dangerous Dogs (Amendment) Act 1997.
The 1997 Act removed the mandatory destruction order provisions of the 1991 Act by giving the courts discretion on sentencing, and re-opened the Index of Exempted Dogs for those banned dogs which the courts consider would not pose a risk to the public.
Only courts can direct that a dog can be placed on the list of exempted dogs.
It Turned My Hand Inside Out (from The Northern Echo)