WHEN A DOG BITES, WHO'S TO BLAME?
I'm a dog lover.
I don't have a dog at present, but, over the years, I've had three wonderful dogs.
When I was in elementary school, we had a lovely Golden Retriever named Skooky. When my kids were little, we got Jess, a sweet-natured German Shepherd. My last dog was Clementine, the most golden of Golden Labradors. My daughter has had a series of dogs, and I think of each of them as if they were my own.
That's six dogs, and I know there will be a seventh. I've loved each of these dogs, completely and utterly. I believed then, and now, that every one of those dogs would have taken a bullet for me, or for any member of my family. There is nothing like a dog.
This past week, in the Arbutus area of Vancouver, a Rottweiler attacked his owner.
The owner fled into the alleyway where the attack continued. His cries for help alerted neighbours, who called the police. The attending officers arrived at a gruesome scene. Their report stated that the dog was “violently attacking the man, gnawing at his arm, (with) flesh flying everywhere.” Subduing the dog wasn't easy. The dog was eventually tranquilized, then euthanized. The owner was taken to hospital.
I don't know the man, but I have a passing acquaintance with the dog as I walked by its laneway home on several occasions. The dog would bark wildly and lunge at the window when I passed by. It took me by surprise each time, and it was alarming. It seemed to me that the dog was home alone a lot. I wondered if it had much opportunity for exercise. I wondered what could happen if, or when, the dog ever got on the other side of that window.
There was lots of talk after the incident. Some people wondered why the dog would attack its owner. Others were adamant that the dog ought to be put down. Some people felt that the dog must have been provoked into this behaviour through neglect or abuse. Other folks attributed the attack to the breed.
I've known of a few unprovoked dog-bite incidents. A neighbour's Husky clamped down on his arm when he passed between the dog and its bowl, another neighbour's Poodle lunged at a little girl, biting the child on the upper lip, which required seven stitches, a Chihuahua unexpectedly attacked a passing Pomeranian, inflicting injury. There are, of course, more violent attacks that end up making headlines.
The conversation about dog bites revolves around the nature/ nurture debate. The saying goes, “There are no bad dogs, only bad owners.” Many people feel particular breeds are incapable of aggressive behaviour. Others are convinced that certain dogs are the equivalent to a loaded gun, bred for intimidation and bellicosity.
There are heaps of statistics about dog bites. More bites seem to be attributed to the family favourite, the Labrador, than the oft-cited Pit Bull, but this doesn't take into account that there are more Labs than Pit Bulls in the general population. Surprisingly, the wee Dachshund tops many lists for being “bite-y.” Dog-bite stats are skewed by factors such as weight and bite force, plus the fact that most bites go unreported. Many jurisdictions have breed-specific legislation based on the legal presumption that certain breeds present public safety issues. The Canadian perspective puts a lot of the focus on responsible ownership. Ontario appears to have the most comprehensive view with its Dog Owners' Liability Act, prohibiting the owning, breeding or importation of Pit Bulls into that province. Ukraine has an exhaustive list that identifies more than 80 dangerous breeds requiring special restrictions, if not banned outright.
We love our dogs, but they're not without complications.
Unfortunately, the same can be said about dog owners.
Jane Macdougall is a freelance writer and former National Post columnist who lives in Vancouver. Her garden is her major distraction during COVID-19. She writes on The Bookless Club every Saturday online and in The Vancouver Sun.
THIS WEEK'S QUESTION FOR READERS:
Q Are there no bad dogs, only bad owners?
Send your answers by email text, not an attachment, in 100 words or less, along with your full name to Jane at thebooklessclub@gmail.com. We will print some next week in this space.
RESPONSES TO LAST WEEK'S QUESTION:
Q Who have you run into in the unlikeliest of places?
When a friend in Ontario heard that I was going to South Africa, he said, “You must visit my brother in Nairobi.” “That's thousands of miles from where I'll be,” I told him, but I wrote down the name anyway. Months later, the ship I was on docked in Mombasa, the closest port to Nairobi. I remembered my friend's brother and told a fellow next to me at the ship's rail about my hopeless assignment. I read out the name from my address book. He gaped at me wide-eyed and said, “It's me you're to be finding!”
Paul Birch
When I was in my late 50s, we took a motorhome trip from North Vancouver to the east coast. While driving along the Cabot Trail, we stopped at a lookout and noticed that the other vehicle parked there had Manitoba licence plates. As we chatted, I mentioned I was raised in Portage la Prairie. The lady asked me for my name, and when I told her she replied with a surprised look on her face, “I babysat you when you were a baby.”
Glen Gray
In 2004, I was teaching at Dalian Maple Leaf School in Dalian, China. As I was walking along the third-floor rotunda, I looked down to the first floor and saw the first principal I had ever worked for, Warren Wiley. We had
worked together in 1979 at Port Simpson Community School, a First Nations School in northern B.C. I spontaneously shouted out “Warren Wiley!” and he looked up to the third floor and shouted back, “Paddy O'neil!” From Port Simpson, B.C., to Dalian, China, and after 25 years, we recognized each other immediately.
Patrick O'neil
In March 2009, I was halfway up the 268 steps to the Tian Tan Big Buddha statue in Hong Kong when I heard someone shout, “Rob Russell.” It was a former workmate whom I had not seen in years. He, his wife and daughter were on their way down the stairs, so we stopped and had a chat. Despite the fact that both of us live in North Vancouver, I have not seen him since.
Rob Russell
Sitting on a remote beach in Fiji, my husband and I struck up a conversation with fellow travellers. Conversation turned to what we did for a living, and a woman from Germany said she worked for an advertising company. I explained I was a casting director and had completed casting for a commercial shot in Vancouver produced by a German company. It turns out she had worked on the same commercial, and we in fact had talked on the phone several times and exchanged numerous emails.