Who let the dogs out?
I love the East Silver Spring listserv. Sometimes it’s because I can hop on there and get a bunch of people riled up about a grocery store. In this case, I am but an innocent bystander.
Word first broke out today at 17:32 that a dangerous dog was out and about attacking smaller housepets. Let’s start from the beginning (names removed to protect the innocent):
Just a few minutes ago about 5:15 pm June 19th, a mixed breed boxer-like dog with yellowish brown fur and darker spots attacked my 10 year old cat in my enclosed backyard. The dog must have come up the driveway. When we heard the commotion, my friend was first on the scene and the dog came after him. Fortunately there was a mop nearby and he was able to beat the dog off. The dog did not seem to be wearing a collar.
Do not approach a dog of this description. He was last seen leaving Silver Spring Ave. headed down Nolte Av. toward Thayer Ave. (500 block).
Coming to Thayer Avenue? Flippin’ sweet. I have a small child and a cat (though which is which might be up for debate). I’d be concerned about having my child outside and the potential for attack as much as anyone else. Sure. I’ll keep my eyes peeled. (The dog you see here does not match the description, but I thought it looked mean and I liked it better for the purposes of exaggeration herein.)
But wait! Not a group to remain quiet, the pro-dog lobby comes in to defend the beast. A short time later came a reply with the words “calm please” in the subject line:
For heavens sake, attacking people? Vicious? Beating it with a stick?? Which came first I wonder. Please be reasoned when describing these interactions… The more agitated the people get the more agitated the dog will be.
I begin to realize this could get interesting. Not like the Sharks and the Jets, mind you, but entertaining nonetheless. Animal Control was called, and through a series of updates, we find out that they can’t come out until tomorrow. X-Files episode potential? Maybe with some Mark Brothers thrown in, but not so much. A few emails later, this comes along:
This dog came into my backyard and attacked my old cat who was sitting on the back steps. No dogs should be running loose and there is only one access to my backyard and that is the driveway. The dog grabbed my cat in his mouth and was shaking her when my friend got out there and beat him off of the cat.
Later on when my friend went down to Thayer Av. to get the address where this dog is normally chained up, he met a woman on Silver Spring Av. who said that the dog had attacked her.
Marx Brothers, indeed. So we have someone sending out warnings about a potentially vicious dog attacking small animals and people with sticks. Check. Dog lovers saying don’t jump to conclusions and – for the love of all that is good and holy – remain calm. Double check. Now the latest chapter tells us that the entire incident might actually be the fault of the old cat sitting outside. Or the poor sap trying to defend the feline. And we all need good fences. To wit, another email:
A majority of dogs who see small furry creatures as prey will not harm a human. The neighbor was essentially “competing” for your poor cat, so the dog felt threatened with the loss of a valuable resource. Unless your neighbor was badly hurt also, the dog shouldn’t be assumed to be “vicious,” however. Assume that the dog did exactly what he intended to do to the person, so if the person isn’t hospitalized at the moment, the dog is probably not aggressive toward humans–unprovoked. In other words, he’d have really hurt your neighbor if he wanted to.
No dog should be permitted to charge around the neighborhood making trouble. The same logic should be applied to cats, however, as they, left outdoors to their own devices will essentially tease dogs by cruising their territory. A dog on a chain whose yard has been essentially “trespassed” by wandering cats will very likely want to read the riot act to *any other* cat if then given the opportunity.
So, cat owners should also accept a measure of responsibility for situations like this one. Good fences make good neighbors in the animal world.
Don’t get me wrong. I love dogs. I grew up with them, and I plan on getting one in the not-too-distant future (as soon as the kid gets a little older). I also understand that many dogs are mistreated and abused (and yes, I believe keeping one chained up to a tree in the front yard all the time is abuse), and such an environment can make them abnormally aggressive and violent.
But all that having been said, if a dog attacked someone I cared about, I would beat it senseless until it ran away or stopped breathing. Period. That this is a person’s fault for “competing” for a valuable resource? Blaming cats for teasing dogs? Building better fences to make better “animal world” neighbors? Idiotic. This listserv exchange might be more amusing as a sociological experiment if it weren’t so sad.
And with that, the listserv seems to have gone dark for the night. Time for me to go and allow the flames to lick my heels from the comment board.
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As I was reading the fifty million emails on the loose dog this morning, I was thinking, “I hope Eric writes about this!”
Gotta hand it to our neighborhood–we’ll argue both sides of any item.
I found that last email sited above espescially partisan, especially since the emailer was not an eyewitness to the incident. It’s an interesting theory that the cat provoked the dog, but is that what happened? Was the cat “asking for it?” Had he/she had too much to drink and was wearing a skimpy outfit and the dog could not hold himself back?
You know, the only reason the dog was aggressive is because he’s been so anxious recently about how the Purple Line will cut down on the number of vehicles he has to chase, and how the Moose Lodge might displace the scrap of grass where he usually relieves himself.
David: All I could think of was Jodie Foster in The Accused when I read that. Sad, disturbing, and difficult to watch – sort of like that last response on the listserv.
That dog is dangerous and needs to be caught. If the dog has a home, his owner needs to be read the Riot Act, fined, and forced to take the dog to obedience school. This dog can and should be rehabilitated (assuming he’s not rabid!).
As someone with a number of cats, I would use whatever force is necessary to protect them from whatever or whoever was attacking them. That said, CATS NEED TO BE KEPT INDOORS OR CLOSELY MONITORED WHEN OUTDOORS! This world is full of not only dangerous dogs, but sadistic adults and children, dogfighters who steal smaller animals to use as training material, creeps to steal and sell pets to laboratories, cars and trucks, other cats who may have diseases, and wildlife. Not to mention that your cat can get lost. We rescued a cat who had been lost for 10 weeks — his family turned out to live 5 minutes away by car, but this cat was completely lost and malnourished when we found him. (He’s okay now. It was a happy reunion).
Spaying and Neutering: It’s always necessary for pets, and it should be applied to irresponsible pet owners, too.
Our cat, Otis (as in “Otis! My man! Otis *loves* us!”), has always stayed indoors and I agree with the concept. Otherwise, apparently, he would tease dogs to the point of violence.
Yeesh. Spaying and neutering, indeed.
Listerv update: The “owner” of the cat informs the list that the cat, Pearl, is actually not his cat but belongs to a friend of his.
Well, I’m sure the Dog Defender was one of those people who I run into every few months in the grocery store line or somebody’s BBQ who wastes their breath trying to assure me that their pit bull mix terrier is really just misunderstood. PULEEZ.
If only these dogs weren’t abused, overbred, etc., etc. They have an instinct to attack and kill small critters, people! That’s what they were bred to do for many years, and they do it well. Just like pointers point and retrievers retrieve and shepherds shepherd and guarding dogs guard.
I lived in the country as a kid, where everyone’s dogs ran around. Funny, I never saw a pit out there in central VA, where any animal that ate the small animals of others (e.g. chickens) did not last very long.