TimothyH

The dog bite was NOT on the Silver Comet Trail.

The robbers were arrested.

https://www.mdjonline.com/news/suspe...227ca3602.html


Least of all for the dog.

It has been impounded by animal control and will be destroyed after the 10 day quarantine period.


-Tim-

Gresp15C

This really horrifies me, since I'm already afraid of dogs. So far, stray dogs do not seem to be a thing in my state, don't know why, so I'm not counting on my luck holding out. Any explanation based on social factors is likely to be biased by stereotypes. Maybe climate is an issue -- people have to keep their dogs inside for part of the year or they freeze. Just don't know.

Hopefully if it becomes a problem, I'll hear about it before anything happens to me. I would not hesitate to carry a dog repellent, but only if absolutely necessary, since it's one more dangerous thing to keep track of.

mixteup

Having lived in both the north and south (here for many years now), it seems to me that stray dogs are more of a southern thing, no stereotyping involved - It's just more prevalent here.

teejaywhy

"I thought you said your dog doesn't bite!"

"That is not my dog."

88Tempo

I live 20 miles or so from town and it's very common to have stray dogs dropped off out in this area. I think we've found homes for 7 or 8 so far.

Our last dog was a stray that showed up at the front door one morning. We kept her for about 10 years or so.

Luckily no mean ones yet.

TimothyH

Do you have a lisanse for your musical enstreumant?


-Tim-

Wheever

And now to the most important question: what kind of chain lube do you use on dogs?

zarbog

Many many years ago, a lap dog was in the habit of running out at cars, bikes, motorcycles, whatever happened by on the street. It was a yappy Terrior of some kind. Younger brother had mentioned a couple of times on how it was after him on his bike, and how the owner would be out in the front yard watching it all. One day, the dog won the chase and chomped down on the front wheel of my brothers bike. That dog got run over and jammed up into the front fender, and that was enough to bring his 700 pound Harley down onto the ground. The brake lever punctured his hand. Dog was dead and the owner was traumatized. I never forget how much damage even a small animal can do to you no matter what size two wheeler you are on.

base2 

I think a human should be put down immediatly if it bit a dog.

Do you see how that sounds when you turn it around? It's loony nonsense when you talk like that.


...Seriously, come on man. I'm not arguing "Dogs are people, too." Or anything silly, but using their occupation as second class as a justification for murder for the slightest offense of social norms just rings a little less than human.

Aaron
(Who owns a formerly abused dog that took about 6 years to turn around and another 4 to get right.)

jon c. 

I think the South in more rural. You need to get further from the cities in the north to get to truly rural agrarian areas.

Having said that, I have very little trouble with loose dogs. The two counties I regularly ride have good animal control folks and as there are a lot of club riders in the area, I suspect any problem dogs are quickly reported.

Witterings

Gotta be honest even as a dog lover, unless they're protecting their pack from an imminent threat ... and if a human's into biting dogs on an unprovoked basis ... they're both pretty unstable and society's probably better off without either.

Harsh but fair.

Lemond1985

Would certainly put a new twist on the classic old newspaper headline:

"MAN BITES DOG, GETS GAS CHAMBER"

TimothyH

Animal control destroying a dog isn't murder.



-Tim-

257 roberts

neither would shooting an animal be murder

mivaldes

You guys jinxed me. Had my first dog run in today in Peachtree City, GA on the cart paths. He was pretty fearful, but was doing a lot of barking. Looked like a stray. That after I ordered the pepper gel earlier today!

pdlamb

Not immediately. Put it in quarantine for 10 days to see if the victim needs to undergo the painful rabies vaccine series first.

TimothyH

There's some ignorance in this thread and a bit of drama.

Dog attacks are classified as provoked or unprovoked.

An unprovoked attack is when you get bit for no reason. You are minding your business, riding a bike on a public road and a dog comes out and bites you.

A provoked attack is when you do something to trigger the dog - enter private property, try to hurt the dog for no reason, attack its owner, go near its puppies and so forth.

An animal control officer will determine if an attack was provoked or unprovoked and take appropriate action.

A dog with no history of aggressive behavior for example, might have felt it was defending itself for some reason and killing it immediately doesn't make sense. A dog with a history of aggressive behavior can be declared "vicious" and the owner is then held to a higher standard for keeping the dog restrained - chains, fence, etc. The owner can go to jail if the dog gets out and hurts someone.

My point is, there are reasonable and rational procedures. Killing a dog is often required but we should try not to, and should have a valid reason.


-Tim-

WaveyGravey

Purchased my wife and I each the Sabre Pepper Gel.

Hondo Gravel

A few years ago I got bit by a dog and the owner would not take responsibility. By Texas law I had to go to the ER then animal control must be called and the offending dog put in dog jail for ten days. The clown got his dog back and purposely set it loose to chase me so I did what I was told to do I called the deputy. I think he got the clue that time no problems since. His place was on his dad’s property an I heard through the beer vine that his dad got fed up with his son and his dogs and tossed them out.

TimothyH

I don't know.

My guess - and this is only a guess - is that the owner would be cited for not having a dog under control. In most counties around me a dog must be under control - fenced, leashed, invisible fence or certified as trained and actively under voice control of the owner. A dog simply on the owner's property isn't necessarily under control.

I'm not 100% sure though. That would be up to the animal control officer and perhaps a judge and jury.

In the case of the cyclist here in Georgia, it was multiple, unprovoked attacks on public roads. Animal Control impounded the dog. The owners didn't want it. "It will be with us permanently" was what the rider was told when he called Animal Control for status.


-Tim-

Witterings

These situations are so hard to call ... as a kid one of my friends his dad worked for massive corporate security company in the UK and they had one of their retired Black Lab / German Shepherd crosses as a pet, a few people had said the dog wan't to be trusted.

Me and my friend were playing in the garden one day, they had some scaffolding poles and were pretended we were jousting and "charged" towards each other screaming playfully as we a young kids were just playing a game.
The dog tore across the lawn at me thinking I was attacking the boy and thank the big man above the mother walked into the garden that second ... instantly realised what was happening and screamed it's name and as a highly trained guard dog it stopped literally inches away from me.

A few weeks later I went to knock on their door and as the mother opened it .... totally unprovoked the dog launched itself at my neck .... I stepped backwards and dropping off the step and it caught me between my lip and ear ... did it just remember me from the incident in the garden and at that time what it if the mother wasn't there ... a couple of kids playing and it could had killed me .. we were only about 12 the..

Our Labrador bless her soul, was the soppiest never hurt a person ever .... but the postman putting letters through the letter box in the door she saw as an intrusion and her noise was blood curdling ... open the door and she might lick the postman to death but she'd never hurt them ... we put an outside box on the wall to stop it happening and to stop the credit cards getting teeth marks through them.

She also loved her brother / sister in law .... often away with them for long weekends or them staying at ours after a BBQ and a few too many to drive home ..... My sister in law is a bit of an insomniac and I'm a lie in at the weekends guy ... but one morning she decided to do a surprise dawn raid as a laugh and to wind me up ...... the dog had a flap to access the garden whenever she wanted.
Sister / brother in law tried to covertly sneak through the side gate down the side of the house and was met by a pet that picked up on "the sneaky" approach ... sister in law backed out and came to the front door and said I've never seen Ellie like that but I wasn't going to try and go any further ... anybody who didn't know her and happened to see this would instantly back out of your property ... anybody that knew here would instantly know it was completely out of character.

I've had a similar encounter when I was a kid and frightened of dogs, going round to a friends mansion (should have married the daughter they were F... off rich but she made Fiona in Shrek look quite attractive on her bad days ) .. knew the dog for years but went to the servants entrance (which were always used as the main doors were too big to open) but nobody else was down that end of the house at that time and I was pinned against a wall by their retriever I'd known for years .. if at that stage IF I'd been more dog confident as I am now I would have taken control rather than showing the dog I was uneasy and I'm sure it would have panned out very differently but I pooped myself for 20 mins until they realised I was there.

Now having had dogs for years I'd walk in with a totally confident attitude and fussing over the dog in a positive way that I'm sure the whole scenario would be very different from the outset.

There is no perfect answer .. neither our dog nor the retriever that pinned me to the wall would ever have actually attacked anyone I don't believe unless they felt they were under serious threat ... but in both situations the intruders were giving off negative vibes which cyclists that aren't used to being around dogs could do to a degree.

If some people live "In The Country" and there's so little traffic around and they don't fence their dogs in .... wherever they're allowed to freely roam they'll consider their territory and anybody entering it is an intruder ... you now take someone who like me as a child was scared of dogs and sending off the wrong vibes and they're entering what the dog considers as their territory at speed and it's not a good combination ,,, it's a serious threat that's happening very fast.

We've also very recently had this in the UK where I guess someone's child had possibly gone away with a friend over the holiday period ... my 1st question is WTF is the dog owner doing leaving a child that's not a family member alone and unsupervised with a dog.

https://news.sky.com/story/woman-rel...-park-11693591

At the end of the day it's down to the owners and whilst we live in a totally unmade up single lane with only 4 houses after us, I'd NEVER let a dog roam outside of my fenced boundaries without my supervision.

Litespud

That’s my experience - Boston, Pittsburgh & DC - never had a dog incident in a combined 14 years. Arkansas - pretty much every ride had a dog chase - some more determined than others, but friggin’ dogs everywhere. Chapel Hill NC - occasional dogs, generally the further you get from town

here hold my ha

My understanding is that spay/nueter requirements are more strict elsewhere (up north). I have not looked that up, but I volunteer at a shelter here in Georgia and they list that as one of the reasons for their existence.

Gresp15C

The north/south thing could just be climate. In the north, there's at least a portion of the year when a dog has to be kept inside. This may also create a preference for certain breeds, as well as for dogs that have a better temperament around humans. But I would echo the sentiment. In the decades that I've been a cyclist in the north, I've been chased by dogs only a handful of times, and was able to confirm in most of those cases that the dog was probably harmless.

Last ride 76 

Yep.