The Hard Part of Being a “Dog” Person

This was actually a very sweet pit mix I met in Ireland.

Recently, two friends were out walking their dogs when their littlest dog (who looks like a long haired mini-dachshund mixed with something smaller, and weighs less than 10lbs) was attacked by a strange dog. They were walking by a house when the pit bull type dog came through a hole in the fence and just, in their words, decided to use Charlie like a chew toy. Their other dog, Mika (all of 30lbs) tried to take on the bigger dog, but they managed to keep her away and get Charlie.
Charlie was lucky- he had puncture wounds and bruises, but no serious internal injuries, and he is now recovering nicely.
They were completely surprised by the attack, as they take their dogs on a walk past that house on a daily basis and had never even seen a dog there before. The hole in the fence was blocked by an empty bucket.
The problem is, they are both dog people. They completely blame the owners of the other dog for what happened, and not the dog itself. I am okay with that, except that that attitude has prevented them from calling animal control and reporting that attack. They don’t want the dog to get in trouble for having bad owners. It’s a great sentiment, but it doesn’t change the fact that the other dog attacked their dog, with no warning.
Their plan was to look the next time they walked by (on the opposite side of the street this time) to see if the hole in the fence had been fixed.

I think this is a conundrum that many of us who love dogs face. We hate to punish a dog for having bad owners. But, once a dog is attacking other dogs unprovoked, something has to be done. Will the next dog attacked be as lucky as Charlie? What if the next “dog” isn’t a dog, but a child walking by?
I love pits and think they are overall great dogs. And that means the last thing I want to see is another report in the paper of a pit bull type dog attacking someone. My heart aches for the dogs who get stuck with bad owners and pay the price themselves, but things cannot get better if the only people who are willing to report aggressive dogs are people who don’t like dogs.
This is an uncomfortable subject for many of us. But we have to ask- what are our responsibilities as “good” dog owners? Certainly, it should not extend past our own dogs, right? We can’t be responsible for every dog in the neighborhood. And that’s true. We aren’t responsible for training or socializing any dogs other than our own.
But what about our responsibilities as members of a community? Because we are members of the “dog” community and we are members of our neighborhood communities. And no matter how much we want to protect an individual dog, we have responsibilities to others in our communities. And sometimes that means making a hard choice, making a call that you know could result in the death of one dog. It is not a choice to be made lightly. I am not saying it is.
But as much as it may not have been the pits “fault” for attacking Charlie, it certainly wasn’t Charlie’s fault he was attacked. Charlie is the innocent victim here. And if nothing is done, there will be other innocent victims.
I would love it if our system allowed for taking away the dog (and rehoming it, if possible), fining the owners and preventing them from having another dog for a period of time. But just because we aren’t at that point doesn’t mean we can shirk our responsibility to report dangerous behavior. Being responsible sometimes means making difficult decisions. And that sucks. But it is what we owe to our communities and to our dogs.