Friday 23 March 2012

Down Boy


I've just watched a nasty little video clip (taken from a safe distance) of the policeman who knocked on the door of a suspected drug dealer in London yesterday, being mauled by a pitbull dog. You can probably find it on You Tube if you want to see it, but I won't post it up here.

It takes a bit of watching - the policeman is screaming for help and swearing at the top of his voice as the dog (which is being ineffectually clubbed with a baton at the same time by a fellow officer, making it even more tetchy I would have thought!) takes chunks out of the copper's arms and legs. All the while, his brave fellow officers are trying to get as far away from their desperate colleague as possible, and one of them actually jumps over the wall in the process. That didn't help him though - the huge dog just jumped over after him and took a few chunks out of his legs too. In the stills of the aftermath, great pools of blood can be seen all over the road, and most of the officers were hospitalised, one seriously.

Quite a while later, an armed officer arrives in another car, casually takes a rifle from it's boot, saunters over to where the dog is slavering in the garden and shoots it.

Two lessons can be learned by the Met. from this incident: If you go to arrest a suspect who you know has a pitbull as a pet, then take at least one firearms man with you to shoot it on the spot; and if you find yourself being bitten by a large dog, keep very still and very quiet, without looking at it in the eyes.

The other obvious possibly preventative measure that could be taken is to bring back dog-licences under the 'Dangerous Dogs Act'. They outlawed the owning and breeding of American Pitbull terriers years ago, but that didn't stop a loop-hole whereby the dogs can be bred with a tiny amount of some other, legal breed in their make-up which your average enforcement officer would have a hard job detecting.

That outlawing was principally designed to protect the welfare of the animals rather than humans, because they were being bred for horrific dog-fights at which millions of pounds of ill-gotten money changed hands through gambling. Dog-fighting is still a massive problem, so - once again - an ass has been made of the law. They are called pitbulls because they are bred to fight in pits, as in 'cock-pits'.

I know (as do our local police) at least two renowned drug-dealers in our quiet little tourist town, who have pitbull type dogs which drag them through the street almost uncontrollably on the end of 15-foot, leather leads. They have these long tethers so that they can keep away from whoever the dog is supposed to be attacking, and due to the owner's bad dietary habits and drug-abuse, the dogs are usually about 5 times stronger than them. These are not pets they are weapons.

A few years ago, a brave policeman rushed to the aid of a small girl who was being mauled by a Rottweiler in a public park. As you know, British police are not generally armed, so the officer grabbed the Rottweiler around it's massive, thick and muscular neck, and actually managed to hang on long enough to strangle it to death.

Now I would have thought that they would have awarded this heroic copper a medal for bravery, but no. What did they do instead? An animal rights group tried to have him prosecuted for cruelty! Only in England!

17 comments:

  1. I am reliably informed that the only way to stop a pit-bull biting, is to put a finger up it's arse. But never having tried it...

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    1. Let me know when you give it a try - I would fly to France to see that.

      Yet another friend of mine was sitting in the pub with his huge English Bull-Terrier on his lap (!) and I casually wondered what would happen if I stuck my finger up it's arse. He said he didn't know, but guessed it would be him bitten and not me.

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    2. p.s. - If you try to shove your hand down the throat of an attacking German Shepherd, it will instinctively try to remove it by releasing it's grip with the teeth. I know this because I have actually done it, but I have to admit that the attack was a playful one. You need nerves of steel to go against your own instincts in a real attack.

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    3. p.p.s I mean German Shepherd DOG, not an innocent German shepherd, though I'm sure it would work with humans as well.

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  2. these fighting dogs should be removed totally from a general public which do not have the brain cells to deal with them.
    it may surprise you when I say the only thing to do is to have a mass cull.
    plain and simple

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    1. I actually agree with you, John. They do not make good pets anyway, unlike English Bull-Terriers or Staffies. Both of those dogs are usually wonderful with children, unlike everyone's ideal dog with kids - the Golden Retriever. Elderly, pure-bred Retrievers and Labradors very often go nuts in late age, and turn on children without warning, tearing their faces off. It happens so quickly that it cannot be prevented.

      The trouble is that you would probably have to kill all the Rottweilers and Ridgebacks for the same reason. If you vetted dog-owners the same way as shotgun owners are vetted, it would not eradicate the problem completely, but at least there would be some restrictions and control.

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  3. It is the humans fault! Man made bred dogs should be outlawed.

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  4. Put-down the owners of such dogs. Problem solved.

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  5. Our local Humane Society is filled with PittBulls that people get bored with and release them into the streets. Very sad.
    m.

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    1. I believe it's the same in the UK's RSPCA.

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  6. I like Chris's suggestion. I'll be happy to wield the lethal injection.

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  7. Yes I like Groucho and Chris' remarks. Dogs are much the same as dueling pistols in the wrong hands :) And assholes 'building' dogs to satisfy their own physical insecurities is very boring.

    That said, my mastiff Digger was originally created by the brits to pull down lions. When he goes wandering the ranger scoops him up him within minutes because he's such a scary sight. But what a darling! He's a fantastic, gentle character.

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    1. Oh, I just wrote the below, and the 'reply' now works, but I have lost confidence in the whole set-up.

      Meanwhile - I agree with you all about the humans. You can breed dogs to attack, and you can breed them to defend, but the cross-over is a bit more difficult.

      Most dogs are bred for sport or farming, but some people think that 'sport' includes pit-fighting.

      Dogs are bloody useful as security in remote places, but they are usually not too bright, so you have to choose your breed carefully.

      Maybe the Dingo is one of the last pure-breds, but all those old dogs are mongrels anyway, and are - as such - mentally quite stable.

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  8. Off the point - all my Google buttons are either disappearing or not working. The only one I now have left is the 'reply' one, but that no longer works.

    I have no 'edit' and I have no 'delete', and the email notifications button has gone too, so I effectively have nothing left on the main page.

    Until I get this sorted, there is no way I can individually reply to you all. Sorry.

    Anyone else had the same problems?

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  9. I tried replying to your last post by clicking on the Reply below it. The colour changed from blue to grey, but that's it.

    The brave policeman who helped that little girl could also be having the same prosecution problem stateside. Then again, police on this side of the Pond carry firearms, so my guess is he would have used it and gotten flak for that.

    megan

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    1. Thanks, Megan. I think I might be being bullied into using Google's latest editing device, but I don't know. Time will tell.

      Yes, it is impossible to get a true perspective on the facts by watching CNN, or the BBC.

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