My father told me a story of a man walking in a park one day when an unleashed dog walked up to him. The man took out his handgun and shot it.
The owner looked furious but caught me staring him in the eye in time to recompose himself and get off of our front yard.
The bloody nerve. You have your dog take its daily piss on our wall - a wall that my grandma cleans, btw. The dog takes its daily piss and my grandpa decides to ignore it, but then you don’t stop the thing from nipping him?
Oh well the dog pissed blood for a week after that
That being said, my grandpa ignored the pissing. The kidney blow was in response to the nip. And the dog got lucky: the old man spent his life building roads in guerrilla infected mountains.
Only K-9 have that right, and thats ridiculous
> My father told me a story of a man walking in a park one day when an unleashed dog walked up to him. The man took out his handgun and shot it.
Not a threatening dog, just a fucking dog walking up to somebody. This is a disgusting line of thought that anyone would take a life purely based on an animal approaching you.
It makes me question my involvement in a community where people are so unhinged they think taking out a gun and shooting someone's random dog is appropriate. How far we've come from To Kill a Mockingbird is astounding.
I think I am done with this place. What a disappointing thread.
An unleashed dog comes up to you where its not supposed to.
- What are its intentions?
- Is it aggressive?
- Is it rabid?
Its no different than if a coyote came up and accosted you. Worse, because dogs are socialized not to fear man.
My neighbor had an aggressive dog (german shepherd) and every time my kid was outside in the backyard I made sure to carry a weapon to kill it if need be. It didn't really matter, my kid was too scared of it to play in the backyard.
I was planning on calling the city to have it destroyed but she moved out.
And for all you down voters... yes I talked to her. It was obvious talking with her where the dog got its attitude from.
Dogs have tells too, and there's common ones that most dog owners will know:
- ears backed with tail tucked or quick wagging
- cowering / laying down (in a non-relaxed posture)
- deep growls and a leg spread defensive stance
And there's tells that occur far before the above. Dogs are domesticated animals (with millions of years of domestication, as opposed to cats), so comparing them in your head to a coyote is a false dichotomy from the get-go.
Your situation and GPs are very different. GP has specifically framed a dog that walked up to them off-leash. You are talking about having to potentially defend a child's life. There's a massive chasm between the two both legally and ethically.
Defending yourself and being a violent person are two different things. The man who shoots any off-leash or stray dog is just violent.
Which is precisely why they must be on a leash, always. Except in a fenced off area maybe.
Im annoyed at the leash-less dogs in parks where dogs aren't even allowed. Although they're the least of my problems, a neighbor has a couple of pet pigs.
I've already acknowledged there's nuance to the idea of being able to shoot a dog, much like there is to shooting a human. You were so desperate to argue your silly little point about defense that you forgot you, and some of the other folks here, are defending someone who shot a dog for no reason.
That's who you defended and voted for. That's what I was upset about.
“Leash your fucking dog” is my go-to. “Are you selfish or stupid?” works, too.
But the onus is not on me to meet your pet half way, learn the species’ “tells” or pretend that there are no irresponsible owners.
The onus is on you.
But if it yelps, barks, gets territorial, bares his teeth, etc, the sociopath (ie unable to behave properly in society) is the dog owner who cant keep the dog on a leech.
Which is it, an animal or a life? The phrase "take a life" implies some sort of value akin to that of a human life. If you want to elevate animals to that level, then acknowledge that you take a life when you slap a mosquito or step on an ant, yet I doubt you apply the same moralizing to anyone else who does so.
> It makes me question my involvement in a community where people are so unhinged they think taking out a gun and shooting someone's random dog is appropriate.
I think the key thing is that an off leash dog ceases to become "someone's random dog". It being "someone's dog" gives it value by being recognized as another person's property. Once off leash, relative to other people it's just a dog now; the owner has effectively abdicated responsibility of ownership for the dog by letting it off the leash. At that point it's not "someone's dog" any more than a bird with a FWS band is "someone's bird". Consequently treating it like any other animals is acceptable.
I say all of this as someone who loves dogs, and I even enjoy friendly dogs approaching me. But they 100% should be on leash and unable to approach me. I wouldn't blame someone for shooting a dog in the exact same circumstances.
Do you think it's okay to walk around and shoot strays? At least dog pounds in the US will make an attempt at a nonviolent death for a stray animal.
Let me be clear, it's not moralizing when it's ethically unsound to shoot a dog that does nothing else than walk up to you. When I chose "life" it's probably because I live with my dog. She has a personality, she has quirks, she learns from me and even teaches me things. If I saw her brains get blown out by some random dude because she walked up (and that was the framing) what am I in bounds to do? I can tell you, what I'm allowed to do would be of little consequence to me, because although that is just a dog to you, to me you took an animal that I know on a level deeper than I know most humans.
> At that point it's not "someone's dog" any more than a bird with a FWS band is "someone's bird". Consequently treating it like any other animals is acceptable.
Birds are not domesticated and we certainly treat domesticated animals differently in the context of the law and societal expectations. Dogs being the most and longest domesticated animal, whose behavior has been shaped and maintained over millions of years.