On the subject of provocation and on the back of comments like "They're all provoked in some way; animals rarely act on a whim,"

I was bitten as a child. I was playing on the swings, minding my own business, and a girl turned up with a small / young dog which came running at me barking in a Jack Russell stylee. She yelled to me "it's ok, he doesn't bite." Unsure because of the aggression, I stopped still and watched it as it ran to me and then sank it's teeth in my leg. Cue a trip to A&E for a tetanus shot.

Now, if you want to argue technicalities it could perhaps be said that I "provoked" it by being on the swings or being scared or something. But as far as I'm concerned that was an unprovoked attack; the dog was aggressive and out of control, I didn't torment it or try to run away or do anything much at all other than ignore it.

Perhaps "most" attacks are provoked, I don't know. But I'd argue strongly that "all" of them aren't.

"Perhaps "most" attacks are provoked, I don't know. But I'd argue strongly that "all" of them aren't."

Yup, I'd completely agree. I don't even know if most are, numbers aren't really available. We can be sure some are, using Singletrack Statistical Evidence the two dog attacks I've ever known of were both provoked by the victim, which proves that all dog attacks everwhere are 😉 But I think saying all are is just daft frankly.

So a summary thus far might read:

Some dog owners appear reasonable, some are clearly morons.
Some non-dog owners appear reasonable, others are morons.

I guess life goes on…

This would massively DECREASE the stupid and thoughtless abuse perpetrated on defenceless dogs every day by ignorant, feckless owners.
However, as most Britons seem to have the same blinkered, outdated and illogical attitude toward dogs that Americans display toward firearms, it's sadly never going to happen.

Good on you for having the courage to say it.

Let's see how many genuinely responsible STW dog owners are prepared to agree with you.
As a dog owner, and I hope a reasonably responsible one, I do agree with you and the guy you quoted. Just this thursday evening, up at my local spot with my dog and club mates riding. We were taking a quick break, refueling, my dog sat in the middle of the group and some chavs staffy come running over and went straight for my dogs throat. A completely unprovoked attack. The other dogs owner didn't seem slightest bit bothered, the dog had no collar on and got a good kick from me and as I tried to pull it away.
I didn't get any acknowledgement from the other dogs owner or response from him. Needless to say he fitted the typecast of a staffy owner to a t, a proper chav. If I see him there again I will be reporting him and his dog to the police.
Its the poor dog owners like this guy who give the rest of us a bad name. Bringing in a licence for dog owners might at least help keep some of the less responsible **** away from dog ownership, not too mention the amount of dogs in rescue homes that end having to be put down. The problem will be policing it.

we never did heat more about the 250,000 dog bites a year

ok, let's hear about it now with some back-of-a-fag-packet calculations. I've seen various figures quoted around the 200,000-250-000 mark. If we take as a ball-park figure that the UK population is about 50M then that would mean the average person can expect to get bitten by a dog every 200 years or so. There's a question over what constitutes "bitten" – what for some is "just a friendly nip, he's only playing, if he meant it he'd have your leg off" is for others a scary experience of being bitten by a potentially dangerous animal. But if I ignore those and just go by my personal experience, I can think of 4 occasions where I have been bitten hard enough to leave a mark or damage clothing – the sort of things that might be regarded as an assault if a person did them. So either I've been incredibly unlucky or that figure of 250,000 is not unreasonable.

Edit: or I'm 800 years old. I feel it sometimes. 😕

Yeah, that's exactly what I said If a child is allowed to run into traffic you don't blame the driver that hits them. If a child is allowed to mistreat or provoke a dog, you blame the dog. Apparently.

Cool. So if you annoy me by, say, talking in a funny accent, or wearing socks with sandals, or whatever, then it's OK for me to respond by beating you round the skull with a baseball bat. "I was provoked, yer 'onner".

As long as that's straight …

If we take as a ball-park figure that the UK population is about 50M then that would mean the average person can expect to get bitten by a dog every 200 years or so. There's a question over what constitutes "bitten" – what for some is "just a friendly nip, he's only playing, if he meant it he'd have your leg off" is for others a scary experience of being bitten by a potentially dangerous animal.

And why restrict ourselves to biting? Is it not sufficient to have been scared by an aggressive dog? I have never been bitten, but I have been scared shitless by agressively barking dogs on a number of occasions. Why is that OK?

won`t somebody think of the children 😯

I have been scared shitless by agressively barking dogs on a number of occasions. Why is that OK?

because your a big girl?

I have been scared shitless by agressively barking dogs on a number of occasions. Why is that OK?

You're not expecting a serious answer to that are you – it's such a subjective question that it's impossible for someone to answer. For all we know you have a serious phobia about dogs, or maybe you were right to be concerned.

As a complete tangent, I can only think of one occassion when one of my dogs has ever bitten someone. Dog kept licking himself and I spotted some blood coming from the tip of his penis, so took him to the vet to get it checked. Told the vet – "I think he's cut his penis, at which the vet decided she should pull back the dog's foreskin in a very brisk fashion to get a better look. Cue the appearance of a nasty flappy slice in the dog's bell end, and the dog sinking his teeth into the vet's hand.

In his defence, I did point out to the vet that if she'd pulled back my foreskin like that, I'd have bitten her as well.

DrJ – Member

"Cool. So if you annoy me by, say, talking in a funny accent, or wearing socks with sandals, or whatever, then it's OK for me to respond by beating you round the skull with a baseball bat. "I was provoked, yer 'onner"."

I don't think there's any way you can genuinely be misunderstanding the argument here this badly