My daughter was bitten by an Alsatian at Upper Hanyards farm, near Stafford on sunday as we were riding through , thankfully not too serious. Been and spoke to the owner. Just wondered if anyone else had any similar experiences there. It’s on the Bridle path between the county show ground and Tixall. The dogs there, a Labrador and an Alsatian have been getting more aggressive/territorial over the last year or so, culminating in a bite yesterday.

report it to the police and get the owner dog put down, before it injures someone else

That.

Next time it really could be a childs face!!!

And the owner’s response was what exactly?

Police report ; no option. Also tell local PRoW team.

No brainer Police.

Owner will probably stay off the patch a while though just in case. Do you see them regularly? Dog walkers are creatures of habit.

Hope your daughter is ok and not too badly injured or traumatised.

report it to the police and get the owner dog put down, before it injures someone else

Report it to the police , who will then do a factual report into what happened. And presumably warn the dog owner.
Fortunately, the pitch fork and burning touch brigade are not yet in charge of the country …

Dog owners have to be made more responsible for their dogs. A 250 quid licencing fee and obligatory insurances would be a good start – it would being to make most breathers think about the sense of having a dogs.

I read the OP as talking about farm dogs while riding through said farm.

Sorry missed that bit it was late and I was tired!

I read the OP as talking about farm dogs while riding through said farm.

Public right of way it was a bridleway, and the dogs where not under control, if somebody punches you on the street, or bites you, what do you do bite them back or report it to the police.

I take it the dog in question wasn’t on a lead?

Tell the farmer – he might shoot it next time!

I went back that day and had a word with the owner, ( it was the farms dogs, for clarity, just beyond the yard on this occasion) , who is also the farm owner. He was very reasonable, surprised, and apologised. He understood the seriousness of the situation, and he agreed that something would have to be done. Sadly I suspect the future may not look too rosy for those two dogs. I did consider reporting it to the police, and generally I would, but in this case decided to wait until I had spoken to the owner, and am satisfied that he understands the need for action. I shall be out that way on the bike tomorrow and again over the weekend, as its only about a mile and a half from home, and is on the main transit route from home to the (cannock) chase off road, so I will be in a fairly unique position to monitor the situation to a degree myself. Should there be an incident again this week end, or the dogs not seem secure when I go through, then, yes, plod will definitely be involved.

As I live in this largely agricultural community, and have done for generations, I do believe that it is better to at least try to sort out issues between yourselves before starting to involve the authorities: after all, most people are very hardworking responsible individuals, and farmers more than most. Added to that, this farmer has always had the most excellently maintained rights of way, with well maintained ans sometimes replaced st
Styles and gates, so is worthy of this approach I feel, as the dogs are certainly not this way because they are encouraged to be so to keep people “Orf moi land!” so to speak.
The dogs were fine with me when I arrived on foot, in fact were lovely, they just have some kind of seriuos issue with bikes ( father in law had a similar issue with one olf his spaniels with motorcycles), and as, looking at the tracks on this route over the yeas, I think me and a mate are almost the only cyclists who seem to use this bridle path on wheels, it is not leaving a lot of other people open to problems. I must admit though that this isi my main concern though, that by not reporting it, if it get reported subsequently by someone else it would be treated as a first incident unless the owner came clean, and though he seemed a very decent young chap, he is only human after all.

I also live on a public footpath , and have a dog that barks at sometimes passers by, though he’s thankfully never shown any interest in chasing anyone, and he’s only after attention thank goodness, but it makes me a bit more sympathetic to the issues of living on a RoW.

Hence posting on here, wanting to know if on the of chance any one reading this had had a similar problem at this farm, in case the owner was indeed trying to pull the wool over my eyes and it had indeed happened before. Turns out that my buddy was chased that morning, but nothing worse.

I shall go out his way again a few times over the weekend and see how things lie. I have the photos, and am quite prepared to contact plod still, if necesary.

Another reason no to get the authorities involved if possible is that this farm house has been just revealed as being sat on the northbound track of The proposed route of HS2 so a home of many generations is now slated for demolition and compulsory purchase, so they’re not having a good year so far.