another child mauled by a staffie

Shields Gazette today( headlines)another child mauled and scarred by a staffie ,not be long now for staffs to be added to the dangerous dogs list!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .all the fault of an irresponsible prat of an owner

Any links?

It must be this one:

http://www.shieldsgazette.com/news/boy-scarred-for-life-in-dog-attack-1-4623545

Poor kid. It was a newly rehomed staff from a rescue. It would be interesting to see how they assessed its temperament & whether it was suitable to be with kids.

someone told me rescue in the uk dont do any tests

It doesnt matter its seems to be in the news quite often a ban of some sort wont be far off , i never thought i would see the day but there are to many non pedigree staffies bred the country is overun with unwanted staffies some thing has to be done . I think all staffies should be registered microchipped and neutered ,only bred by proper breeders!

Steve wrote:someone told me rescue in the uk dont do any tests

They do. They test for food aggression, suitability with children & some test for safety with cats.

I don't know if they all do those tests, but certainly the decent ones do.

Olly had all those tests we were home checked etc ,if a ban does come in i wouldnt bring him back from France ,my wife would have to stay there full time

All the ones i know of certainly do.....

Not to mention any names i think it was the council run one you pay your £40 and take your dog

it cant carry or there will be a public out cry which got he pitbull banned

Your right not long i would imagine lets hope its not like when they were banned in Germany

registered microchipped and neutered is not going to work the the amount of money need to enforce this would be crazy! there would have to have a copper or warrend on every street in the uk to enforce this.....

harlou wrote:It doesnt matter

It does matter, because if the rescue centre said that the dog wasn't suitable to be homed with young children, then the new owner should have kept it away from the child!

harlou wrote:there are to many non pedigree staffies bred the country is overun with unwanted staffies some thing has to be done . I think all staffies should be registered microchipped and neutered ,only bred by proper breeders!

I agree, but neutering every dog that isn't to be bred from is unworkable. What do you call a 'proper' breeder? Had Dempsey been better (as his pedigree would sugest) then we would have probably studded him, but we're not 'proper' breeders. He was bred by a couple who hadn't bred before, they weren't 'proper' breeders, but they were responsible, carried out all health checks & kept in touch with all the new owners & would take any of the dogs back in a heartbeat if necessary.

If their bitch had been neutered we'd never have had Dempsey!

So they will all have to be put to sleep , it happened elswhere!what would you do if you were told your dog had to be murdered by the state

they wont get my dogs.

harlou wrote:So they will all have to be put to sleep , it happened elswhere!what would you do if you were told your dog had to be murdered by the state

If anything were to happen at all, it would be like with the pit bull ban - each dog would be assessed, registered, microchipped (if they hadn't already) and neutered.

I truly hope it won't come to that.

Would it stop the scum owning them ,there are more pitbulls in the country now than when the ban was introduced. to really ban a breed only one country has truly done that ,

Bully breeds require special owner education in my opinion. It soes not matter if the are so called pedigree or mix, neutering ever dog is not practical and in the end it still boils down to the owners either not knowing how to handle the animal or just not anticipating what it takes to have dogs like ours.

Poor lad......I'm sick of reading stories like this day in day out and I love the breed.

Could I just point out as it may have been missed that the child was living next door to the dog and not with it:

Lisa Patterson and her eight-year-old son, Jonathon Harwood, were playing with their neighbours’ new Staffordshire Bull Terrier when it mauled him and tore at his face.

I know it still dosn't make it OK, obviously not, I'm just pointing this out.

I have only had Lily a few weeks. My home (and me) was inspected quite thoroughly, the garden assessed together with the height of the fence. They would not rehome with children under 8 years old. The rescue microchips them when they come in and have the males neutered straight away, the females are also spayed if they can't get an idea of when the last season was. Lily came into season just after she arrived with them so they couldn't have her done but I had to sign an undertaking saying I would have her done within a certain amount of time and this was followed up by the rescue too. I paid £100 to cover the cost of having her there for 2 months and the microchip - bargain! One of the rules was that should I not want to keep her for any reason then she must be returned to the rescue - this is a given. They sometimes know the dogs background, sometimes not but they are always assessed without exception. Couldn't get more responsible than this.

Pollyanna wrote:I have only had Lily a few weeks. My home (and me) was inspected quite thoroughly, the garden assessed together with the height of the fence. They would not rehome with children under 8 years old. The rescue microchips them when they come in and have the males neutered straight away, the females are also spayed if they can't get an idea of when the last season was. Lily came into season just after she arrived with them so they couldn't have her done but I had to sign an undertaking saying I would have her done within a certain amount of time and this was followed up by the rescue too. I paid £100 to cover the cost of having her there for 2 months and the microchip - bargain! One of the rules was that should I not want to keep her for any reason then she must be returned to the rescue - this is a given. They sometimes know the dogs background, sometimes not but they are always assessed without exception. Couldn't get more responsible than this.

Missed out on this post as I've been coming and going all day, but I think one underlying thing here is an investifgation into the rescue that let him go. It may make no difference to where he is homed as I daresay the neighbours arent checked in the process but if checked thoroughly then at least the new owner may have been made aware of any children problems and been able to act accordingly.

harlou wrote:It doesnt matter its seems to be in the news quite often a ban of some sort wont be far off , i never thought i would see the day but there are to many non pedigree staffies bred the country is overun with unwanted staffies some thing has to be done . I think all staffies should be registered microchipped and neutered ,only bred by proper breeders!

I think that is a bit harsh and certainly not realistic. My dog is not KC registered, nor are many of the dogs on this forum, but that doesn't make them dangerous or mean that they have less rights to be loved and cared for than registered dogs. Also, some owners, like Steve, Caryll and myself and many others on the forum, have made an INFORMED decision to not spay/neuter our dogs. We have listened to all the advice, read up on the pros and cons, and decided that it is not what we want for our dogs. That does not make us irresponsible owners, or mean that we are adding to the problem. The problem is the idiots who don't train their dogs, allow them to become out of control and/or aggressive, and those that breed with any dog or bitch with no motive other than the money they'll make for studding/puppies and fail to carry out necessary health checks beforehand.

harlou wrote:It doesnt matter its seems to be in the news quite often a ban of some sort wont be far off , i never thought i would see the day but there are to many non pedigree staffies bred the country is overun with unwanted staffies some thing has to be done . I think all staffies should be registered microchipped and neutered ,only bred by proper breeders!

i dont think it matters whether they are pedigree or not the fact that these things are occurring is awful and clearly some kind of training for owners need to be given ....my dog loves the kids round my way they have grown up with him from a puppy but i would not even entertain leaving them to play with him, the fact is as much as we love our beloved pets a dog is a dog and with a young child can switch simply because young children dont seem to heed warning signs that dogs give . classic example my son he is 12 years and yet 4 years later i still have to remind him that sometimes the dog just wants to rest and be left alone .

however i see the owner had no qualms of putting the dog to sleep but i feel the owner should on this occasion been a little bit more thoughtful ,

Ty wrote:Bully breeds require special owner education in my opinion. It soes not matter if the are so called pedigree or mix, neutering ever dog is not practical and in the end it still boils down to the owners either not knowing how to handle the animal or just not anticipating what it takes to have dogs like ours.

sorry should have read your post before mine (u got there first) i absolutely agree with you

I very much doubt the government will ban Staffies. They know BSL doesn't work and according to someone I know of and trust the word of (I think this person works in processing/dealing with dog attacks) there are many dog attacks that happen that we never hear about. The media aren't interested in them because they don't involve so called dangerous dogs. According to this source, Staffies are low down on the perpetrator list.

Another sad story of a child being injured due to human error. I would never let any child play with an adult dog I had rescued just four weeks before...

Ty wrote:Bully breeds require special owner education in my opinion. It soes not matter if the are so called pedigree or mix, neutering ever dog is not practical and in the end it still boils down to the owners either not knowing how to handle the animal or just not anticipating what it takes to have dogs like ours.

It's not just owners of bully breeds, anyone who owns any breed of dog should educate themselves on how to handle a dog, read body language etc. bully breeds don't cause more injuries than any other breed as far as I can gather. An American study had daxies as the most dangerous dog breed...I was reading an article a short while ago about a Pom that killed a baby...All dogs have teeth and claws and all dogs are capable of causing death or injury in the wrong hands.

Another dog destroyed because owners can't raise them properly and rescue centres are too lazy to do the necessary checks. Poor kid too. My boy was a rescue they didn't do home checks/ temperament check just wanted another dog off their hands. Disgraceful

When we got Rocky from a shelter we completed a form, had a home visit where they checked our garden and fencing and the security of the fence and gate, we were interviewed as to why we chose Rocky (we didnt, he chose us) and also asked about any children visisting our home.

We then had a follow up home visit to see how he was settling in. We thought this was all very good and responsible of them. He came from Woodgreen.

bullsmommy1 wrote:Another dog destroyed because owners can't raise them properly and rescue centres are too lazy to do the necessary checks. Poor kid too. My boy was a rescue they didn't do home checks/ temperament check just wanted another dog off their hands. Disgraceful

wow thats an extremley harsh statement. Sorry u have had a bad experience but my god......rescue centres are absolutley run off there feet mopping up after the mess of our throw away society trust me i see it every day....ok maybe not every day but at least 2 or 3 times a week. Rescue centres are NOT to blame here its parents not watching thier kids and owners not being responsible for thier dogs!

Dose it say what the kid was doing at the time? could the dog of become spooked or something, maybe the dog has had a bad experience with children in the past if he was a rescue dog?
When i got my old staff from a rescue centre no checks were done at all plus they didn't spot he had cancer so they couldn't of had a proper vet check done. I'm not saying the rescue centre is bad because without them the streets would be over run and so many dogs would be put down but maybe they should look at the checks more closely.
I bet kids get attacked alot by different dogs it just happens to be staffy's that get mentioned due to there bad name by ignorant people and bad owners. Maybe the parents should be watching the kids they could be doing anything to the dog.
The dog always gets the blame they never look at the owners.
I have no solution to this problem i'm just saying maybe they should look at the owners and the back round of the dog. It's not always the dogs fault x

the home where we got jimmy were very good indeed , they came out and did a home check to see if all was ok and suitable like the garden fences etc , then we saw the behavourist who had an hour long chat with us about jimmy ,they also did a cat check to see if he was suitable with our cats , the home are also assisting his breathing condition via vet checks and medication all which they provide... as said before any dog can be aggresive if pushed its just a real shame that such a sweet natured inteligent breed like the staffy gets such a bad name ...

blaze wrote:

bullsmommy1 wrote:Another dog destroyed because owners can't raise them properly and rescue centres are too lazy to do the necessary checks. Poor kid too. My boy was a rescue they didn't do home checks/ temperament check just wanted another dog off their hands. Disgraceful

wow thats an extremley harsh statement. Sorry u have had a bad experience but my god......rescue centres are absolutley run off there feet mopping up after the mess of our throw away society trust me i see it every day....ok maybe not every day but at least 2 or 3 times a week. Rescue centres are NOT to blame here its parents not watching thier kids and owners not being responsible for thier dogs!

sorry to disagree with you carly on this occasion the lad in question is a mates nephew and his sister and her boyfriend were ashured all the checks for child and animal ageshion had been done as the dog in question was in there care for three weeks before re homeing (when infact it turns out he had been at the shelter less than 1 week)i agree they should have been a lot more carefull and never left him alone with the dog.(infact they were less than 6 foot away when attack happend)
and i do not doubt this is an isolated case as i trully beleive dog shelters do a great and hard job with the limited funds avalible to them