Did they deserve to die?
A tragic ending that could have been avoided.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know I love dogs. Sure, I guess you can say most people love dogs, but most people don’t quit their full-time jobs to start their own business working with them. Over the last eight years, I’ve done everything from grooming to daycare, holiday care, training and retailing dog food.
Before retiring from training and going full-time at uni, I’d trained over 200 dogs. And I learned firsthand that every breed, no matter the size, is capable of developing behavioural and aggression issues. Some breeds are more discriminated against than others due to their predisposed nature of aggression.
Some of the most aggressive dogs I’ve met during my training days were small dogs. Dachshunds are notoriously vicious closely followed by Chihuahuas — I’ve been bitten by both so I feel like it’s a fair statement to make. Breeds like Staffordshire terriers, Rottweilers, Rhodesian Ridgebacks and Mastiffs cop a lot of flack for being ‘aggressive’ and ‘dangerous’. Which obviously, even though dachshunds are vicious as fuck, they aren’t capable of ripping your throat out (wouldn’t stop them from trying though).
So when I saw in the news that a meter man had been mauled to death by two dogs — a mastiff and a ridgeback — my stomach dropped as I knew it would be a death sentence for those dogs. Yes, of course, it’s incredibly tragic that a man also lost his life… but he wandered about on their property to read their electricity meter. How were the dogs to know he wasn’t a threat?
Towards the end of the article, it reads: ‘Energex urges people with dogs to register the animals via their website.’
Seems like logical advice. Stupid, lazy owner not…
Oh, wait. The dogs at the property had been registered by this process.
SERIOUSLY!? It could have been avoided.
I didn’t think of it again until I was checking out at the shops today.
The checkout lady trying to make conversation said ‘Did you hear about that man who was mauled by those dogs over the weekend?’
I replied, ‘Yes, that was so horrific.’
‘Yeah, I actually knew him. He was my brother’s fiance’s first cousin.’
I tried to do the math in my head.
‘Yeah the dogs were put down today,’ she said, with little empathy in her voice.
I bit my tongue. I didn’t want to seem insensitive because yes, it’s horrible, a man died, but somewhere along the line, the energy company fucked up. It was human error, not dog error, they were just doing what they thought was right. Protecting their property.
‘Yeah, have you seen The Walking Dead?’ she asked.
‘Um, yeah,’ I replied, not sure exactly where she was going with this.
‘That’s what he looked like. You know like how the zombies just feed on them?’
‘Jesus, that’s horrible,’ I said. Can this conversation please be over? All I can think about is those poor dogs and their owner, who even after having done the right thing and registering his dogs, his dogs are still dead.
The dogs had no previous history of aggression, they weren’t registered as dangerous dogs with the council. It’s beyond tragic that this all could have been avoided. What’s the point in registering your dog if they just enter your property anyway?
Condolences to the man who died ‘walking-dead style’, I wasn’t a huge fan of the checkout lady who seemed to take pride in glorifying his gory death. And of course to the two dogs, who were just acting out of instinct, doing what they thought they were supposed to.
