I’ve never understood the logic of this. The farmer isn’t going to put the sheep into hospice care; at some point, sooner or later in the sheep’s life cycle, he’s going to maul the sheep himself in a slaughterhouse. And virtually everyone involved in the process of capturing the dog and putting her to death eats slaughtered livestock every day.
Oh come on, now. I’m a vegetarian and I understand the reasoning. If the dog killed the sheep, it can’t be sold for meat, nor is it producing wool any longer. That’s like being OK with a dog digging out swaths of planted crops; it affects your bottom line.
Furthermore, the farmer did not order the dog to do this. Therefore it is labeled as untrustworthy, right or wrong, as the animal has to obey its owners.
I don’t know the specific situation, but if you live in livestock country and your dog gets out and kills livestock, you aren’t going to keep that dog long. That sheep was someone’s property, someone’s livelihood, and I understand the rancher’s position.
Sad, though.
…aaand my faith in humanity gets another nail in the coffin. I hope the vet told the family about the staples and they feel crushing guilt for the rest of their lives.
That is such a unfair assessment. Of course we wouldn’t want the family to abuse the dog. But you can train a dog without abusing it. Every time I see someone put something like this, I hope and hope the next time the person does something wrong (and it will happen) that THEY have to face the possibility of certain death.
At one point someone was provoking my dog, and he started to get agressive in response before I could intervene. I did intervene and I walked away with my dog. My girlfriend later told me she was so afraid the dog would have bitten the stranger and have to be put down. I was like :dubious: - nobody is putting my dog down, I’ll drive to the folk’s house and hide him there. It won’t happen.
I’m so sorry for your loss, brainstall.
Eh. The dog is someone’s “property” to the same extent the sheep was. I don’t know if the same person “owned” both animals in the case in this thread, but typically I have seen people asserting that someone else’s dog must die (i.e., Farmer Brown calling for the death of Miss Jane’s dog for attacking or even chasing livestock), using terms like “monster” and “dangerous.” If the sheep has cash value, Farmer Brown can be made whole with cash payment, but people often characterize a dog as evil for doing what predators sometimes do and Farmer Brown himself does on an industrial scale.
Did the rescue give you any indication that anything can be done? If they would be willing to release the dog to someone who doesn’t have kids (or some other requirement to reduce their liability) maybe you can network through Facebook or something to find a new home for the dog.
My heart is broken. Truly. I hope he told the family.
brainstall - I wish I had advice or words of comfort to give you.
StG
Yeah, I can see both sides. I mean, from the farmer’s perspective, that dog is a liability now, and I can see them not wanting to live beside a dog that kills their livestock. but I absolutely agree that such a dog isn’t evil. It’s just a dog, doing what dogs do. I also totally hear you when it comes to the awfulness of industrial farming.
My sense was that she was going to be a hard dog to place from the beginning. High energy, working breed, but with a physical issue (similar to mild hip dysplasia) preventing her from being suitable as an active sports dog. Too much dog for the average home, not enough dog for a working home. She needs more than just a home without kids.
I was, I think, her last chance foster home. I would take her back, but I cannot keep her permanently. She is not cat friendly, and my cat was here first. If there was another home to take her, I would hope the rescue would choose that over having her pts, though time is running out and options are limited.
I’m crying over here.
I am so sorry for you and for her. I know how much your heart must be breaking. When we foster an animal, we love them. We have to, otherwise the animal in our care won’t learn to trust and love back. I hope that something can be done to save her, but if she has to cross the Bridge, please remember that you did the best you could and offered her love. Many critters die without being loved.
Too much risk for my tastes. I also believe that people are far more important than animals. Thus, I respectfully disagree with you. Dogs cannot be reasoned with. They cannot tell us why they bit that person. The only safe assumption (especially when children are involved) is that once a dog has bitten a human for no apparent reason, they are at high risk of doing it again. Not all dogs are capable of being trained to never bite. More importantly, there’s no way to tell whether your anti-bite training has succeeded until the dog dies without having bitten another human.
Rachellogram, it sounds like you don’t like dogs at all.
When I hear that a dog has bitten someone, I always figure the person provoked the dog. Many times that’s true.
Gracer, omg. 
Brainstall, I don’t think you can find her a normal adoptive home, but you must know other foster parents who might be able to help. I second networking the heck out of this on Facebook, and maybe a friend of a friend of a friend might come up with a suitable home.
I’m a shelter (and vet clinic) volunteer, but a failed foster parent. I’ve been fostering my only two foster cats for about five years now. :rolleyes:
[hijack]
I’d like to share this story. I think that its worth sharing, its worth re-telling. I’ll never claim that it was my story, buts just so powerful. Who reading it Can’t picture a standard plain old stapler from Staples?
Who reading this has the gall to say that they could stand to sit there, without reacting, while 31 staples are put through their ear, one at a time? You can’t cry. You can’t complain.
You can’t ball your hand into a fist and even strike back or even react, until more than 31 staples are imbedded through your ear.
Ka-chunk one.
Ka-chunk two.
Ka-chunk three.
By four, your face will be red and puffy. You’ll be Screaming inside in agony. The toughest tough-guy from the movies would have tears streaming down his or her face.
Ka-chunk five.
Ka-chunk six.
Ka-chunk seven.
By eight, I’m not even sure if you are capable of conscious thought. Your body might be shutting down from shock and from the shear inability to cope with the magnitude of that much pain through one of the most sensitive places on your body.
Possibly the Only thing in your mind more terrifying than staple number eight might be that you are No Where Near Staple 31. 
Some of you have dogs and most of you are having dinner tonight. This is why you cut up some of your steak and put it to one side of your plate for your pet.
Because they Earn it.
Every. Damned. Day.
[/hijack]
Is it simply out of laziness that people don’t try to rehab violent dogs? Well, laziness and fear
The OP’s story seems like one of those cases where the dog should be saveable, not abandoned because of one bite. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be a little scared around this dog too, but I’d be just as scared around other pets that people make out of wild animals: snakes, lizards, spiders, monkeys, etc.
I think we’ve just gotten into the rut of destroying any dogs that bite, like its normal, when in fact we actively live with lots of threats. So what if a dog bites you? Be more careful around it, don’t leave it alone with children, train it. Basically, treat it like a knife, a stove, or a gun. I really don’t agree with destroying dogs just because it bites and its kind of puzzling to me that people just accept this state of affairs
Full disclosure, we had a dog once. It bit me and drew blood when I was trying to teach it to roll over. As a result, I never tried to teach it to roll over again. We kept it, didn’t overreact and euthanize it or send it to obedience school. It was generally a pretty cool dog, but like people, sometimes it has its moods. I wouldn’t leave it a alone with a small child, just be careful around it
I totally agree that dumping a dog over one bite is a huge over-reaction and I kind of hate this family that gave up on this dog (especially since they then immediately brought home another dog instead of taking some time to do some research and reflection about what they should do differently to prevent another incident). However, I think the reason that this happens is because there are just so, so homeless many dogs out there that most people don’t even want to try to deal with a dog that is “damaged goods”. Lots of perfectly nice dogs are put to sleep because there aren’t enough homes for them. If one doesn’t act like you want it to, just trash it and find another one. There will always be many dogs to choose from.
Similarly, a cat that’s sent to the shelter with any sort of behavior problem is probably guaranteed to die unfortunately. My cats were stuck at a shelter for like 3 months before I adopted them and would have been euthanized soon if I hadn’t taken them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the cats behavior-wise. The only reason nobody else wanted them is because they were adult cats instead of cute kittens and they were a boring tabby color instead of something prettier. One shelter in my area just gives away adult cats for free because of how many they have.
I can see being afraid if it’s a very powerful breed that is capable of mauling people that people might become afraid (though I think anyone with kids would be really stupid for getting a dog capable of doing that much damage in the first place). However in most cases I think that people should at least make an effort to train their dog if there is a bite.
In this case, I do think it’s worth at least trying to network the dog’s story on Facebook to see if anyone who is sympathetic to underdogs might have the right home for the dog.
So, this information comes from a FOAF, eh?
Well, apparently the threshold for dogbites from ear staples has increased over the years.
In 2008 it was 14.
Four years later a dog bites on the 16th staple.
Now, we’re up to 32.
The next time this story comes around, it will probably be 40 or more.
Have you ever seen the aftermath of a dog attack on a flock of sheep - it isn’t like a predator attack at all, where one animal gets isolated from the flock, killed and eaten. The dog (or dogs) run wild, chasing anything that moves until they catch and kill, or the sheep just drop dead from exhaustion. Because the sheep are (generally) in a small paddock, they have no escape and no defence. And a “cash payment” isn’t going to cover (maybe) the loss of an entire flock, or maybe just the entire breeding season (oh, yes, stressed sheep abort), plus the emotional damage at seeing a substantial proportion of their livelihood destroyed by what is essentially (for the dog) play - I can see the farmer considering the animal that did that as evil. And they certainly are not going to countenance the risk that the animal will do it again, as experience shows is likely.
Uh, so you’re saying it’s like a slaughterhouse?
Sure it is, if it’s an amount commensurate with the farmer’s loss. Hell, the farmer was planning to sell the sheep for slaughter for cash himself.
Look, if your farmer is that sensitive, maybe he’s in the wrong line of work. However does he manage to rationalize sending almost all his animals to the slaughterhouse? Surely he’s not under some Temple Grandin-esque impression that being torn apart by machines in a slaughterhouse after a long terrifying journey through an industrial process is some order of magnitude gentler than being torn apart by dogs?
And if he can stomach that for cash, he can stomach a cash payment from a source other than the slaughterhouse.
And if he’s emotionally attached to the sheep and grieves for them, he can empathize with people being emotionally attached to their dog, whom he wants to kill.
In a nation that kills billions of farmed animals each year for money, sport, and simply because people are unwilling to change ingrained dietary habits, “play” is evil?
Well, I’m talking about the situation I described, where the dog is under someone else’s legal guardianship (admittedly, said dog should have been better controlled). Whether the farmer can “countenance” someone else’s dog’s life is probably a legal matter, or it should be.
That’s interesting. My wife and I were having a discussion about this story when it first showed up in this thread and I was saying it smelled a bit fishy and implausible and had all the hallmarks of an urban legend. I wouldn’t be surprised if there is some nugget of truth to the story, but as given, I’m having difficulty believing it, and your links further feed my suspicions.