I think that would be admission of guilt, which would automatically stick her with the bills. If they approach her with bills, she should tell them they were in the wrong for having an unleashed dog. If they want to take her to court, fine, but they’ll lose, I’d bet.
I had a vicious dog (actually the ex’s dog). He attacked lots of times. I believe my ex-roommate had him put down without letting me know (he attacked her cat). In retrospect, it was a good idea.
This may have been addressed, but why wasn’t the vicious dog muzzled?
Dogs aren’t that dumb - it was probably more a case of “non-pack, on our territory, not rolling over and grovelling in submission, BOOM” - this is sometimes a problem with packs of dogs and is what led to my mother coming home one day to find her neighbours’ Great Dane in pieces all over the front lawn.
The ‘introductions’ are the right thing to do, it establishes the whole ‘your territory so I’ll behave and be respectful’, ‘allowed on our range if you mind your Ps and Qs’ dynamic properly. Works for humans too - I assume you have introduced the gang to your postman and anyone else who needs access to your property?
Stainz - which dog are you referring to?
Actually, one other point relevant to the OP occurs to me - is it a dog or a bitch? My mother has a terrier which is basically a doberman in disguise - he has a mouth like a beartrap, a brain like a pebble and tended to react to aggression with undisguised glee. After one memorable incident where a boxer started something and ended up running up and down a field for a few minutes with a snarling terrier dangling from its cheek, mum decided he was uncontrollable due to testosteone overdose and had his cojones removed. Since then he has been much calmer and better behaved.
I worry about this also. When approached by an aggressive dog, my dog defends itself. I have way too many close calls with little off-leash mumsy’s fifipoos.
Unfortunately, most little dogs are also either very aggressive, fearless, or just rock-stupid, and are completely clueless how to act around larger dogs. They will get hurt badly, even by a gently-intended alpha-correction response from a larger dog.
More unfortunately, they are often owned by people who think that they are harmless to other dogs because of their size and let them run around off-leash.
Leash laws are in place to protect your dog from getting hurt, just as well as to keep it from hurting others.
What vicious dog?
No, likely the dog was thinking of the well-being of the one who feeds it. I had a german shepard once who killed 2 Rotts while my mother (the one who fed him) was walking him through the neighborhood.
I had a dog that would stand by and let me get used as a trampoline by thugs on the street, but would slaughter anyone that came within ten feet of my live-in girlfriend. Guess who was the one that fed him.
Also, I am frequently annoyed by the collective posters on this board who are very ‘book smart’, yet continue to express a lack of real-world common sense with issues like this. The owner of the dead dog has no one but himself to blame, and animals attack each other. You think six months of training is going to rid millions of years of evolutionary aggression. This is, after all, a dog eat dog world. The fact that you want to live in a ‘butterflies and dandelions’ kind of existence with the walls of your universe painted in pastels won’t change that. If you don’t put your rat on a leash, he may end up in the jaws of something bigger. Put the dog on a leash and you might not have to worry about his untimely death or what trouble he might get you into! What idiot doesn’t know this? It’s total crap that someone who abides by the laws set forth must be made to feel guilty for the actions caused by those who do not.
Your girlfriend is guilty of living in a neighborhood with an irresponsible and selfish individual who doesn’t have time to take ethics and his dog’s well-being into considertaion, nothing more.
Your girlfriend was not at fault; the neighbor was, for breaking the leash laws. This is a huge pet peeve of mine, since I pet sit for a living and I walk a lot of dogs. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stood on the sidewalk, holding onto a dog’s collar and practically lifting it off the ground in order to keep control of it while screaming like a banshee at some irresponsible jerk who lets their off-leash dog come running straight at me. And they usually act like I’m crazy for thinking something bad might happen. “Oh, don’t worry, Fido’s friendly,” they call casually to me, while I wrestle to hold onto a dog that hates/fears other dogs.
But that being said, your girlfriend wasn’t able to control her dog either, in the end, and that is a serious concern. I’m not saying that the dog is necessarily vicious for killing the smaller dog. That may have been pure instinct. But I do think she might want to seriously ask herself what would have happened if either she or the owner had got between the two. Would it have been okay, or would her dog have attacked the human, once provoked into that state? A little extra training couldn’t hurt, either way.
Update:
Well, as I said in the OP, the little dog didn’t die right away, ans as it turns out, it didn’t die at all. It was was just knocked out from the fight, and the vet was able to put everything right. It’s now being walked around the neighborhood by its owners on a leash. It’s also wearing a blue body cast-thing of some sort.
The neighbors, also did not press with anything legally, since I’m sure they know they wouldn’t have a case anyway.
As soon as my gf’s dog picked up the little one and shook it a few times, both owners grabbed for the little dog, yelled stop, and she dropped it.