Sunday, April 5, 2009

Biting Dachshunds: How Cute

If you read this story, you'll note the "cute" tone and that it's filed under "weird news":

It aint the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog. Just ask the ten year old Brooksville girl who was walking her two pit bulls Monday.

According to a Hernando County Sheriff's report, the unnamed child was walking her friends two pit bulls when three dachshunds escaped from their home and charged the big dogs. The sheriff's report says, "The one dachshund nipped (the girl's) right leg in the back right above the ankle. (The girl) stated that the pit bulls did nothing but look at the three dachshunds."

It's all ha ha ha until somebody loses an eye. Which could happen if a Dachshund bit a kid in the face. No charges were filed in this case and clearly it's being viewed as a snicker-worthy story. But if it happened the other way around with the loose Pitbulls biting the girl and the Dachshunds looking on? Would the story be reported in the same way? My guess:
The "scratch" reported in this article would be described as a "bite", the Pitbulls would have been seized and destroyed, the owner cited for letting his dogs roam, and the community would be clamoring to enact breed specific legislation to "prevent another Pitbull tragedy".

Oh and by the way, a 10 year old girl walking multiple dogs of any breed on her own is a lousy idea. A child is not going to be able to control multiple dogs of any breed if they decide there is something more interesting to do besides walk nicely on leash. I could easily imagine this Dachshund incident turning into some kind of less-than-hilarious biting scenario resulting in injured/dead dogs and bitten child who attempted to intervene. Responsible pet ownership begins at home.

11 comments:

Jan said...

I used to walk our Old English Sheepdog past a neighborhood house and whenever the Dachshund was out he would charge out and bite my dog on the hind legs and then run under a car. The owners thought it was just the cutest thing.

YesBiscuit! said...

Oh yeah, I can picture that. And no doubt they'd be all offended like if one day you turned around and pepper sprayed or kicked their darling li'l biter.

Janet said...

Biting dogs are not cute - don't care what size they are.

Anonymous said...

The difference is that pitbulls are way more likely to cause damage when they bite. I'm not siding with the dachshunds, the owner should have had them under control. It's pretty easy to punt a dachshund, not a pitbull.

Me said...

Compare and contrast the tone of that story with this one, in which a "pit bull" tried to play with a child.

Anonymous said...

So was the owner of the Doxie`s charged? Are they under quarantine? Are they now on the dangerous dog list in their town?
If not, Why not?
Little dogs are like buzz saws with their teeth. The girl is very lucky she wasnt badly injured. And I`m very proud of those Pitties for staying put.

Jay said...

[quote]The difference is that pitbulls are way more likely to cause damage when they bite.[/quote]

Tell that to the families of the people killed by these other Breeds,including Dachshunds.
I believe it`s 36 Breeds that have killed in the U.S. and ~52 worldwide.
That list includes a JRT and a Pomeranian.

http://nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/dog-bites/types-of-dog-bites/dog-bites-injuries/

[quote]No breed or type of dog has a particular method of attack or inflicts an exclusive type of injury. Claims that one breed of dog inflicts injuries unlike other breeds have no merit.[/quote]

YesBiscuit! said...

Lisa - Pitbull jumps on child - Alert the media and call the police! Oh, they did.

To my mind, it's not how much damage might be inflicted by dog A vs dog B, it's the bigger issue of irresponsible owners and media. Someday, maybe the Dachshund owner will have 3 large breed dogs and will let them run loose and bite kids. The Pitbulls in this case did not perceive the Dachshunds as a threat. If they had, the ending would be very, very different.

Katie said...

Bless those pitties for keeping cool heads. Somehow I don't imagine we would have been seeing a "pit bulls defend child from attack weiner dogs" story if they hadn't.

I have zero tolerance for loose dogs anymore, and size does not matter.

Caveat said...

As the proud owner of a Wiener dog, I can tell you that nobody in their right mind would want to tangle with him. Have you ever seen the teeth in a Dachshund's mouth?

The old 'pit bulls' do more damage when they 'attack' story must be retired. It's a crock. It was started by coneheads like Nelson, when the facts contradicted the other nonsense - that 'pit bulls' are more aggressive and more likely to bite than other dogs.

It's so easily disproved that I'm surprised anybody still trots it out.

Any dog that is out of control and bent on mayhem does damage. Any dog can open an artery or disfigure a person. Due to their wonderful natures, though, a miniscule number of them ever do.

Media have done a great disservice to dogs and their owners and 'pit bulls' in particular (lately). Worst of all, they've convinced a none-too-swift public that there are safe versus unsafe 'breeds'.

This really ramped up when the CDC released their infernal 'study' which was full of flaws but focused on 'Breeds of Dogs' involved in fatalities. Media twits latched on to the concept (without reading the actual paper) and have been hyping the NON-BREED, 'pit bulls', ever since.

Anonymous said...

I have a maltese dog and he's definitely a biter. Having been bitten by him a couple of times when I was younger, and let me tell you it hurt! He drew blood. Once he got older he was pretty much okay with us (if he wanted us to back off, he'd make snarling noisies, snap his jaws and if that didn't work, he'd bite us very lightly and immediately let go) but we have to keep him away from others because he will get aggressive with them and we don't want anyone getting hurt. So yeah, aggressive little dogs are no laughing matter.