Doing just that is becoming dangerous in some areas of Cyprus. JILL CAMPBELL MACKAY reports on dogs that have been attacked by others and steps we could take to prevent it happening
IT USED to be a pleasure taking the dog for a walk. Of course, one always had to be on the look out for the odd blunt-nosed viper and a wary eye was also kept if over enthusiastic sniffing took place over a chicken carcass just in case some evil minded person had decided to coat the remains with the deadly poison Lanate. But, on the whole, if you were vigilant, the twice daily walk was one that rarely brought harm to either you or your dog.
Distressingly a third danger element has been added which will concern our many dog owners: the sudden rise in untrained, and often dangerous, dogs which roam the countryside, combined with the increase in dog owners who then display no sense of responsibility when it comes to exercising their animal.
Alan Woods took his nine-month-old Paterdale terrier, Blue, out for a walk last month near the Tomb of the Kings road in Paphos. Turning a corner, he came across a 16-year-old girl out walking with four dogs – two Alsatians, one terrier, and a hunting dog – only one of which was on a leash. The hunting dog rushed at Alan’s dog, gripped it by the chest, threw it up in the air and, if Alan hadn’t literally prized open the jaws of the attacker, his dog would now be dead. Blue has huge puncture wounds on his stomach and since the fight has been too scared to go into the garden, let alone go outside for a walk.
“I knew the owner of these dogs as he lives up the road from me, but this young girl obviously knew nothing about the dangers of taking his four dogs out in a pack, in fact she was laughing all the time Blue was being tossed in the air, as if it was a great party trick. I went to the police and they gave the man a warning and a £25 fine but really his dogs should have a muzzle on and a leash when they go out amongst other dogs and humans. Next time it could be a small child that they decide to go for,” Alan said.
Mary Kearny used to be the proud owner of a sweet little Cyprus poodle. Sadly Coco is dead, another innocent victim of a highly dangerous dog-owning public.
“Last December I was taking my usual route down by the cliffs when, in a flash, came this Rotweiller. Its ears had been cut and its tail docked and it had on one of those fierce looking studded collars. I just knew it was a fighter and as I went to pick Coco up, the dog went for her. I was utterly helpless to do anything about it, she was tossed in the air, worried and bitten to death. The sick thing is, the owner of the dog watched the whole thing happen from about 100 metres away, then he whistled and his dog ran back to him before they both left,” Mary said.
They say there are no bad dogs, only bad owners. The worrying thing in Cyprus now seems to be that bad owners don’t know how bad they have made their dogs, either through over breeding, lack of training, plain cruelty, or down right ignorance.
Dogs desperately need to spend time with their owners to learn the rules of how to get along with them. Dogs that spend most of their time alone or in the company of other dogs will invariably become fearful, show aggression, or display overactive behaviour toward family members and strangers because they have never been taught how to interact correctly around people. If a dog is hardly ever allowed to come indoors, or be with other dogs or humans, it will be extremely difficult for that dog to distinguish between family, friends or uninvited guests.
I, like most folk, would hate to see certain dogs judged by stereotype – after all most dogs want to please their master – but its usually wrong or brutal training that turns a dog into a potential killer. Going out with more dog power than a person can physically handle is a recipe for disaster as a dog has roughly three times its weight in strength compared to a man, so a 60lb dog equals the strength of a 180lb man.
Cyprus has now introduced a policy of not allowing into the country any of the following breeds: mastiff, American pit bull terrier, American Staffordshire bull terrier, Kaukasisher Outscharka, Fila Brasileiro, bull mastiff and bull terrier.
But that isn’t to say that these breeds don’t exist here; in fact many of them do. Some of them are even used by amateur breeders as a ‘puppy cash crop’ or the offspring can be used in clandestine dog fights where the heavy betting is on for one poor beast to kill the other. There are substantial monetary rewards for the owner of the ‘winning’ dog. Some of these dogs will go on to produce litters of which the rejected puppies are then offered to neighbours and friends with the result that that cute puppy could have inherited some of the negative inbreeding, which will result in the animal becoming uncontrollable. When that happens it’s a short drive to the forest or the beach where the dog is dumped before becoming a huge danger to other dogs and their owners.
Carrying a pepper spray or smelling salts can help in the event of a dog fight but once a dog has the intention to fight only two hands hauling at the back legs to make a wheelbarrow out of the attacker ever works, and, rarely does one walk with a friend, so what can be done to keep safe our pets and people against this rising tide of uncontrolled snapping jaws? Laws have to be implemented to prevent anyone walking a dog in a public place if they are under the age of 16. Some countries now insist on muzzles being worn by all dogs of a certain size and breed (pit bull terriers for example) and an automatic fine is issued if your dog is found to be running off the leash.
Fines here should be much higher – in fact the national deficit would easily be paid off in three months if all the owners who currently hold the statutory six hunting dogs in captivity in their back yard had to pay a fine for keeping their animals in such disgusting conditions. Even if they were all forced to pay the licence fee it would be something towards recognising they have some level of responsibility towards ownership of an animal.
Owners should also be made to take out liability insurance to pay for any veterinary bills incurred in a dog fight, or in the case of a dog causing a road traffic accident any damage incurred to a vehicle will then be the full responsibility of the pet owner.
Every dog deserves a guardian who will never knowingly put him or her in a position where it will be allowed to be harmed. Sadly, we owners cannot give such a guarantee as we never know, when out walking, what is gearing up to pounce on our pet around the next corner.
