Woman killed by two bull mastiffs in Galway

RoboKlopp wrote: »

Cheers, I heard a close relative but hadn't seen any confirmation.

So she may not have been a stranger to the dogs which makes this even more unusual imo.

That could be part of the problem. If she knew the dogs but only when the owners were home, they might have been trained to guard. So she comes to the gate, the owner calls the dogs & all is ok. But if they are out & the dogs are guarding she may of thought that she could come in as she knew them. Or she came in & surprised them.

If they left dogs, with access to the front of the house, then they could be in trouble especially if the gate wasn't locked.

DickSwiveller wrote: »

Why do people need to own these dangerous dogs in the first place? Why not just get a nice friendly dog that won't rip someone to pieces if it gets out of control? I associate these kinds of dogs with low life scumbags who try to look hard. I was walking through Drimnagh the other day and some gob****e had left his pit-bull off a leash, leaving it to run around the green. It's very intimidating for non dog lovers like myself. Even passing them when they're on a leash is intimidating.

It is very intimidating. I live down the end of a long boreen and there's a secluded walkway right beside my house. A few weeks ago during one of the nice sunny days I was doing some cleaning and my dog, a Maltese, was sunning himself in the porch. Next thing I heard the mother of all bangs. I seriously thought the roof had fallen in I'd never heard anything like it. I ran to the porch and there was a Bullmastiff off his lead staring in the porch window at my dog who, at this stage had ran away terrified. The bullmastiff ran straight into the porch glass, aiming to get at my dog who was asleep and oblivious. It put a massive crack in the porch and I completely fcuked the owner out of it. "He's harmless", he shouted at me. I mean what do you say to someone so simple and idiotic?
He was bringing him for a walk and let him off the leash assuming he was safe. Idiotic. I've no doubt in my mind that if the porch door was open and had that dog actually managed to get to my dog that day, he'd have made mince meat out of him.

My dog is very calm natured and afraid of his own shadow- but due to being a rescue and not knowing much about his life before I had him- possible issues with maltreatment and potential triggers, I would never leave him alone around children or let him off a lead. You can never be too careful.

Those who say "there's no such thing as a dangerous dog, just dangerous owners".. funny how all the dangerous owners seem to always have dogs with ferocious strength, and ones who cause more fatalities than other breeds.

steddyeddy wrote: »

Imagine telling someone who was mauled by a dog that there was no dangerous dogs.

All dogs are potentially dangerous.

It is up to their owners to train them and control them in such a way that the potential can't manifest itself

Reports today that the dogs were owned by her son.

I gave an example of a stranger, a child going in after a ball. You think its ok then that dogs are allowed to maul strangers to death, even if they are burglars?

What are you talking about?

We are talking about dangerous dogs mauling people to death.
Are you saying old folk should get a few mastiffs in as pets?

MadDog76 wrote: »

Here's another fact .......... BloodHounds have never killed a person here in Ireland, a woman was killed in Galway by two Restricted Breed dogs ........ I'm a big fan of the ol' facts ya know.

They probably did but the media report them as Pit Bulls:D;)

peasant wrote: »

All dogs are potentially dangerous.

It is up to their owners to train them and control them in such a way that the potential can't manifest itself

Some more dangerous than others it seems.

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I never really get the need to ascribe human characteristics to dogs, and much less the need to exclusively ascribe nice human characteristics to them. So dogs can be loving and good natured and loyal...but never violent or nasty, then it's the owner's fault.

They are dogs. There is no need to evaluate them in human terms at all. I suspect Freud would turn in his grave if he thought, just a hundred years down the line, we were applying psychoanalysis to dogs.

Darwin's doing handstands in his grave I suspect. Dog breeds that have went through generations of directed evolution to increase traits like aggression (gaurd dogs ect) are no more likely to be aggressive. The same people will tell you different breeds have different traits......but not aggression.

steddyeddy wrote: »

Is there any evidence yet to corroborate some of the poster's claims that the owner was irresponsible/abusive to the dogs and that the dogs weren't aggressive?

Why would you need evidence? I thought it was known that dogs are pure blank slates that only learn how to maul innocent people from their aggressive owners?