USA Attitude?

a reply to: DarkvsLight29

All completely true.

If a dog were attacking a loved one of mine, I would do whatever I had to to defend them. If a dog was in the yard and growling menacingly at my Darlin' we would try to remove ourselves from the situation. I once attacked a dog who was in the process of ravaging one of our cats, who miraculously lived, after several stitches to his stomach. I had bites, oh yeah. Dumbass.

A barking dog? A dog merely in the yard? Even repeatedly? I would have a problem with the owner, not the dog. You can't reason with a dog, most of the time. Sometimes you can't reason with people, but it seems like more effort could have been put forth in this story. Didn't seem like the dog's fault -- just a matter of not being raised properly.

ETA: U.S. citizen living in the Caribbean, not that it matters. I don't think issues like these are necessarily cultural.

Im in Illinois..and this story sounds right for around here too. You can shoot at anything at almost anytime..except people of course. If a stray animal of any kind (unless protected by Feds) wanders into your yard you may kill it. If it is a person..the local sheriff would tell you (if he likes you or your family) to drag the body into your home after..because you may kill a person in your home..but not in the yard That's the truth..

originally posted by: Starbuck799
a reply to: DarkvsLight29

All completely true.

I 100% believe you.

They way you described Your story just reminded me of The Hills have Eyes or wrong turn films... Go to far/stay to long your toast lol.

Funny bit was they all looked the same sept some had tits,, I'm still laughing my ass of :-) must be the heat over here.

originally posted by: DarkvsLight29

originally posted by: Starbuck799
a reply to: DarkvsLight29

All completely true.

I 100% believe you.

They way you described Your story just reminded me of The Hills have Eyes or wrong turn films... Go to far/stay to long your toast lol.

Funny bit was they all looked the same sept some had tits,, I'm still laughing my ass of :-) must be the heat over here.

Oh, it was hot alright. Like over 100. Not only that, but we knew not to stop. The Jeep was new, so there was no fear of the Jeep breaking down. But we had that feeling that with a breakdown, that would be bad.

originally posted by: Starbuck799

originally posted by: DarkvsLight29

originally posted by: Starbuck799
a reply to: DarkvsLight29

All completely true.

I 100% believe you.

They way you described Your story just reminded me of The Hills have Eyes or wrong turn films... Go to far/stay to long your toast lol.

Funny bit was they all looked the same sept some had tits,, I'm still laughing my ass of :-) must be the heat over here.

Oh, it was hot alright. Like over 100. Not only that, but we knew not to stop. The Jeep was new, so there was no fear of the Jeep breaking down. But we had that feeling that with a breakdown, that would be bad.

I wouldn't stop ether, I'd be like camera out just incase it turned into some horror movie or stranded far out with strange people whom you don't know and possibly not even a phone to call/cell phone signal for help.

Well you survived and that's good news, next time take a baseball bat lol.

originally posted by: argentus
A barking dog? A dog merely in the yard? Even repeatedly? I would have a problem with the owner, not the dog.

What do you do if the owner won't do anything and the cops can't? Take it out on the owner and that's assault.

a reply to: intrepid

Better him (or her) than the dog, yeah?

My way might be to create an audible nuisance of my own. Police respond. Maybe even an arrest. rinse. repeat.

It has been my experience that on the rare occasion where people are completely unwilling to discuss a problem, and the local laws don't support mitigating it in any way, then you have to be creative about presenting the issue to the person in a different way.

originally posted by: argentus
a reply to: intrepid

Better him (or her) than the dog, yeah?

No. Not in Ontario. They take assault seriously. I learned that the hard way when I moved here. I'll take an animal cruelty charge instead.

a reply to: intrepid

why choose one or the other, until a person has exhausted ALL their options?

originally posted by: argentus
a reply to: intrepid

why choose one or the other, until a person has exhausted ALL their options?

2 years of little sleep? "Exhausted" is the correct word.

I dealt with violent dog, strange I was angry at the time, neighbors laughed at me yelling at it, as that is which has stopped a vicious dog in its tracks, before in similar situation... more than once.
I was so offended by the laughing, I went back and called out to the young miss, and made her apologize..what if there was a little kid or person old and unable to defend there self against such a violent dog?
Just walking down a road in the late day, a dog such as that off it's leash... crazy.
I put animal control on speed dial and threatened them with reporting too, police, but really it is animal control that you should call.
Leash laws are different everywhere and not all police, know how to deal, people working in animal control have better grasp on the nature of a situation.
And how to calm dogs..the young woman in her early twenties lied and said it is a service dog, yeah right, that dog in a building for the blind or someone epileptic? What!?
So, if you have animal control services in your area, they can count the times a dog tried to attack, vaccinations ect. And go from there.
Taken into account no one should get bitten, animal or person... to much trauma, then deal in court with all the proof... but it should not get that far, as the police would like to believe that is the point it has to get to, animal control...I have faith knows better... having studied veterinary science and what not.
Hope things come to a peaceful resolve, OP.

Just realized the dog in OP, was shot?... should not have been off leash... sorry don't know why that part didn't sink into my brain.
Not sure how that would be dealt with in my area, people love dogs a lot...?

originally posted by: Starbuck799
So my brother moved from Canada to the States about 10 years ago. Tennessee, just outside Knoxville. He recently related a story to me that I found odd:

My brother's neighbour was having a hard time with his neighbour, whereas his neighbour's dog was barking day and night. Brother's neighbour spoke to his neighbour telling him that the dog's constant barking was causing stress for him and his family, and was there please something that he could do about it. Brother's neighbour's neighbour tells him to F-off. Brother's neighbour calls police about dog's constant barking. Police show up and speak to neighbour with dog. Officer comes back to my brother's neighbour and tells him that he isn't going to do anything about the dog, and that my brother's neighbour should do whatever he needs to do.

Next day, said dog wanders onto my brother's neighbour's property off-leash. My brother's neighbour pulls his .45 and shoots the dog dead. Neighbour with dog calls the cops. Cops come and tell the owner of the dog that he should have done something about the dog's barking, and the officer left, and that was the end of it.

Is this the normal matter in which American's deal with problems? Is this a normal reaction from the police in such a situation? Just wondering what my American neighbours think?

Cool story bro. Had to put my waders on it was so deep in it.

a reply to: intrepid

Believe me, I've been there, which is how I arrived at our solution for neighborhood noise nuisance.

We couldn't:

1) get any help from the police
2) assault the source
3) ignore it

We had to make a really creative "attack" to drive home the importance of the nuisance, which eventually caused a hostile reconciliation.

Anyway, getting a bit off-topic of the dog shooting. I wasn't there, so I can't really judge. I just hope that in similar events people take into account that the dog(s) are doing as they were nurtured (or not), and the people who own them bear the responsibility of the dog's actions.

a reply to: Starbuck799

That sounds about right. Welcome to the South!

How is the US Attitude???

Overworked, resource poor,local Cop attitude & there are bad neighbors EVERYWHERE! attitude, but it's pretty unfair to tag this as a US thing as a whole.

Still it's bad the dog wasn't re-homed and a can of whoop #$% opened up for the owner.

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
a reply to: Starbuck799

SHooting the dog is illegal most anywhere in the US, unless its causing issues. Disarming a firearm in a city is usually a no-no, too.

but a barking dog....what would you do to stop it? Dogs bark. Its what they do. In our community, the police will point out that you can ask the dog to be quiet, but it probably won't work, then they'll leave.

You can train the dogs to stop barking. Just most people don't know how to do it or don't really care. Before you ask me how? Google is your friend.

a reply to: Starbuck799

The strangest thing was that they all waved at us as we drove by.

My kind of people!

They waving wasn't necessarily friendly. More a I see you. And you welcome, As long as you ain't a poaching our game and messing our stream.

Mountain folk call everyone else Flat Landers, can't hunt, can't fish and can't fix nothin...

Edit to add:

One time I had a friend that lived up at the end of one of those dirt roads, we went plinking one day with .22s back up on his family property. No s***, several of the local folk came up and surprised us while we were plinking cans, they were suddenly there, standing around us with .30 30 rifles and shotguns, we never heard or saw them coming, they just appeared. Straight out of nostalgia, the Movie Deliverance.

Now it turned out alright cause we was with Chuck.

I gotta say, I am not from such parts, I'm city bred and raised, but now I live in a rural mountainous area of France, and there is much the same attitudes and behaviors!!!

We had a couple of guys come up here on night poking around with flashlights, and our neighbor jumped out the window in his undies and a big rifle, chased them down the single lane gravel road (that is a twisty turny thing with a dangerous drop off on one side) shooting at them out the window of his car. They went into a dead end, and had to get out, by then about five other neighboring farmers had joined them with their rifles and kept them standing there pissing themselves until the police came.

The cops kept giggling at all these men out their in their underwear and big ass guns, holding in cheek these three wannabe gangsters from the city. This wasn't a legal response in France, by far- these men (our neighbors) could have gone to prison for this. As it was, the cops are locals, everyone is pretty much cousins anyway, and they shrugged and said, at least we won't have anymore of this happening up at yer place!

True enough, we have never had another problem again. I am sure they spread the word that there a bunch of crazy dangerous inbreeds up here.

The thing is, the cops don't want to get too involved in these local conflicts because they tend to drag out and get really big. The people aren't spending any energy on international news and politics, they focus on the local stuff, and an argument between two people over something simple can turn into a nasty family feud for generations.
I think they sort of enjoy it in a perverted way.

So the cops don't want to get in the middle and get called out every night for something stupid like "he parked his car right next to my property! When he opens the door, it crosses over the line!"

This is all the same kind of stuff I have always heard and seen about rural areas in the US too, so that makes me think it is not just americans.

Um. I am not American, but shooting dogs because they stray is rather extreme. If that happened in (ahem) a place like the UK the shooter would be prosecuted. I think in this case both neighbours showed antisocial behaviour.

Edit to add that barking dogs is not really a police matter unless a law if being broken. Why involve the police?