dog attack.. advice please

teggers5

Hi all.. asking for my aunt
She owns 2 german shepherd dogs that have free run of her (enclosed ) property during the day and are put in a run at night.
She lives in a very rural area. Last Friday a neighbor of hers was out walking her small dog off lead past my aunts house.
The small dog ran to the gate and began barking at the gsds who managed to grab her through the bars and mauled her. She had to be pts
now the neighbours are demanding the gsds are destroyed.
My view on the matter is,my aunts dogs were contained on their own property so by law neither them nor my aunt is at fault.
I'm going to ring the dog warden in the morning to ask his advice. An awful sad upsetting time for everyone involved.
Has anyone any idea if the neighbour can insist on the dogs being destroyed?

Nody

He can insist on what ever he wants but the only one who can actually enforce such an opinion (beyond your aunt) is a judge.

teggers5

Thanks Nody. She'll just have to wait and see how far they will take it.

borderlinemeath

As awful as the situation is, the neighbour was the person with the dog not under effectual control. Did she attempt to call the dog back from the gate? Or did she feel it was ok for her dog to antagonize the gsds because it was small? Did her dog have "form" with the dogs before? If so she was the irresponsible one letting the dog go to the gate in the first place. A terrible situation from all sides.

teggers5

It's a horrible horrible situation.
A few weeks back she was walking past with her dog, again off lead, and same story. Her dog barked at the gsds through the gate.
My uncle was out in the yard at the time and told her to call her dog away because if his two got near her (dog) it wouldn't end well. She laughed it off!

DBB

There is no legislation in Ireland that provides for injured canine parties in a dog-dog attack. Humans are covered, and livestock are covered, but dogs themselves are not. Therefore, there is no legal framework within which a judge can order the destruction of a dog due to it attacking another dog, no matter where the attack happened.
The only possible angle the owner of the unfortunate small dog has is a civil case for damages, but she would have to prove negligence on your uncle's part to do so. Now, perhaps it could be argued that the GSDs should not have been able to grab a small dog through the gates, and were they my dogs I would be coming up with some fencing design to keep them away from the gates so that members of the public simply cannot access them at all.
As others have mentioned, under the legislation there is a chance that it was the woman herself who was breaking the law as she did not have her dog under effectual control, but I'm not sure I'd spring this on her at this point... I would let the wardens do so if they see fit.

aaakev

I certainly wouldn't be the one to contact the dog warden OP, your aunt has done nothing wrong. People like that neighbour piss me off, hopefully its just the shock talking and se sees sense and that it could have been avoided if SHE had done something different

maggiepip

aaakev wrote: »

I certainly wouldn't be the one to contact the dog warden OP, your aunt has done nothing wrong. People like that neighbour piss me off, hopefully its just the shock talking and se sees sense and that it could have been avoided if SHE had done something different

The owner of the little dog should not have allowed the dog up to the gate, but to be fair, as the owner /s of the German Shepherds appeared to be aware the dogs were capable of this, they should have blocked or wired off the gaps in the gate properly. Dogs can accidentally slip leads and stray dogs wander, so it sounds like it was an accident waiting to happen.

aaakev

maggiepip wrote: »

The owner of the little dog should not have allowed the dog up to the gate, but to be fair, as the owner /s of the German Shepherds appeared to be aware the dogs were capable of this, they should have blocked or wired off the gaps in the gate properly. Dogs can accidentally slip leads and stray dogs wander, so it sounds like it was an accident waiting to happen.

While I do get your point I don't agree that the OPs aunt should have thought to protect other people's dogs from their owners potential negligence.

nuckeythompson

it is the property owners responsibility to ensure the dog cannot injure anything or anyone through the gates. my gs bit a child through the gate. the kid put his hand in but a civil case was taken. judge ordered my to pay medical costs but request for further damages were denied as I had a beware of dog sign. kids parent failed in duty of care

Knine

A terrible situation for all however like mentioned above if I owned the Shepard's & I had the breed for many years, I made damn sure they could not have accessed a gate where they could pull a small dog into their yard. I hope your aunt sorts that issue out.

DBB

I think it's good practice, no matter what the breed or make of the dog, for their owner to take all reasonable steps to ensure that passers-by, whether adult, child, or dogs, cannot get access to their dogs. For everyone's sake.

h2005

So because of this woman's negligence she wants 3 dogs to die? Makes absolutely no sense to me.

Knine

DBB wrote: »

I think it's good practice, no matter what the breed or make of the dog, for their owner to take all reasonable steps to ensure that passers-by, whether adult, child, or their dogs, cannot get access to their dogs. For everyone's sake.

Absolutely. None of my dogs can access the general public. That is what responsible people do.

DBB

h2005 wrote: »

So because of this woman's negligence she wants 3 dogs to die? Makes absolutely no sense to me.

In fairness, that's assuming she should be expected to accept all liability. See posts above.
It's probably also fair to assume that she's deeply traumatised by what she saw and not thinking straight. I'm not sure I'd have a terribly measured immediate response either if I saw my dog being killed by another's dogs right in front of me

teggers5

Thanks so much to everyone for their advice. I will pass it on. After speaking to my aunt this morning, when I first heard of the incident, I recommended she sort the gate issue for her dogs sake more than anything. As in put up close mesh wire etc. .
I'm hoping the neighbour is just not thinking straight after the trauma. I know I wouldn't be. I experienced something similar a couple of years ago where my dogs (on lead) were attacked by a loose gsd. Thankfully my dogs only suffered minor injuries thanks to a passerby who stopped to help but it was a terrifying experience all the same.

RosieJoe

Quick question, is the gate at the boundary of the property or is it only accessible by going into the drive or yard?

If it is the latter, I'd have thought there was less need to put a mess up on the gate.

teggers5

RosieJoe wrote: »

Quick question, is the gate at the boundary of the property or is it only accessible by going into the drive or yard?

If it is the latter, I'd have thought there was less need to put a mess up on the gate.

It's at the boundary of the property. An electric gate that is always closed.

RosieJoe

teggers5 wrote: »

It's at the boundary of the property. An electric gate that is always closed.

I'd definitely mesh it up. Stop it happening again