Dog snapped at daughters friend.

I'm not researching your hypotheticals for you. Do your own research.

The fact is a dog bite is not an automatic death sentence for the dog. The circumstances are taken into consideration.

The last dog I applied to adopt had a bite history - more than one. The rescue was completely up front about the dog's bite history.

By your "legal standards", that dog should be dead. It's not.

Parents also have a responsibility to teach their children how to stay safe from harm, and when needed, keep them under control. Parents can't just abdicate all responsibility here.

Who in the heck is so foolish that they would actually allow their child to approach a strange dog in a public place to pet it? Without at least asking for the owner's permission if its ok, first? I can never get my head around parents who allow their children to do this. And it happens A LOT.

If you allow your child to do this, and it ends badly, well then I'm sorry, (not sorry) but I believe the responsibility is on the parent for allowing their child to approach uninvited in this scenario. You can't put the responsibility on the dog owner for that.

How did the thirteen year old teenager, in the original post, get to the age of thirteen without anyone ever warning her that when a dog growls at you, you don't continue to try and force your attention on them, instead you stop, and give the dog some space? Even if her family aren't dog owners, her parents must realise she is going to come into contact with dogs in other places.

My mind simply boggles at parents who don't teach their children some basic rules on how to behave around and respect dogs, and then expect to put all the blame on the dog owners and demand their dogs are destroyed when something their child caused happens.

You claim you know nothing about dogs, but you know enough to keep away from them.

13 is a teenager, stop infantilising her. She is old enough to understand that you back away from a growling dog, not keep trying to pet them. I think every poster has acknowledged that the owners should have intervened, so both were at fault here, no one has said any different.

I have two cats. Both adorable 90% of the time, but the difference with cats is they don't tolerate any human BS and will hiss, claw and/or bite without hesitation if you make them feel threatened. Or even if they're just not in the mood! A cat hissing is equivalent to a dog growling. Don't mess with a cat that doesn't want your attention.

A slightly peeved badger? Well, I've never met or known anyone to keep one as a pet, but I heard they don't like to be cornered and are quite vicious. I certainly wouldn't try to approach any wild animal and attempt to pet it - I'm not stupid.

I've raised one myself, and she knew by the age of 4 or 5 how to behave around dogs, even though we didn't get a dog of our own until she was about 10.

I don't think there is any excuse for a thirteen year old not to know that a growling dog means "back off". Seriously, their parents let them down here, if they let them off to go into friend's houses without knowing at least that much.

Cats are different yes, they'll just feck off and hide if someone comes into the house they don't want near them. Usually somewhere inaccessible or as high up of the ground as they can get - mine head for the top of the kitchen presses. Not so easy for dogs.

Going on my own experience of cats (and these two are not the first I've owned) have less tolerance than dogs and will give warnings far faster than a dog will. They'll also escalate faster. Back arched, ears flat, low growl, hiss, and then claws out. I have a few scars to show it.

@gameoverdude

I presume you've educated your kids on all possibilities of what could happen with other humans?

As much as anyone feasibly can, yes. Isn't that what parents do, teach their kids how to look after themselves?

I disagree. In the context of this thread you're translating that to mean if something happens, the pet owner bears sole responsibility, 100% of the time even when the reaction of the animal was triggered by the irresponsible behaviour of a human.

So I guess we'll have to agree to continue disagreeing on that.

Fair enough.

But before anyone complains about the so-called "irresponsibility" of pet owners, they should first take responsibility for teaching their children how to behave in the company of animals, in particular dogs.