I was going to post on this, but Miguel beat me to it.
A larger dog grabs a puppy off of a woman's lap while she is eating lunch pic.twitter.com/vlR59F1Qnz
— Crazy Clips (@crazyclipsonly) June 10, 2023
I read his post and have a slightly different opinion.
Pepper spray for humans is notoriously useless on dogs, especially pitbulls.
There are plenty of videos of police spraying pitbulls with pepper spray and it doing nothing to alter their behavior.
Fighting breeds are bred to fight through pain.
I agree that shooting the dog while it is only attacking another dog might get you into legal hot water.
I still believe (disclaimer: IANAL) that a knife in the throat is the best option.
I’m trying to pull my dog out of the jaws of a pitbull?
What happens when that pitbull latches onto my hand?
A knife in the throat will effectively stop the attack while preventing my hands from being the next target for attack.
I would make the argument that it’s not just my dog I’m protecting but myself.
If I do have the draw my gun it’s probably against the owner who’s gonna be passed that I just slit his dog’s throat.
Always prepare for the worst-case scenario and stop planning for the best…when it comes to dogs attacking your dog or dogs. As J.Kb asserts correctly, go into the fight with a blade, I always carry one which cuts both ways. And just a note on this, when and if you have time to anticipate a dog attack and have time and ability to step between your dog and the approaching dog, you can bring the firearm to bear on the attacking dog.
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Defending your pet, will put you in danger of great bodily harm and perhaps death, depending on the breed attacking. It’s not illegal to enter into a defensive position to save your dog from a dangerous breed. If the surroundings are safe to fire a round into an approaching hostile acting dog, end the threat. If over penetration is a real concern, go to the blade and aim for the head, mouth, neck area as J.Kb said. In my last defense of a dog, (which I posted here in detail) I used two blades, one to protect which ever hand the dog attacked (actually in that case one was a pick not a blade).
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I currently have a new pup, an Anatolian Shepherd which is nine months old next week and weighs-in at 100lbs. When I walk him on a leash outside of his fenced in yard, and come across people walking their dogs, I always inform them from a considerable distance that I hope they have firm control of their breed, because I will do what it takes to defend my boy. After making that statement and receiving some acknowledgement and verbal assurance, I move my boy to a removed position away from the path of encounter (as far as possible) and stand between my boy and the other person’s dog.
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There is no law in my state which prohibits me from protecting my dog from lethal attacks, and no law says I must standby and hope my dog survives or that I am not allowed to fight on my dog’s behalf, which will certainly incur on myself great risk of bodily harm because a dog owner is negligent in controlling their dog’s aggressive behavior..
I have heard about pepper spray not having the desired effect on pups.
“I would make the argument that it’s not just my dog I’m protecting but myself.”
I think that is a perfectly valid argument, however, how do you demonstrate that?
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In this situation, the dog was clearly demonstrating no interest whatsoever in attacking people. The people were attacking the dog. So… what threat was there? The very existence of a dog that you do not like or trust will not get any charge dismissed in any way.
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Careful. That “I am protecting myself” is the equivalent of “I was standing my ground” when there was no real imminent threat.
As is always the case with any use-of-deadly-force case, the individual must face a well-reasoned imminent threat, which is accomplished by having witnesses to the event and in my case, a camera unit mounted to the rail which auto activates when the gun is pulled from the holster. However, if knives are used, the mere fact that the attacked dog’s owner stands in the way and engages the attacking dog physically, leaves the dog no choice but to engage the owner, initiated by the owner on behalf of the dog.
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There is no law that says the owner must not stand between the attacking dog and the attacked dog. The owner’s word that he stopped an out-of-control attacking dog from engaging him and or his dog, is all that is required to justify the defensive act. Who is to determine IF the attacking dog will or will not bring great bodily harm to the owner? If I believe I will be seriously harmed, I have a right to stop the threat. Waiting to see which gets attacked, me or my dog, is not reasonable. And what is reasonable is that I believed I would be harmed by standing ‘first in line’ in the event of the attack.
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In the case of this video, you’re right, there is no option of using deadly force unfortunately.
I think if Im ever in this situation I will see what happens… arm chair quarterbacking solves nothing. Whether it”law” or not, attacking my dog IS a direct threat to me and mine. Short dicked morons compensating with a mean dog can and will find themselves in a world of hurt..