Today, I was home with my daughter who has the flu (she's 16 months). We went for a long walk this morning, along with our 11 1/2 year old mixed breed dog (mostly border collie). We walked by a house where a German shepherd lives. Last year, my dog was attacked by this dog. The dog came running out onto the road (off of their property) and attacked my dog twice, leading to severe bruising and a couple of superficial wounds. Luckily, one of my closest friends is a veterinarian, and she shaved the area and cleaned it up. He limped for a few days, but was otherwise fine, the wounds healed nicely. The owner apologized. I reported him to the By-law enforcement officer as a warning, but did not press charges. About a week later, I was running by again. The dog sgtarted to run out, but the owner's grandchildren (about 12 years old) stopped him.
This morning on our walk, my dog was not on a leash. When we approached the house, I looked carefully and was cautious, but did not see the dog. My dog was walking on the opposite side of the road. Suddenly, just when I thought we were safe, the stupid German Shepherd came out of nowhere and attacked my dog again. I told the owner I would report him, blah blah blah. The owner told me he would make sure I was fined for having my dog off a leash. My dog took off and ran all the way home. When I got home, I examined him and he had a huge gaping hole with skin missing where you could actually see the bone. He was bleeding from the back-end and limping badly. I phoned the vet and made an appointment. After careful examination, she thought he might have a broken leg and required several stitches, which would be done under anesthesia. I left him for the afternoon. The vet phoned me after she did the stitches and said he had several "pockets" where the skin was literally torn from the bone in chunks, the dog narrowly missed a major artery (he would have bled to death had he bit it), and luckily he was neutered because that was what the dog was looking to do. She also indicated that he had serious bite wounds on either side of his p***s and to watch to make sure he can pee.
$650 later, he is home with tons of stitches, many bandages, a cone on his head and a shunt to drain the fluid from his wounds. He is on anti-inflammatories, pain medication and anti-biotics. We have to take him back in a couple of days to get rechecked.
My question is - if this was your dog, would you sue the owner? If you had the choice, would you have the dog put down?
I realize that my dog should have been on a leash (we live in the country so it's not really an issue), but the attack would have happened even if he had been on a leash because the dog came right off of his property. Thank God my daughter was in the baby jogger where she was safe. What would you do?
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