Victim Blaming

After the tragedy of a man losing his life in the execution of his job in QLD recently, I shared a reasonable article on my personal Facebook profile. Us humans often want to find who or what to blame, and often articles after such tragedies pander to that with extremist, alarmist, sensationalised reporting… blaming breed, owner, victim, policy, law… Instead, this one made some excellent points and demonstrated it’s not one factor that leads to attacks.
You can read the article here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-06/is-a-particular-dog-breed-more-likely-to-attack-and-why/101735692

A friend made a comment that got me thinking:

I wonder why articles that follow dog attacks are always focused on what the next victim can do to prevent it happening to them.
Where are the articles talking about what dog owners can and should be doing to make sure their dog never kills someone?

It got me thinking because yeah, why? This article did an reasonable job as it didn’t just blame the breed or the owner and did offer some suggestions about dog behaviour, or how a lock on the gate could have prevented it. But could they have done better?

It reminds me of being a girl… always taught how to spot situations where something could happen, what to wear, how to walk, how to defend myself in case of potential attack. Why don’t we teach people not to mug, rape, murder? Both are important messages, but one is victim blaming, in advance.

So knowing how to de-escalate a predator is absolutely important.
But how do we prevent our dogs becoming killers?

Know your dog; get training

It’s true that 90% of dogs live with us with minimal issues, despite a lack of training & knowledge, and us speaking another language. They are smarter than we give them credit for! But taking the time to work with a professional to learn how to read body language, train some basic control behaviours, and provide some biological fulfilment will serve you in good stead. Don’t wait for problem behaviours to happen, train early, train often, learn to live well with your dog.

While this is not a breed-specific issue, each breed has differences in behaviour, what will fulfil them, and the potential for damage they could do (the article also touched on this). All dogs have teeth and are predators.  While all dogs are individuals and you get differences in behaviour even within a litter, most breeds have been developed for specific purposes, and some of those aren’t compatible with family pet life. If you don’t have your dog yet, a training or behaviour professional will be able to help you with the selection process.

Familiarise yourself with your rights & responsibilities

And this is not just dog laws. Of course you need to know about relevant state legislation for keeping dogs (in NSW, the Companion Animals Act) and local Policy (in NSW, Councils can set policies where the law is not prescriptive). I also recommend being across the local welfare laws (in NSW the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act POCTAA).

What about property laws? Did you know under common law (I believe Federal), everyone has the implied right to access your front door? Utility companies also have specific access rights to read meters, perform emergency works, and the like. Neither of these are trespass.

Outside of training, doing your best to set your dog and family up with adequate fencing, locked gates, kennels & runs, will make sure you can abide by the laws and prevent tragedies. This protects your dog, you, your family, and the community at large.

Of course, there are also times shit just happens. You can do everything right and still get an undesired outcome. But at least you can’t say you didn’t try. Behaviour is complex, a rich tapestry of genetics and learned behaviour and the right now.
Go gently, and go with kindness.