Open letter to attack dog owner:
An open letter to the young woman who jogged past me with her black and white terrier on Woodsdale Road at Beasley Park at 9:15 p.m. on Tuesday April 5, and whose dog attacked my dog.
I just want to let you know that my dog is going to be OK. Her name is Alice. She is a 12-year-old beagle and she had to undergo surgery last night to fix her ear that was missing a large chunk after your dog bit her.
I don't understand why you just kept on jogging. My dog was obviously injured as she sat on the sidewalk yelping loudly. You seemed like a nice person. Perhaps you panicked.
While it would have been nice if you had stopped to check on her and apologize—or better still to help pay the $600 vet bill to have her ear fixed—I hope, at the very least, when you have some time to think about what happened that you will gain these important lessons from this:
1. Owning a dog is a big responsibility
2. Dogs can be more on edge when they are out in the dark
3. Dogs can also be more on edge when they are out running on a leash
4. If you know your dog can be unfriendly, it is important to have them in complete control when you pass another dog
5. It is better to err on the side of caution and give other dogs a wide berth when passing.
I am an advocate for making our cities more dog friendly, but it is situations like this that cause people to want to keep dogs out of public spaces. We, as dog owners, need to be committed to being responsible for our pets. They might be cute and cuddly at home, but it is different when they are out with all kinds of other stimuli around them.
Amanda Pope, Lake Country