[Stealth]

my mom goes for a walk every morning around the neighborhood, and there's more and more dogs out there every day.  this morning she was walking and one of them attacked her, and she had to jump into the bed of a truck that was parked next to the road.  these dogs are big, usually german sheperds, pit bulls, etc. and my dad wanted to give her a pistol to go walking with, but what alternatives are there?  not something that will kill a dog, just something that will scare it away.  a air tazer maybe?

[aldo_14]

You can get a supersonic alarm for one thing.  There's probably also an equivalent of mace for dogs, too......  and don't you have police?  If it's a pet dog, then call them to sort out the owner.  If it's strays, surely you have animal control?

Resorting to a pistol...seems more dangerous than helpful.  You're as likely to miss and kill someone else as you are to hit a dog chasing you.

[Stealth]

Originally posted by aldo_14
You can get a supersonic alarm for one thing.  There's probably also an equivalent of mace for dogs, too......  and don't you have police?  If it's a pet dog, then call them to sort out the owner.  If it's strays, surely you have animal control?

Resorting to a pistol...seems more dangerous than helpful.  You're as likely to miss and kill someone else as you are to hit a dog chasing you.

well they're not strays, we live in a pretty nice neighborhood, and all the lots (or "land", or "plots", depending where you live, and what you call it) are really big, and a lot of people just let their dogs roam freely... it would be OK if there's just one of them here and one there, but because they're all roaming free, they get together in groups, so carrying a big stick, or mace, wouldn't really help when you're up against a pit bull, a rottweiler, and a german sheperd.  

there's a lot of people that walk in our neighborhood in the mornings (it's a nice place to, it's away from the highways and busy streets, lots of trees, squirrels running around, etc.), and occasionally someone will call the police, or animal control, and they'll come and pick up the dog reported, but the next day you just see it running around again.  the owners really don't care, and it's a danger.

my dad suggested a pistol in his fit of rage... a few minutes later he wanted to buy an air tazer.

[WeatherOp]

Paintball guns.  Put a paintball in a dog's rear at close range,and he won't bother you anymore. If he still bothers you, let loose with that Semi-auto fire right in his head.

If that don't work, its time for the Shotgun.

[pyro-manic]

Call the police. If the animals are presenting a danger to residents, then the cops can deal with the owners (ie. warn and then prosecute them) and/or shoot/catch the things. Don't resort to doing it yourself - I suspect that could land you in court.

If you want to fend off an attacking dog, you've got to hurt it a lot to deter it. Kick it in the face or throat, or target it's eyes (if you can). Don't let it knock you over - that's when it'll get really dangerous.

[Stealth]

yeah i suggested my mom take my paintball gun with her that's probably the best bet at the moment.  it makes a loud noise, and a sharp pain.  however, if you do that to a dog, i was thinking maybe it would piss it off even more, and then it would attack you at all costs.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Stealth


well they're not strays, we live in a pretty nice neighborhood, and all the lots (or "land", or "plots", depending where you live, and what you call it) are really big, and a lot of people just let their dogs roam freely... it would be OK if there's just one of them here and one there, but because they're all roaming free, they get together in groups, so carrying a big stick, or mace, wouldn't really help when you're up against a pit bull, a rottweiler, and a german sheperd.  

there's a lot of people that walk in our neighborhood in the mornings (it's a nice place to, it's away from the highways and busy streets, lots of trees, squirrels running around, etc.), and occasionally someone will call the police, or animal control, and they'll come and pick up the dog reported, but the next day you just see it running around again.  the owners really don't care, and it's a danger.

my dad suggested a pistol in his fit of rage... a few minutes later he wanted to buy an air tazer.

I'm sure if this applies in the Us like it does in the UK, but the pet owner has a responsibility for the control of their animal.  If their dog is attacking people, then they should be legally liable for that... if the police / animal control aren't handling this, then they are failing in their job, because there is no way in hell they should be allowing dangerous animals to roam free and uncontrolled.

Usually, if a dog attacks a person (unprovoked), the result is that dog being put down.

[Stealth]

Originally posted by pyro-manic
Call the police. If the animals are presenting a danger to residents, then the cops can deal with the owners (ie. warn and then prosecute them) and/or shoot/catch the things. Don't resort to doing it yourself - I suspect that could land you in court.

residents do call the police and animal control.  but the next day the same dogs are out again  we don't want to kill them (my dad suggested pistols in his anger, it won't happen ) just scare them... you'd think people would be responsible for their animals.  cause if a dog ever actually attacks my mom, or physically hurts her, then it'll be me that goes on a rampage... with a 12 gauge shotgun.

[WeatherOp]

Nah, a paintball at close range will stop a dog in his tracks, had to do it the other day to some dogs that just came up in the yard and they haven't came back.  But, mostly around here if a pack of dogs come in the yard and bothers somebody, they shoot e'm with the shotgun. Also, if you have to shoot it's eyes with the paintball gun or turn up the speed of the paintball.

[Clave]

Dogs are vermin and should be erased from the face of the earth

[Fineus]

I'm not entirely sure how things work where you are - but surely your mother would be risking confrontations with the police herself if she walked around the area with a gun? Even paintball guns would probably raise an eyebrow from the police.

I certainly know that if I was caught with a pistol in my area - calling it a protective measure against dogs wouldn't cut any slack with the police.

That said of course, your mother should be properly protected against dogs and - ideally - shouldn't have to worry about being attacked by them. As a lover of dogs myself, the last thing I'd suggest is actively harming the animal (this would have the fall out effect of obvious bad blood between your family and the owner of the dog/s).

If this kind of thing is a common occurence and you have some kind of community watch/council group in order - you could probably organise a larger complaint to the police that these animals are a serious threat that needs to be dealt with - and that the community of the area feels unanimous that action needs to be taken. Threaten to make enough of a fuss and most people will do something about it - if only to shut you up again.

Good luck

[Stealth]

yeah there's no way she'll walk around with a pistol, like i said, my dad just threw the idea out there, but my mom would never even touch a gun, let alone carry one.  i'm sure the same goes with a paintball gun.

but i think you're right, the only way to stop the problem is getting the whole community involved.

EDIT:  wouldn't want to shoot a dog's eyes with a paintball gun  don't want to do permanent damage to it. although i guess if a dog's running at you with its teeth bared, hair on the back of its neck up, and growling, you don't really care about not wanting to do permanent damage to it. i dunno.  i'm sure a paintball gun would be out of the question though.  maybe if the dogs come into our yard, but not to carry around on the streets.

[WeatherOp]

The only problem is that waiting to get a communtiy together to do something about it may be too late. But, since you live in a city, I don't know what would work. Most likely until something does happen, like the dogs hurting someone, nobody will do anything.


I like animals too, but when the get to where they ether attack your animals or family. You have to do something about it. Then you might get sued, because of those animal hugging groups out there.

[Styxx]

Have her carry meat. Poisoned meat, or ground beef with shredded glass. When the dogs get too close, throw the meat at them and keep walking. They won't bother her anymore.

Around here we had some serious problems with people with dogs on public parks - they walked with their dogs unbound, or had really big dogs (with no hopes of them restraining the dogs if the animals decided to do anything) such as rottweilers, belgian sheperds, filas, etc., and there were several cases of attacks against people. Until some people started to take small pieces of poisoned meat to the parks. They just dropped it on random spots, but they were somewhat visible - so only uncontrolled dogs ate them, then died. People started to take a lot more care with their dogs after that.

[vyper]

Originally posted by WeatherOp
Paintball guns.  Put a paintball in a dog's rear at close range,and he won't bother you anymore. If he still bothers you, let loose with that Semi-auto fire right in his head.

If that don't work, its time for the Shotgun.

At a paintball range my uni group went to once, there was a dog. It was the pet of the owner, but unfortunately not too bright. During a shootout in tin alley (lets just say it involved lots of steel drums to hide behind which sounded AWESOME) the poor dumb mutt walked into the killzone. Even more unfortunately no one thought to stop shooting and it got about five paintballs up it's arse. It limped all the way back to the base camp.

As for the solution to your mother's problem Stealth, I say pester animal control constantly until the little bastards are carted off (hopefully with their owners).

[Corsair]

Airzooka!  

[Flipside]

Shoot a staffy or Pit Bull with an Air-Gun and it wouldn't even notice....

First step is to ask your neighbors to keep their dogs under control, I would say. Second step is the local Police, if these dogs are threatening people, then they will probably have a word themselves.

Admittedly, it won't make you friends among your neighbors, but it'll reduce the risk to your mum.

Finally, if all else fails, pepper spray, dogs rely on their sense of smell, give them a face full of spray and not only do you give the 20 minutes of sensory hell, but they will certainly think twice about doing it again

[Liberator]

I was gonna say Mace or the equivalent.  It doesn't usually require a license like a gun does and it can be obtained at most nationwide retailers in various quantities.

If it's the same 3-4 dogs all the time and the owners won't pen them up(never chains it cruel) and control them, call the police and file a complaint.  Empahsize that the animal is dangerous, the owners have done nothing appreciable to alliveate the situation despite being made aware of it and that it has attacked a woman who was just out walking.

Something to be aware of though is that it's getting close to the time of year when female dogs go into heat and the local males are going to be agitated to begin with.  

I would actually suggest that your mother change her route until the owners or the police/animal control have solved the problem.

[Rictor]

stealth, I say this with nothing but the gravest concern for your well-being and the well-being of your family, I think its time you got an assult rifle. You know they're legal now, right?

An M4 will sort out any animal related problems you might be having. Permanently.

[Cabbie]

The idea of meat with poison sounds interesting, but in this setting, won't it set you up for a lawsuit?