Andrew Dickens: The devastation of dog attacks

Spent all weekend waiting for more details about the death by dog in the Bay of Plenty.  

This story upset me greatly. We heard about the victim. 

A cheeky cheery 4-year-old kid. His family say he had a little mischief in his smile, a little wid in his heart and a heart full of cuteness.  

We heard a statement from the Marae that something had happened suggesting this was in Maori circles. For a while I thought it was an incident on the Marae but it wasn’t.  

We heard another person was injured and presumably they were trying to save the boy. 

On social media I saw claims that the boy may have razzed the dogs but that’s not the point. That’s victim blaming.  

The thing that always gets me on these stories is that dogs should not kill people.  

Even though 4 people have died at the teeth of dogs in the past 5 years. 

Dogs are man’s best friend. Dogs are a useful tool. But dogs should never kill humans. The way robots are programmed to never kill humans. 

Even the dogs who’s jobs are to be security for humans should not kill other humans even if the humans are bad.  

The only dogs who kill humans are dogs who are owned or controlled by humans who do not know how to control their dogs. 

And if they have dogs who are not controllable, they are humans who don’t realise the threat those dogs pose. Therefore, they should surrender those dogs before bad stuff happens. 

And when these things happen the concerned start raising rules and regulations that the bad owners ignore and the only thing they do is irritate and criminalise good owners.  

Any dogs that kill that can be traced to an owner means that owner must face a custodial sentence.  

Because your weapon just killed an innocent child. I don’t know how you live with yourself and don’t you dare defend the dog. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, I spent all weekend waiting for more details about
the death by dog in the Bay of Plenty, and
it's a story that really upsets me, that upset me greatly.
We've heard about the victim. Apparently he was a cheeky,
cheery four year old kid. His family say he had
a little mischief in his smile, a little wild in
his heart, and a heart full of cuteness. We heard

(00:21):
a statement from them I that something had happened, suggesting
this was in Mildy circles. For a while I thought,
actually it was an instant on the Mariah, but it
was not. We heard another person was injured, and presumably
they were trying to save the boy. On social media,
I saw claims that the boy may have razed the dogs,
But that's not the point. That's victim blaming. Now. The
thing that always gets me about these stories is that

(00:41):
dogs should not kill people. But four people have died
at the teeth of dogs in the past five years.
Dogs are man's best friend. Dogs are a useful tool,
but dogs never kill humans the way robots are supposed
to be programmed to never kill humans. Even the dogs
whose jobs are to be security for humans should not

(01:02):
kill other humans, even if the humans are bad. The
only dogs who kill humans are dogs who are owned
or controlled by humans who do not know how to
control their dogs. And if they have dogs who are
not controllable, they are humans who don't realize the threat
those dogs pose. Therefore, they should not be in charge
of dogs. And when these things happen, the concerns start

(01:24):
raising rules and regulations that the bad owners ignore, and
the only thing they do is irritate and criminalize the
good owners. Any dogs that kill that can be traced
to an owner, to me says that that owner must
face a custodial sentence. They're just as guilty as the
dog because your weapon just killed an innocent child. And

(01:46):
I don't know how you live with yourself, and don't
you dare defend the dog? For more from earlier edition
with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news talks that be
from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio