Well, change of plans. I talked it over with my wife and we decided not to file a complaint yet, for a few reasons. First, the animal control lady herself told me all they'll do is give the people a warning. That won't accomplish anything. The dogs will still be getting out. There are also some stories about old friends I forgot about that had similar situations. One had the same problem, and kept filing complaints every time, but nothing more serious was done than warnings. The dog was still terrorizing people, even went after my wife once. The owners finally moved away a couple of years later.
I also live outside city limits, so when I called the local animal control, they told me I'd have to file the complaint with King County animal control, in Seattle. They'd have to drive almost an hour to get out here, just to give someone a warning, so they'd probably just file a report and that's it. This happened to my sister-in-law. She lives in the same county and had this problem. A dog came after her husband, but didn't bite. They complained about it, and nothing was done. The dog was still running loose. But the owners told all the neighbors that she rat-finked on 'em, and soon the whole neighborhood was treating her and her husband like dirt. It seems that nothing is done to really cure the problem until there's blood on the ground, when it's too late to prevent it. In the meantime, you've got new enemies living around you.
Maybe the owner got the point a little better this time than when my sister-in-law tried talking to her. She got almost no response. When I talked to her today, it was clear to me that the owner cared more about defending her dogs than about children being attacked, but I think at least she got the message that I mean business.
My own dogs getting out is another problem. It hasn't happened for a while, and the fence is almost done now. But as some of you pointed out, that needs to be the first thing resolved. Once it's done and no longer a problem, if there's another incident with those dogs, then we'll forget about animal control and go straight to the police. I know, "What about your kids in the meantime?" Filing a report with animal control now won't prevent that from happening anyway, and I need to have my own dog situation resolved first.
For now, we'll keep a sharp eye out for those dogs every time we go out, and I'll make sure my carry gun is easily accessible, no matter where I'm going. I'd have no problem using it if they charged me on my own property, like they did today. The only reason I didn't use it is because I couldn't get to it in time. If I could have, I'd be cleaning a stain off my driveway now. The idea of carrying bear spray already occurred to me. We have some of that at the store. I might get a can or two of that.
I appreciate everyone's honest opinions, but some are way off the mark. Some of you are assuming way too much. Who ever said anything about running away from the dogs, or running to the car? Read my first post again. I said we were
getting into the car. The doors were open and the three kids (ages 4-7) were already beginning the climb up into the car and into their car seats. I never said I told the kids to run to the car. I did the only thing I could, I tried to hurry them up faster so I could get the doors closed before the dogs reached us. I was standing on the passenger side of the car helping two of them, while the third was getting in on the other side, when I saw them charging at us. At that instant, my first concern was getting their little butts into that car and getting the doors closed. No one ran anywhere or triggered anything in these dogs. They saw us from quite a distance and decided we were the enemy before I even knew they were there.
Or should we just stand there and be confident that these two Rotts, charging, snarling, and barking at us didn't really want to bite us, if we just 'knew dogs' a little better? Gimme a break. I grew up with dogs. I've had many in the past, have two now, and I've had a pit bull. I know a thing or two myself. Go back a few months and read some of
my replies to those old dog threads.
I know dogs, but I don't know
those dogs. All I knew is that one of them charged at my daughter while she was working in our front yard several months ago, and now two of them were charging us unprovoked from across the street like they were hungry lions chasing wildebeest. I wasn't about to let my three kids be the guinea pigs to test these dogs' true intentions. They didn't stop because they were just joking and didn't really intend to hurt anyone, they stopped because I raised my arms up (to appear bigger) and yelled at them. They weren't expecting that, and it startled them and made them jump back (although they continued barking, snarling and snapping at us, clearly not 'just wanting to play').
Don't know dogs... Some of you read my post but still got the information wrong and then made a wildly off-the-mark, uninformed assumption about someone you don't even know based on misinterpreted information and what can only be defined as speculation, because it sure wasn't based on any facts.
But I still appreciate your honesty anyway.
