This is a report which came in from a very concerned and frightened resident. I wonder if there is anyone who would like to make a comment?
I had taken my 4 young grandchildren to Avon beach to build sandcastles at about 4.30 pm for an hour as they were very excited to be visiting me and to be by the seaside. We stayed till approx 5.30pm and then walked slowly back to my place and crossed the green at Mudeford Quay to look at the swans on the way. As we arrived there, 2 doberman dogs which were off the lead, charged into the water scattering the swans. The dogs then started chasing the swans across the water. Because they were quickly on to the swans they couldn't take off in flight. This excited the 2 dogs more and one of them honed in on a bird and the other joined it. They were too far away to see exactly what was going on but the 2 dogs were obviously still attacking one swan and I saw a wing up in the air above the surface of the water. It all happened very quickly and I was trying to look at what was happening but at the same time taking care of the children and also looking around to see who the dogs belonged to.
There was one other couple stood on the footpath, middle aged with a greyhound type dog on a lead. I asked them if they were the owners of the dobermans and they said they were. I asked them why they
weren't trying to control their dogs and whistle to recall them.
They asked me how I thought they could do that and I answered that in that case the dogs shouldn't be off the lead. The man was then quite rude asking If I would like to go and stop them. When I said that the dogs were obviously attacking the swans, the woman said that they
weren't and the man asked me to wade in and go to check on the swan.
I said that I was looking after the children and couldn't leave them and the man was rude again. This all took place over about 10 to 15 minutes. The dogs certainly were in the water for a good 10 minutes and the later dog to come back more like 15 minutes. It was certainly not a quick incident.
One dog then ran back to the couple in a very excited state and I felt that I had to gather the children next to me because I was concerned that the excited dog may snap at them. It was all most
unfortunate and we spent some time at home discussing the incident.
I decided to phone the police and report the incident. What disturbed me was the fact that the couple did not appear bothered by the action of their dogs but stood watching silently, If they had gasped with horror or in any way expressed shock or horror I would have had some sympathy for them. But they seemed by their rudeness to me to be indicating that they had a right to behave as they liked and so did their dogs.
The officer I spoke to said that they did not have the staff to send somebody over to Mudeford and because it was dark he felt it would serve no purpose, but he said that the report would go to the RSPCA so that one of their officers could go and take a look the following morning.
I have not followed this report up with either the police or the RSPCA.
But I have verbally reported the incident and spoken about it. I could ask my 8 year old grand daughter if she would write an account of it in her words and she would probably draw a picture to go with it.
Thats it. Hope that this is some use and maybe people could watch out for this couple of dogs, and their owners!
Comments anyone?
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