TLDR: Just escaped a Pitbull nightmare scenario (again!) by following advice from this sub. I first tried to avoid the owner and his pitbull, then saw he had shortened the leash and walked past while it was aggressively trying to jump at me. Shortly thereafter unfortunately a small dog was mauled despite me trying to warn the owner not to go near the pitbull. I’ll add a brief introductory paragraph for context and then more details below:
I just got back from what was supposed to be a casual walk into town. The weather is cold at the moment and we got snow and icy roads and people slip so one would think that pitbull owners would put a muzzle on their animal in addition to a leash in case they fall and let go of the leash. I previously had an issue with an irresponsible pitbull owner which led me to this sub (might write about this soon and how I dealt with it), but what happened today was just as dangerous and unfortunately a small dog was mauled!
What happened: I walk along a relatively narrow path that I usually take daily. It’s not very frequented although we do get tourists here so sometimes you meet up to about 10-15 people while walking there. So first I see a husband and wife with their normal dog, absolutely zero problems, zero aggression from the dog, all good. I continue to walk and a few minutes later I see a single guy with a “dog” and I immediately and thankfully recognize it as a pitbull, not merely because of the way it looks but because it’s trying to charge at me and the guy having to pull it back. I think about how to react best, I slowly walk to the side and look away so as not to trigger it even more by staring at it. Unfortunately it seems to have bad genetics or to be trained to attack humans, so none of that helped and I’m putting my hand in the pocket with the pepper spray…which may or may not work but I got nothing better since even knifes are banned here.
I’m just standing still for like 10 seconds, then take a look in the direction of the pitbull without staring at it and notice the owner has shortened the leash and now has the pitbull about maybe an arm’s length distance from him so I judge the situation relatively safe though the ground is icy and he’s dragging the rest of the leash which is about 15 ft long behind him so it can easily get stuck in the woodwork and slip from his hand or cause him to slip on the icy road. He has his phone in his other hand and is on a call or pretending to be, probably to avoid saying hello like a normal person would in this area.
Anyhow I walked past and carefully and slowly looked in general direction of the owner and the pitbull tries to immediately leap/jump out at me but thankfully it’s pulled back. I am like “thank goodness I waited for him to shorten that leash and thanks to banpitbulls ( this sub ) because it recommends avoiding pitbulls altogether if possible”, which is why I decided to wait and would have walked in another direction if the guy hadn’t shortened the leash.
So I continue across a little hill and sure enough a lady with 2 little Pomeranians is walking towards me, both which are unleashed (despite there being signs saying all dogs MUST be leashed). I greet her and am trying to tell her there’s a pitbull ahead but she just says hi and then ignores me with a “yea yea” like she doesn’t wanna be “lectured” or whatever.
So I kept walking and hoped nothing happens and tried to hurry because I sure enough didn’t want to wait for the pitbull to return. I looked back just to make sure it hadn’t and then I saw the lady and her Pomeranians had made it across that little hill I just came from when after about a minute or so I heard one of the Pomeranians howl like it was being slaughtered!!!
Turns out it ran towards the pitbull and was mauled. At that moment a woman and her child walked past towards the pitbull’s direction and I tried to warn them as well but they too continued walking either way, because they wanted to see what was going on behind the little hill. At this point I’m just stood there wondering if I’m an idiot or if people don’t have any clue what they’re dealing with with those dogs? I was unsure if I should walk back in the pitbulls direction to try and help the Pomeranian so instead I call the cops.
Not long after that I heard a police siren and saw a police car speeding in the direction of the attack. At this point I’m already 10 minutes away from the scene. Later I got a call back from them saying thanks for reporting the incident because one of the pomeranians got mauled and that pitbull is dangerous. Unfortunately it belongs to a tourist so they can’t really do much about it. Thankfully nobody else was hurt.
So….that was the last time I walked that path today, FUCK IT, it’s no longer safe. This means that in order to do shopping and so forth I’ll have to take the car instead. All because some guy has to walk his dangerous pitbull there and because local politicians are allowing this shit to go on and also because apparently nobody else cares. Pitbulls are a great way to ruin otherwise peaceful areas and to ensure that whoever owns one can walk around like they own the fucking land you pay taxes for.
It was nice of you to try and warn the others
Thank you. I was treated like I’m just some weirdo having a psychotic episode. Seriously. I might write about another incident soon, pitbull owner brought her dog to a local primary school and walked the playgrounds with it unmuzzled (illegal here but the law is not enforced) with dozens of kids walking by. It was a miracle nothing happened. They tightened pitbull laws in Eastern Austria after a woman was mauled to death by three Amstaffs owned by her neighbor. So many of those owners are now moving here instead in addition to all the pitbull owners we already dreaded, which is why you encounter these “dogs” on an almost daily basis here now.
You know, a lot of people just want to be left alone even in dire situations. Very sad, unfortunately how unaware, unempathetic and nonchalant we've become as a human race. Where do you live, if you don't mind?
I live in Austria and yes it’s the same here. The only good thing I can say about this owner is that he pulled the pitbull closer to him, but the fact it was trying to aggressively jump me tells me that really he has no control over it. I don’t think he could have done much to prevent the Pomeranian being mauled since it was off leash but that being said that pitbull is a catastrophe waiting to happen, a ticking time bomb. Only a matter of time before it attacks a human. Mind you I grew up with Rottweilers and German Shepherds owned by my family and they were pretty rough at times but not like these fighting type breeds. They should be classified as weapons but outside a 2nd Amendment context, in the US and internationally.
Okay, Austria, thank you. You know, there is quite a bit the silly owner could've done. He could have laid on it with his body, picked it up and taken it to his car, or make it go sleepy, to name a few...Definitely are weapons and GSD's and Rotts are normal dogs, unlike these animals. None of us are safe as this is the norm for everyone around the world.
100% correct!
Thanks!
He could have had the pit bull muzzled to prevent it mauling other dogs. Knowing it was aggressive it was irresponsible of him not to have it muzzled
From what that dude done, he WANTED it unmuzzled...sadistic people...
Why doesn’t Austria have an our house our rules with regard to visitors’s dogs?
Austria is a federal Republic meaning laws differ from county to county. The strictest laws with regards to pitbulls exist in Vienna as well as in Upper Austria (following the death of a woman whose neighbor walked her 3 unmuzzled Amstaffs which essentially butchered her to death leaving her skeleton and skull visible. Here is an article to the legal aftermath https://www.kleinezeitung.at/oesterreich/18490961/toedliche-hundeattacke-geldstrafe-statt-haft )
So there are some regions that have lax pitbull legislation, they are basically waiting for something really bad to happen before introducing stricter laws, they do not care about precedents, no matter how horrific, if these happened in other regions beyond their jurisdiction. In addition to that most of those areas are heavily dependent on tourism and real estate development & sales thereof and everything that entails (meaning tourists as well as people who serve those tourists which are usually East Europeans as well as locals who own companies which build luxury homes for mostly very wealthy German foreigners which are in turn built by East Europeans but designed by Austrian architects).
It just so happens that most of these pitbull dogs are owned either by tourists or those serving them as well as by a sort of new nouveau riche middle class (typically small business owners on a power trip because they go from being poor farmers or laborers to rich property developers over a span of a few years.) And these people have a lot of power and influence on the local level despite being absolute dipshits in the big picture. For instance one guy here who runs such a business and who owns an Amstaff which has already mauled several smaller dogs is the son of the former mayor of this place. So he is sort of “untouchable” at the local level, unless of course his dog decides to massacre a human, then things might change. But that isn’t guaranteed either since local police are also quite often connected to these types in some way. At the Federal level Austria tries to circumvent this by rotating local police around, but some, usually the “sheriffs” or heads of the local departments stick locally and influence the rest of the department.
So it’s really all a quite toxic mix where local Politics is trying to accomodate everyone who profits via these mechanisms so that Politics can profit as well and it essentially lets them do pretty much whatever they want, waiting for a disaster to happen which is bad enough to force them to adopt stricter legislation with regards to Pitbulls and other issues.
Agree. All we can do is warn, educate and stay far away from them when encountering them. Glad you are safe.
Wow you were brilliant! And you tried to warn others. That poor Pomeranian, what a shame he/she had such a stupid owner and not one like you!
Thanks a lot but I think no matter which way I would have acted the situation was in the owners hands (no pun intended). Because if they hadn’t shortened the leash or say, let go of it or slipped, then that would have been it probably, regardless of the direction I took because the pitbull is way faster than me. I carry 2 cans of pepper spray specifically because of pitbulls because until recently we had 3 of them in my immediate area and many owners are moving into my area of Austria because pitbull laws were tightened after 2 Amstaffs mauled a woman in Eastern Austria to death but here they can still do whatever they want pretty much.
I am so glad you were able to use the info learned on this sub to protect yourself!!!
How heartbreaking for that poor little Pomeranian 😢 I wonder if its owner will now think twice about blowing off warnings about these beasts.
Society has been completely brainwashed that pits are the ‘gentlest wigglebutts’ and it makes you a monster to think they are capable of causing harm. A group of people can be watching pits tearing apart an entire preschool and still say “They are nanny dogs! Nothing more gentle or loyal!” And if someone points out that those pit bulls are mauling children they will be called racist/dog hater/etc…
It’s infuriating that nothing can be done because it is a tourist’s dog. The least they could have done is notify authorities where the person lives so they can beware of the situation. The idea that someone with a pit can travel and get away with murder because they are a tourist’s dog is not fair at all!!!
Edit: They will be notifying authorities but from there on it probably will be a deadend. I know becaue I previously had a seriously worrying experience with a totally unhinged pitbull owner about a year ago to date. I contacted all relevant authorities back then and they would “cycle” me, meaning they would deny responsibility and refer me to another “authority”. Municipality -> police -> municipal police —> municipality —> local media —> dead —> revive —> municipality —> state attorney’s office —> municipal police —> municipality etc. I also know a dog owner whose dog was mauled by an Amstaff and they got a court case coming up. It takes months here. So ever since the situation described above I’ve been researching the breed and how to deal with it. The best way is of course to avoid them altogether as this sub recommends. Unfortunately that no longer seems 100% possible since many owners are irresponsible and they seem to be growing in number. So for the time being I carry pepper spray, it’s the only thing allowed here. And it probably only works to scare it off if applied directly after it tries to attack. It needs to be immediate to work as a negative stimulus.
And so it goes...smh. Is Bear Spray off limits?
Technically anything available can be used to take care of a threat but one would likely face animal cruelty charges when using bear spray to try to thwart a pitbull attack due to the animal protection laws Hitler gifted us here in his homeland which people so cherish….It’s really a situation built by very dumb and evil human beings that just culminated in us even having to deal with animals that were bred to attack and fight other mammals to the death.
Oh man, that sucks. Wow, hitler, yuck. Feel your pain my friend. Stay safe. Glad you found this sub :)
It's like watching a nightmare unfold. I had a similar experience witnessing someone's dog be attacked by pitbulls that ran out of someone's gate. On the same walk another idiot had a large off leash dog and it ran full speed towards a frail old lady who walked a little fluffy white dog everyday. All he said was "off leash". It really is disturbing how unaware of pitbulls that people are. They are extremely dangerous and often brought to areas with innocent people and other pets, and the owners just seem like they are doing it to train their "reactive" dog.
These blasted owners and their psychopathic bloodsport dogs should never have been infiltrated into society, into families and the domesticated pets category. They are no such thing, they stalk and take down adult humans in their prime, they prefer weaker prey as mauling and killing reports will show, but they will also take on grown men and familiar owners who have never treated them badly, often people and families that have raised them as puppies are turned on and mauled with zero provocation. It's a horror show and there is no way this insertion of bloodsport dogs into the domestic animal category was accidental.
Thanks for sharing and agreed! Well they are bred to attack bulls. Actual full size bulls, and you know how aggressive and large and powerful a bull 🐂 is. So it’s not surprising that they would take down adult humans for fun. Can you elaborate on what you mean by there is no way it was accidental?
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The fact the owner shortened the leash shows he knew the dog was aggressive. So he decides to take it out for a walk with innocent people around. Great idea!
100% on point. And that was one of my first thoughts when I saw the thing try to charge at me from a distance of about 80 yards away. First it eyed me down and its body stiffened up so I was already like “ok slow down”. There was one path to the right that essentially leads nowhere since everything is snowed in, which is why instead of going up there and possibly ending up in a deadend I chose to step a few feet off the walkway and to the side of that junction. That’s where I waited, initially planning to let them pass by with enough room for that leash he had (at least 30ft long orange rubber leash! On a pit!). When I saw that he shortened it I assumed that despite the fact that its an aggressive dog he’d be able to handle it. Not that he was particularly well built or that he acted responsibly (phone in one hand leash in the other walking on snowy/icy ground) but in that moment I just thought now would be a good opportunity to get past them. Anyhow, am very thankful to you guys for the advice and support, because if I hadn’t read a lot of it here in the past I might have just naively walked on with the leash still being fully loose and that might have meant serious f’ing trouble and long term injuries to deal with.
If there is any advice I could give to others who encounter a similar situation it would be, forget your social conditioning and turn your survival instincts up 100%. Avoid the encounter if possible! But don’t run away either. Stay as calm and rational as possible, try to deescalate as much as possible (no quick moves with your hands, not eyeing the dog or its owner down), and at the same time be prepared with whatever you got to maximize your chances just in case the thing attacks anyways.
Pitbulls have ruined walks and dog parks for me. There are just too many of them now thanks to shelters pushing the outdated Adopt Don’t Shop mantra. People want to house a dog who needs a home but are faced with a shelter full of these pitbulls. Shelters lie about them being safe family dogs and people and animals get hurt. I don’t hate many things but i ABSOLUTELY HATE PITBULLS!
Shelters need to be exposed more. The same goes for activists. These people often have agendas so far removed from the interests of the common good or even animal welfare that they pose a danger to society, which may well be their actual intent.
Holy tap-dancing christ! What a nasty incident.
I'm glad you're OK, while also sad and frustrated that your fellow community members didn't listen to your warnings. At least you can rest easy, knowing that you did the right thing and acted in consistence with your values.
I could rest easy if people around here were normal, they’re not. I wouldn’t be surprised if for some reason they are blaming me, that’s what happened last year when I was 1 guy out of around 50 adults in front of a public school waiting to pick up their kids telling a pitbull owner that her dog needs to be muzzled (by law) outside the school premises. 1 other guy spoke up in support of me and he had the shit insulted out of himself as well. Real story. Welcome to Western Austria.
eh, people. perhaps if you move little further towards the westernmost point, preferably into a corner itself, remote and uninhabited as I imagine it to be...but on a serious note, sad.
https://preview.redd.it/yqyakg4xgt7g1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3315b0872cd07bfa6bc6a8fdd3439eb1d04a4d6e
If you can, translate this article, to get an idea of how messed up the system here is. You can effectively legally murder people by proxy (using a pitbull) here and all you gotta expect is a fine.
https://www.kleinezeitung.at/oesterreich/18490961/toedliche-hundeattacke-geldstrafe-statt-haft
messed up legislation you got there, my former austro-hungarian compatriot, what else is there to say. ours is probably no better though, but that is yet to be confirmed, thankfully. take care of yourself and make room for as many others as possible, even if they are as unappreciative as people can be.
there is also an interesting choice of words in die, or is it der lol, kleine zeitung: bitten to death. there is a word in serbian that is definitely more appropriate here: iskasapiti. kasapin is butcher, but the word implies amateur one or even perfect novice at the job and often malicious intention or in best case scenario, carelessness. taken altogether, it depicts the process of destroying something so thoroughly as to be unrecognizable, even as a corpse. three amstaffs attacking one jogger...to bite is not a verb I would use if asked to retell the story while staying faithful to what I know about the dogs and these breeds in particular.
I can't even imagine what we went through...hopefully, he has found piece now.
Yea, the wording is no surprise, when I reported the case of the owner (interestingly a Bosnian) who took the pitbull to a school and eventually spoke to a newspaper, the media representative referred me to their dedicated “animal section”. Those are people who will defend a pitbull even after it kills someone, so long as its not them or one of their family members or friends you know. Austrians have a sick relationship with animals, truly.
That lady that was killed was that Amstaff owner’s neighbor and they didn’t get on too well so it was suspected that the Amstaff owner basically did it on purpose; meaning she waited for the victim to go on her daily jog, then stepped out with 3 of her unmuzzled Amstaffs which were trained to attack humans, and conveniently “fell over” so the dogs could kill her neighbor.
There is currently only 1 location in Austria where pitbull owners are required to take a test to acquire a license and even after mastering that they’re required to keep their pitbulls muzzled at all times. That’s Vienna. It’s the only place where you can feel somewhat safe around these dogs because 99% are muzzled and if they’re not you call the cops and the owner is fined or even loses the dog.
vienna seems to have a lot of things figured out - must be nice to live in a what appears to be an island of enlightenment. shame for the rest or even the majority of the country though. one would expect for the opposite to be truth; for urban folk to be almost mindlessly open, and for rural or less or semi urban to be more conservative about potential dangers.
if that is what had transpired with the old lady eventually getting killed, then that is some of the most fucked up shit I have ever heard about. it would be really hard to accept some people being so morally bankrupt and plainly evil, if true.
dedicated animal section? they only miss pro bono lawyers, it seems. all of that comes off as a surprise to me; I have always imagined you austrians to be more pragmatic. that is unfortunate, to have to struggle to stay reasonable in such an incompatible social climate. hopefully, it changes for the better.
Well done for trying to warn the lady - pity she didn't listen to you and her dog got hurt :(
Also good job calling the cops so quickly. Hopefully the cops at least made a report about the man and the pit so they have at least one strike against them for future incidents.
It's so frustrating that people are unwilling to listen to someone who is trying to keep them safe. I really hope it makes them rethink their attitude towards pits.
Essentially like a lamb led to slaughter. The owner of the Pomeranians just learned a terrible yet important lesson.
Bloodsport dog USERS do not care about Bloodsport beast welfare.
I can prove it. If they actually cared about their beasts and wanted them to live a happy safe life, they would train it to like wearing a muzzle and muzzle it whenever it can reach a potential victim.
But they don't care about any dogs, not even about their own beasts. . They do care very much about themselves, their egos, their ability to acquire, own, monger and use Bloodsport beasts.
They really do ruin everything. I really want to take my cats on walks but I know they’d get mauled if a pitbull was nearby. My neighbor has one that tries to attack all the small dogs nearby. So I can’t take them outside 😞
I’m glad you are ok. Sadly we can’t save them all, especially people who won’t listen!
Today I was at hot springs and I turn around and see this skinny girl with 2 huge pitbulls. It pissed me off so much because if I had my dog I wouldn’t have even seen them coming! Otherwise I’d keep my distance for sure!
She was so skinny there’s no way she could stop them if they tried to attack. I have a feeling lot of girls get pitbulls for protection, but don’t realize that the pitbull is just as likely to turn on them as it is something else.
Thanks a lot and I agree.
The biggest issue is that except for…
…they know nothing about pitbulls. All they know is they have to feed it, maybe walk it so it can take shits, and that’s about it. Beyond that it’s all emotional bullshit and highly dangerous, including to themselves.
Really glad you were able to save yourself from this sticky situation! I feel bad about poms though":( IMHO. I can understand the other owner - SO many people want to mansplain small dog owners about literally anything, she might have though you're gonna be one of that crazies
Poor pomeranian. Sorry it had such a foolish owner. They are beautiful little dogs and deserve better.
Thank you so much for trying to warn them. As a former owner of poms, I really appreciate you even if that lady didn't!
And, like you, I also learned from this sub and it may have saved my life! I was walking on a public beach in Texas and was stalked by a family's XL bully for about 0.25 miles with its head low in stalking fashion. I really think if I hadn't noticed it before, I might've not kept my eye on it, and therefore been attacked later from behind.