I have also emailed - International attention might add some pressure!

Why on earth didn't the family immediately counter-sue for trespass and assault? Luckily in NSW Australia, if someone enters your property illegally your dog is within its' rights to bite! HOORAY!!

Andrew,
I don't care how many dogs a person keeps, as long as they are healthy, balanced and attended to within a family structure.
I'm also sure I've read somewhere in this mess that the land scaper arrived some what earlier than expected.
So the dog was sent to a boarding school. So what, while most of us here prefer to train our own (in my case, I prefer to screw them up myself) most people don't have the time or experience for specialized training of any sort. And Congo from all appearences is well adjusted and intigrated within the family structure at any rate.
Only a well bonded dog of any age (and at eighteen months amazing) is going to take on a grown man attacking a member of their pack.
Why shouldn't an owner feel it's okay walk into his own house, there were other members of the family outside with the dogs.
The 'invitees' were invited 'TO STAY IN THE TRUCK!'
You're right though the owner should have been there to help the dog. To beat the shit out of the guy that assaulted his wife and puppies!
** Mod Edit**

Randy

Um, Randy, while I agree w/almost everything you said...I think you need to add "ILLEGAL" to your last sentence. I don't really think you have a problem with immigrants...right?

Your right Jenni,
I didn't pick up on how I worded that bit. I've no problem with any honest person. Immigrants or not.

Thanks for allowing me to clear that up.
Randy

Just a quick note, friends, that turning this or any thread into a non-dog-related political discussion is a surefire way to close the thread.

A point on the allegations of assault with respect to the gardener's actions toward the wife:

From the reported facts this is not a criminal assault.

The investigator and prosecutors assessing this matter appear to have shown common sense in not laying a charge. There is nothing reported that remotely suggests a prosecutable assault here.

It is disheartening to see how quickly people conclude an assault occurred or was likely.

*******

Another point is in relation to what is reasonable for a dog owner on his own property to expect from an invitee. There is no reason to expect an invitee to obey an order to stay in a vehicle. Contractors come over to do assigned jobs for money, not to obey any order. There is no reasonable expectation that an invitee will arrive exactly on time. There is no reasonable expectation that an invitee will have any knowledge or expertise concerning dogs. Invitees are entitled to be afraid of dogs. This is reality. Those of us with big boisterous dogs should conduct ourselves accordingly. So far there seems little recognition of this on this thread.

***********
Mod edit
Political topic link removed

I want to clarify my problem with the owner:

The fact that he yelled down to the landscapers to "stay in your car" implies that he knows that his dogs have the potential to negatively react to a stranger on their property. Nothing wrong with that. Many dogs do, and should, IMO.

BUT, since he obviously knew that, and he was in no position to be present should anything occur, then the dogs should have been contained or supervised, even on his own property. The dogs, loose and without an owner there to signal how they should handle the visitors, had to make a decision for themselves...a decision that GIVEN THE LANDSCAPER PULLED THE WIFE TO THE GROUND was correct, IMO.

So, the dog did nothing wrong. He acted as a good dog should, IMO. And I'm not saying that the owner meant for this to happen. I'm sympathetic to his situation: We have all made mistakes or been looking the wrong way when something happened with our dogs.

But over and over again, the newspapers are filled with stories about dogs attacking (adults, dogs or other dogs)and while the story taken as a whole can be complicated in terms of who was right and who was wrong...it can be simplified in every controversial case that I've seen into one truth: If the dogs were properly contained, then it wouldn't have happened.

If we, as dog owners, are going to own strong breeds, or many dogs, then we do have a responsibility to respect and anticipate their strengths, drives, and possible reactions. And I'm not being hypocritical here---this is what I do myself. I'm not taking any chances. I'm not going to wait until something happens to become vigilant; I'm going to prevent it from happening in the first place, to the best of my ability.

And as much as I think the landscaper was obviously moronic at best, according to the story, he did get out of the car only when the wife arrived. It's not unreasonable for someone to assume that if the wife (i.e. owner #2) came home, then they should be cleared to get out.

I realized I'm putting myself at risk for appearing to be siding with the landscaper, and I'm not. But proper containment of dogs who weren't supervised...even on their own property...could have prevented this whole mess.

Congo does NOT deserve to be penalized in ANY way for what he did. If someone pulled me to the ground, I have zero doubt that Carbon would go after them with teeth blazing. Based on the story, I THINK this whole thing wouldn't have happened if that idiot hadn't pulled the wife to the ground. But I KNOW it wouldn't have happened if the dogs had been contained.

Again, I realize this might not be a popular viewpoint and I respect where everyone is coming from. But if I was the dog's owner in this situation, once I was done being pissed as all hell at the landscaper's lack of basic intelligence, I would have realized that I did have some responsibility for what happened, as well.

SORRY CONNIE: I didn't see your post when I posted this.

I also feel that ultimately the responsibility falls onto the owners; the dog is not capable of recognizing the events as anything other then an attack on itself and packs member and responded appropriately. The dog should not be pts. Granted we are not accustoming to service workers arriving early, but they were expected and the first thing the owners should have done was get control over all of their dogs so something like that could not happen. They made the mistake of believing the worker would follow their direction to stay in the vehicle, and when he didn’t do that it was up to them to get control of the situation. We as dog owners should never depend on someone else to do the right thing when it comes to dealing with our dogs. I for one have been guilty of the same thing in that I have had service people arrive on my property and my dogs got to their vehicle before me. I don’t ever plan on making that mistake again.

I am not so sure that in this situation, the worker wasn’t just reacting out of fear and like most people, did all the wrong things in an effort to protect himself. I have seen loose dogs go after people and in almost every situation the person reacted in some way to fend off the dog, by either kicking, throwing something or using some object to hit at the dog as a way of protecting themselves. That’s not to say that he should be held blameless in what happened to him, his reaction did bring on the bite and that should have been considered in what ever settlement that was awarded.

What I find troublesome is that others may see this as a way to extort easy money from unsuspecting dog owners and be willing to deliberately provoke a dog into biting them for such a payoff. So for that man to receive such a quick payoff by the homeowners insurance company could really set a bad precedence for all of us. JMHO

** QUOTE EDITED **

Congo's owners hired the guy, no? And then instructed him in English?

::uncomfortable silence::

Yeah.

¡Estancia en su coche!

Actually, I think he instructed him in Spanish. From the article:

 Quote:

James, who speaks Spanish, said he was getting ready to take his morning shower when through a window he saw the workers pull up in their car. He yelled in Spanish for them to stay in their vehicle until he had finished his shower.