When Dogs Attack: The Sad Reality of Behavioral Euthanasia
I absolutely love my dog. I got my first dog at the age of 30, and I did a ton of research on the type of dog that would be the perfect fit. I picked the Labrador Retriever because they are easy to train, good with young children, and intelligent. We got a lab and named her Hershi. She’s very sweet and knows quite a few commands despite my lack of experience. But that doesn’t mean she’s perfect, and I also have taken precautions especially when it came to her interactions with my daughter.
From the moment my daughter started moving, I was quick to teach her how to pet Hershi, using the phrase “gentle touches” and demonstrating to her how and correcting her when she got it wrong. To me, it was a lot easier to train the baby than it was to train the dog to tolerate her being too rough, as it’s in that exact scenario that children get bit. Hershi also seemed confused by my daughter, mistaking her for another dog instead of a baby when she started crawling and attempted to play with her like another dog, which I took steps to correct.
And it seems to have worked, because Hershi and her are best friends, and have only gotten closer as she’s grown!
But what do you do when man’s best friend becomes your enemy?
Well, personally, I would never rehome a dog that was aggressive towards me or my family unless it was with someone who specializes in rehabilitation. I’m not talking about an “annoyed snap” that does minimal damage, or a bit of fun roughhousing, I’m talking about essentially an attack or pre-attack. I have plenty of videos of Hershi and I when she was a puppy and used me as her unofficial chew toy, even breaking my skin, with a goofy smile on her face. That’s not what I’m talking about.
It’s a different matter to me to have a dog bite a stranger while provoked. Dogs were bred to protect us, their family members, from threats. So it makes sense to me that a dog would bite a stranger, although it’s still my responsibility to prevent that from happening. For example, I recently learned that Hershi really doesn’t like the mailman and especially doesn’t like it when the mailman is walking toward my daughter.
When he came to drop off a package, she positioned herself between my daughter and him and snarled, her lips curled back, her nose scrunched, and her body language exhibited the classic “aggressive dog” pose.
I quickly grabbed her and she calmed down, but I’ve decided that it would be wise to put her on a lead, even when I’m outside with her when I’m expecting a package. So that’s a long way of saying that I can see a dog biting a stranger, and in some instances (like kidnapping) you want the dog to bite the stranger and scare him off.
In other words, some qualities are good in the right context. But, that doesn’t mean that bad dogs don’t exist and that all negative dog behaviors can be prevented through “good ownership.” I cringed when I read the phrase “There are no bad dogs, only bad owners”, because it simplifies a very complex issue.
Dogs, like any other domesticated animal, have been bred for specific traits and purposes, and animals, just like humans can get a bad set of genetics. Selectively breeding for traits and culling animals that have undesirable ones has been a practice for thousands of years, and is the difference between wild and domesticated animals. This has led to a better ability to predict a dog’s behavior and temperament depending on its breed and created many different dog groups depending on the job the dog was bred to do.
Pretending that genetics have no influence on behavior and that through “good ownership” you can fight against a dog's nature and make it conform to an environment it’s not suited for is unfair to the dog.
To make matters more complicated, if you adopt a dog from a shelter you have less of an ability to predict their behavior because they aren’t purebred. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t adopt a dog from a shelter, but I absolutely would not unless I was allowed to bring the dog back if we weren’t a good fit, because again, that’s unfair to the dog. And I personally don’t feel I have enough experience to do so, which would also be unfair to the poor pooch.
If a dog is so aggressive that it will attack small children, other animals, and you if you stand in its way this is a serious problem. If the dog is unpredictable in its attacks it’s even worse. Sometimes the cause may be a strong inherited prey drive or a psychological problem, other times it’s caused by abuse. The majority of dog aggression can be fixed with training, but sometimes all the training in the world is not enough to curb that issue, and this animal is not safe to keep in the community, leaving very few options.
Behavioral Euthanasia is common. In Australia, euthanasia of dogs aged three and under for undesirable behaviors was 29% of all euthanasia performed in this age group. The American statistics are less clear. And while aggressive behaviors that cannot be fixed with training can be managed with strict environmental controls, this method is not 100%. Dogs escape the yard, or a neighbor's pet (or child) may wander into your yard. Muzzle training seems like a wonderful solution to some of these issues, but a dog isn’t able to wear it 100% of the time.
Furthermore, it can be very difficult to rehome an aggressive dog. Most of us live in urban and suburban environments. Trying to find a very rural environment with nothing around to trigger the dog is hard to do, and lots of no-kill shelters will not take dogs that have severe behavioral problems. Finally, if you manage to find a no-kill shelter, you also have to consider quality of life issues. Will this dog be left to spend its short life locked in a cage? Is it truly kind to them to let them languish there indefinitely, given their short lives?
The reality is that euthanasia is a part of responsible animal ownership. I have euthanized cats due to renal failure and complications from type two diabetes, and I absolutely would much rather euthanize an aggressive dog than allow that dog to suffer needlessly, living its short life locked in a cage if I couldn’t find adequate help or a proper new home.
Still, I can’t help but wonder if a lot of these could be prevented. Given the rates of dog bites and the unfortunately high rate of behavioral euthanasia, I believe topics such as how to select the right dog for your family, responsible dog breeding, dog training, and where to find help needs to be spoken about more often.
Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.
100% agree. As the owner of a dog with a severe biting issue, you are spot on about all of it. We were only able to give ours a home (after he was surrendered to the rescue we volunteered for because of his issues) because we had the right experience, the right lifestyle, AND he’s a small dog so he’s limited in the damage he can do. Even so it’s an incredible amount of work and sacrifice to keep him safe and keep the public safe from him, and it’s something we will have to manage for his whole life. We’ve made major improvements but he will never be “cured.” He was obviously, on paper, a terrible fit for his first family and better owners might have prevented some of the bad habits, but it’s also likely some of it is just plain bad genetics (I don’t know the breeder but the fact his first owners couldn’t return him tells you it was not a quality breeder). Most people can’t manage a dog like him and I don’t blame anyone who isn’t able to. Sometimes I question my own sanity for doing it. And yes if not us there would have been very few options for him, none positive. We love him, we don’t regret taking him, but it’s naive to think all dogs can just be re-homed.
Excellent article. There is a lot of denial around the subject of dog ownership but for people who truly love animals, everything in this post needs to be considered carefully. Thank you.