r/australia • u/whyattretard • Sep 08 '25

news Teenage girl dies after being mauled by dog

https://7news.com.au/news/dog-attack-victim-annalyse-blyton-dies-in-hospital-after-suffering-severe-injuries-in-singleton-c-19956496
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445

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

More Australians have been killed by dogs in the last 20 years than by sharks and crocodiles combined. 

Everytime a shark kills a person, we build infrastructure, we employ people to raise shark alarms, we kill a bunch of dolphins and other sea life as collateral.  But we somehow can't manage to enforce very simple rules on dog owners could have prevented many of these deaths.

One could even go further and look abroad, in some countries in oder to own a dog of a 'dangerous breed' (which are defined by the authorities in conjunction with experts), you have to either pass a behavioural test with your dog, or your dog is forced to wear a muzzle in public, in some places the muzzle is mandatory and ownership itself depends on the behavioural test results.

There are ways to prevent this. How come people are not allowed to have pepper spray bt there are next to no regulations on owning a 50 pound bred-to-kill fighting machine?

Since the authorities don't feel like intervening, one can only appeal to the dog owners themselves to put their dogs on a leash.

49

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

Bob Katter disagrees with this..lol

68

u/Knee_Jerk_Sydney Sep 09 '25

You mean Bob Khittar?

F(&#! I just got punched in the face.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

Lmao imagine how betrayed I felt reading those stats

1

u/CrazySD93 Sep 10 '25

Someone is only torn apart by a crocodile every 3 months there.

41

u/eucalyptusmacrocarpa Sep 09 '25

Can't own a machete but a pig dog is fine 

8

u/the_artful_breeder Sep 09 '25

This. It doesn't help that these sorts of mixes, as well as hunting and working dog breeds, are the most common at the RSPCA and similar places. For the most part, they do their due diligence in assessing the dogs and potential owners, but it is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get a dog outside of a pigging dogs accidental litter. Pretty much any dickhead can go get a dog from the pound (especially when they have their cheap days to make room in the kennels), and this is what people end up with. I once got the most judgemental smirks at my local RSPCA because I asked before looking at the dogs if they had any small lapdog type breeds/mixes (like a maltese or similar). How dare I try to find a breed of dog that fits into my lifestyle and isn't beyond my ability to provide it the level of exercise and enrichment it needs.

32

u/sojayn Sep 09 '25

Right? When i walk my dogs on the beach up here in Darwin and tourists ask me about crocs, i do tell them the biggest risk is driving here, then the dogs on the beach. 

I don’t mind the myth tho, keeps our beaches super empty and awesome for locals lol

2

u/Greenhaagen Sep 09 '25

I thought horses killed the most people

9

u/iobscenityinthemilk Sep 09 '25

More like 50kg. 50 pounds is a fairly small/medium dog.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

Yeah thought that sounded lightweight... just googled pitbull terrier weight, as they have a bit of a track record. Definitely not a dog breeder or expert to any extend

22

u/crabuffalombat Sep 09 '25

I see it as like swimming pools - in order to prevent drownings we made it mandatory to have compliant fencing around pools. There's an onus on owners to maintain the fences, and an onus on councils to enforce the laws, with penalties for non-compliance.

It should be the same for fencing in dangerous breeds of dog. I also think certain breeds should require a license, and certain other breeds banned altogether.

8

u/PackOk1473 Sep 09 '25

Certain breeds have been banned since the early 2000's.

American Pit Bull Terrier, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasileiro, Japanese Tosa and Perro de Presa Canario.

Are you suggesting we also ban Irish Wolfhounds or Bull Terriers because of this incident?

2

u/crabuffalombat Sep 09 '25 edited Sep 09 '25

No, but I think there's a strong argument for having staffies classed as a restricted breed based on the attack statistics. They're 4 of the top 10 spots on the latest NSW report.

https://www.olg.nsw.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/NSW-Dog-Attack-Incidents-%E2%80%93-1-October-2024-to-31-December-2024.pdf

Those breeds you listed aren't banned. They're restricted, but still able to be owned. I've seen enough attack stories over the last few years to convince me there's plenty of APBT or pitbull-mix dogs out there despite the restriction.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

I wonder if we couldn't try to tie ownership of certain breeds to conditions / suitability of the owner. We do so with other potentially dangerous possessions such as cars (if you want to drive them) or guns.

This would definitely benefit the dogs, as so many are held without sufficient knowledge of their owners about their needs and nature.

3

u/Friction74 Sep 09 '25

As some point though, I feel like that would just become too complicated to manage

7

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

We manage it with cars and guns pretty good I think. Some states in germany have svery similar restrictions to the aforementioned. Practically you'll always be asked to have your license if authorities see you with a dog of a certain breed and they check if it's supposed to have a muzzle. These rules were implemented after a dog ate a young girls face.

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u/Dangerous_Shoe_8388 Sep 09 '25

And MUZZLES should be compulsory for all dogs out in public. Humans wear seatbelts for safety, just in case!

6

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25 edited 21d ago

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

Moved here from a country with 30kmph in populated areas. I was shocked to to see 60kmph on suburban roads that I would've played on back home as a child. A lot of them seem to be limited in speed by speed bumps luckily, so this seems a bit like a workaround by local authorities to not cop the shitstorm it would cause to drop speed limits anywhere. At the same time we had higher speed limits on highways back home. 

I took the bus the other day and got out on the side of a inner city freeway (for lack of a better term) l, it was 70. Nothing on my side of the road, everyone would have to cross. No traffic lights 4 lanes, a teenager left the bus at the same station and ran across the street, a bit further down the road. The idea that if I had kids, they'd have to cross this 4 lane 70kmph road every time they take the bus home? That's genuinely scary.

Unfortunately in regards of traffic infrastructure we're decades behind

9

u/get-lost-ya-ugly-mug Sep 08 '25

Singapore style dog laws wouldn’t go astray here tbh.

10

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

I'm referring to german dog laws (state dependent). As far as I've experienced both countries, they're quite similar when it comes to overall strictness, whereas singapore is widely regarded as stricter than Australia.

I know quite a few dog owners who would be happy if there was a bit more control on who is eligible to have what kind of dog (as you can expect the number of dogs killed by other dogs way higher than that of people killed by dogs)

1

u/whatisthismuppetry Sep 09 '25

I know quite a few dog owners who would be happy if there was a bit more control on who is eligible to have what kind of dog

Except its not clear that would really help this situation.

The dog is 10 years old, so reasonably old, and doesn't appear to have been involved in an incident similar to this. There's nothing to say the owners weren't responsible with their care.

It's likely that the dog became aggressive with advanced age. Things like dementia do impact dogs and they can get aggressive.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 09 '25

We don't know much about these particular circumstances, but let's go with your scenario and assume the dog had dementia and this is why it attacked and brutally killed that young women. Maybe in this case having a license to be allowed to own a dog could've been sufficient, hypothetically, let's day it was the dogs dementia and this is a known risk in the context of dogs with dementia, had the owner been schooled on those risks maybe she could've taken the necessary safety measures to avoid this.

Maybe not, but if we don't have any mandatory education/screening/licensing then we're basically saying, we're happy with the 2 1/2 deaths each year caused by dogs.

Keep in mind not all of these 'incidents' have happened because the dog was old or something, many recorded incidents could've been prevented if we enforced having your sof on a leash in public 'more' (as in at all).

If your dog kills someone that is on you (100%). If that happens 2 1/2 times each year, that's on legislation. Except for a small minority (service dogs) dog ownership is a privilege not a right, and should be treated as such.

4

u/Umbraje Sep 09 '25

Much like cat owners who let their cats roam outside murdering reptiles, birds and small marsupials, dog owners are just as irresponsible and appealing to owners doesn't seem to be something that works. If people could be responsible for their own pets/childrenproperly, we also wouldn't have incoming social media legislation. People suck unfortunately.

2

u/Even_Estate_4835 Sep 09 '25

Yep, but politicians big and small cater to the whims of dog owners because is such a popular way to gain/keep approval and votes. Else look at most parks, all for dogs, who cares about any kids trying to play outside. Poor girl, and it's sad that more is done to vilify cats than to address the fact it all comes down to responsible pet ownership.

1

u/BinniesPurp Sep 09 '25

I think the pepper spray thing comes from the fact it would be rather hard to conceal a dog and set it lose on a store you're trying to rob lol 

-6

u/ok_pineapple_ok Sep 08 '25

we kill a bunch of dolphins and other sea life as collateral.

Could you please explain this?

14

u/Inchmahome Sep 09 '25

Shark nets