"JEB1" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Hi - My first post here, but I have been lurking for quite a while. - So
apologies if I commit some horrible usenet solecism. Got my first dog
bite
in three years today, pedalling along the National Cycle Network between
Lincoln and Harby. I know these things happen from time to time and I'm
sure
have been done to death here before, but I thought you might be amused by
the ensuing conversation.
Owner: Sorry. He's not vicious, (This with the creature's teeth still
clamped on to my calf!) Anyway he doesn't like bicycles".
Me: You do know this is a cycle track? So you might expect the odd bicycle
to pass by from time to time."
Owner: "Yes but I let him off the lead because there's a bend there and he
can't see bicycles coming round it...."
Fortunately no serious damage done to me. I have a bruise but no puncture
wounds. Kudos to Aldi's long winter cycling trousers, which also seemed
pretty undamaged when I got home.
On quite a few occasions I have been menaced by barking, teeth bared dogs
and I have made clear to their owners that I would exact severe retribution
on an animal if it approached me in such a manner . Many many times the
response is " oh my dog wouldn't hurt a fly" and they are amazed that I
should consider such a reaction as to kick their defenceless ( and vicious)
pet.
I must say that there is an increasing awareness that dog must be kept under
control and probably over 50% are controlled reasonable well on leash.
BUT, ---- you can't tell which are the ones which are potential attackers.
Many walkers will take hold of their free roaming dogs when a cyclists
approaches but an awful lot of them don't and even when they do it is often
a last minute job.
I make a point of releasing the appropriate foot from my pedal as I
approach any free or long leashed dog, together with an toot of my horn. And
I make my intent very clear. I have on a number of occasions administered a
kick to some slavering "harmless" pet.
Funnily enough there just doesn't seem to be the same problem with dogs in
the countries I have visited in Europe despite reading of other cyclists
encounters in the wilds. In France it is normal when passing through a
village for a dog to follow you barking and running for the length of its
available garden but they are seen roaming around loose as in UK. Elsewhere
in, Germany , Austria it only became a minor problem in large cities where
dogs were walked on cycling approaches but it was never as bad as in England
where every one and his mothers aunt seems to own a smelly, paranoid, path
fouling, "pet".
I just personally hate the fact the people let their dogs approach me, as a
pedestrian, and expect me to allow it to sniff and lick and even jump up at
me. They are surprised when I tell them that I will not tolerate such
behaviour and tell them to control their animals.
I once came up to my locked bike to find a dog , on a leash, peeing up
against my bike, so I kicked it off. The owner seemed to be unaware of any
problem and expressed his displeasure. I apologised to him and said that I
had made a mistake and should, in fact, have kicked him and not the dog!
--
Trevor A Panther
In South Yorkshire,
England, United Kingdom.
