[Yznhymr]

Please bear with me, I know this story is not the same caliber, but does illustrate my point...

We had a situation where a strange man came into my front yard with two large (full-sized) schnauzers and he was “training” them. Now we have three miniature schnauzers and they were going nuts and my kids and wife were afraid to go outside. I went outside to ask him to take his dogs elsewhere. He began cussing me and threatening me in my own yard. One dog was chained to a post but the other was free and he had his whistle in his hand and I didn’t want him sending his dog to attack me so I got a camcorder and went back out. While taping, I got him say his name and his refusal to leave, so then I called out to neighbors to call the cops. During this time one of my friends walked up from two doors down and this man’s dog that was chained jumped up and bit him. He was able to get away from the dog. The police showed up and they called for an ambulance to check my friend out. They took both dogs away from the man. In our state, it is required that the animal be quarantined for at least 10 days. After that, it is up to Animal Control to determine what to do with the animal based on whether it has a history of biting. They called my friend and asked if he wanted them to put the dogs down. He said he didn’t want to press charges or have the dogs put down, but would get back with them before the 10 days were up. He called me for advice, and I said this: “Recently a boy in the news was attacked by a dog that bit his face and he will be scarred for life. That dog had been involved in a previous biting incident and that man did not have the dog put down. If he only knew that his decision could have saved this little boy from the pain and life long scars, he would have made a different decision. I bet he feels very bad now. Do you want that hanging over you if that ever happened?” He went ahead and decided to let them release the dogs to the owner. I hope they never attack another person. But the point here is, your friend needs to understand the POTENTIAL future consequences of their decision. I hope that helps.

PS. Here is the story I refer to: Settlement reached for small child attacked by landlord's dog - Our client, a 4-year old boy, was attacked in his driveway by a Golden Retriever. The dog was owned by the landlord. The landlord was close to the dog, but the dog was not on a leash at the time of the attack. The boy was bitten in the face and lip, sustaining permanent scarring and irregularity of the lip. A lawsuit was filed and depositions (statements under oath) of the dog owner and his neighbors revealed that the dog had attacked and bitten another child in the face one year prior to attacking our client.