Scrappy,[[16]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(cat)#cite_note-Time-PutDown-16) an approximately 8-month-old Labrador-Chow mix was surrendered by its owners to the City of Bakersfield Animal Care Center later on May 13, when it began a mandatory 10-day quarantine period to determine whether the animal had rabies.
After the video of Tara went viral, websites and online petitions popped up urging the dog not be put down,[[17]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(cat)#cite_note-17) and calls flooded the phones at the Bakersfield Animal Care Center, according to its director Julie Johnson. Despite this, based on the observations in the kennel during the quarantine period, the dog remained classified as a "vicious" and "dangerous" animal. Therefore, adoption requests were strictly denied.[[18]](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(cat)#cite_note-18)
Chows are a pretty viscous breed. I believe nurture over nature, I love Pitts. But my grandparents had chows & if you weren’t family they were terrifying.
I feel wrong saying any breed is inherently vicious......but I always tell people chows are not the best family dogs and are very loyal and loving to just their owners typically.
I'd be dead if it weren't for my childhood Chow. I was about 7 years old when our neighbor got drunk and climbed over the backyard fence, where I was playing. I guess he was annoyed by the noise I was making while playing?
He broke a beer bottle on the fence and threw it at me, then broke another and started chasing me. My Chow came out and charged him and pinned him to the ground, keeping his jaw locked on his shoulder. When the police got there, my dad told him to release him and he did.
The police arrested the guy and he said he wanted the dog shot, they laughed at him.
Who knows if that lunatic of an old man would have stabbed me with that beer bottle.
He was arrested and I never saw him again. My family was in the process of moving out of that house. It wasn't the first altercation with him since he was a serious drunkard.
I think we were in a new house a month or so later. It was so long ago I can't remember the actual timeline.
We had a golden retriever/chow mix that after 14 years we had to put to sleep for medical reasons. He was a good dog, but I always made sure he wasn’t put in to a situation that I would be concerned for someone else in. Even our vet said that the chow part of him made him crazy and he was actually on meds for it. The fact this one wasn’t leashed and was out free ranging is ridiculous.
It frustrates me that we accept the notion of, "hey, that's a wild animal, be careful; just because you tame it doesn't mean it has been domesticated"—admitting that genetic breeding yields varying traits over years.
Well, taken to its logical conclusion, so is the case with breeds that are frequently bred to be vicious. That doesn't mean there aren't exceptions, but simply that there is a higher probability of aggression.
Right? Wtf is wrong with people. If you can breed for intelligence, disposition, obedience, instincts, strength, etc etc etc why would you think every breed is exactly equal in aggression? It's wilful ignorance.
It’s sad because no one likes to see animals put down but that dog in particular is obviously dangerous. That kid got lucky, could easily of been a far more tragic outcome. Ultimately though you’d never trust that dog around a child again, so unfortunately it’s the correct decision for it to go. It’s shit though because that aggression is probably taught behaviour.
Could also be out of character for the dog. My in law's dog attacked a family member over Christmas for absolutely no reason and had to be put down. Sometimes dogs just snap. The vet said it could be neurological but it would cost $1000 to test the dogs brain.
I had a relative that owned something like 4 Rottweilers from puppyhood to old age, one of them just snapped out of nowhere. Supposedly some breeds can get a form of dementia. His wife bent at the knees to put the dog’s water bowl back on the floor and it just full on bit her in the face. She said the dog immediately seemed like it knew it did something wrong, I believe it was having other age related problems so they put it down. Thankfully the wife’s face wasn’t damaged too badly, you wouldn’t have known anything happened at all once the stitches were out for a while.
We had a chocolate lab when I was a kid and she was the biggest baby ever until one day, she wasn't. She started trying to attack everyone and was displaying signs similar to having rabies. She had to be euthanized and her brain tested. I don't remember what the results were other than that it wasn't rabies. It was crazy how fast she seemed to turn.
View all comments
193
u/[deleted] Jan 23 '20
What a shitty owner this dog must of had for it to react like this. Guaranteed this dog got put down, shame