My country stood in shock when watching last night's news. In the late afternoon a 35 year old person was walking down the street in one of the suburbs of our capital city. As he was passing a car, this lady was putting 4 Bullmastiffs inside the car. 3 of them were already in and the last one was leashed and on the way from the house. All of a sudden the 3 in the car for no apparent reason jumped out and attacked the person walking by. The guy tried to escape by climbing on a fence, but it broke and he fell on the floor. The dogs jumped on him and started ripping him apart.
The owner tried to pull them away but they completely ignored her, continuing attacking the person. Some neighbors noticed, took the fire extinguisher and tried to scare the 3 dogs away...... nothing helped and they too had to run for their life. Some person called the police and they came shortly after. They fired one shot, because they thought that might be enough to scare them away, but again nothing happened. It was only after one of the dogs was shot and other 2 injured that the horror stopped. The person was rushed to the hospital with serious injuries and they were fighting for his life almost all night.

All the experts and professional trainers in my country were shocked and surprised as they describe the breed as very friendly and people oriented and would never expect such a rage. Bullmastifs are so called "gentle giants" and even though they are guard dogs, they only warn the person, but such vicious attack is not in their nature......

That is awful :(

The sad thing is that the guy is going to be scarred for life!! I have no idea what's going to happen to the owner though. I think she will be prosecuted for assault and taken to court. I also hope that the family is going to file a civil suit against her....... what is the penalty for an incident like this in UK?

It would be taken very seriously with the dogs siezed and the owner prosecuted. It would be all over the papers aswell and the breed would get very bad press indeed :(

I don't think the penalty would be big.  It would be brought under the DDA but I would say not a lot would be done!  I know what has happened to the man is terrible and I really don't know what I would do in such circumstances but let's hope that a witch hunt isn't started on the breed for a very rare incident.

My thoughts go out to the poor man and his family and also to the woman, but it does make you wonder why she had so many large dogs which she obviuosly couldn't control!

The maximum penalty in the UK is a £2000 fine and 6 months in prison but I suppose it depends on your definition of "big" :)

oh the poor man !!! i bet the owner is traumatised too. i was just about to post on a dog attack , but ill add it onto this thread. my mum has just called me in hysyerics . crying " my poor Bobby , over & over. as she calmed down, she explained that while in the park, she was chatting to other dog walkers , with her little yorkie & poodle by her side, when a lady who walks dogs for a living came by with 9 dogs with her , all off lead but together, when suddenly one of the dogs , a bulldog , charged towards Bobby & just got the poor little mites head in its mouth & shook, this caused 5 of the other to join in & attack , the poor little poodle was screaming, it took 7 people to get the dogs off & 1 lady rushed mum & Bobby to the vets, his nose is broken & he has loads of puncture wounds & a bleeding eye, the vet was chatting to mum after & said they had done some training recently, & it was said that when dogs attack for no apparent reason, the victim is usually a black dog !!! not sure of the relavance of this ? any ideas , ??

That is terrible!!! I simply will never understand how people can walk so many dogs off lead as clearly they can't control them!! You have to understand dogs and the way they think. i always see with my Chihuahua and his Chi "mates" when they are together. If he's alone, there's absolutely no problem..... but the minute he feels like he's part of some bigger group, things change. The way they communicate is completely different and they feel safe. They will also go and attack very easily and have no fear what so ever. It takes a very brave (or stupid) person to walk a large number of really strong dogs, because believe me people.... nature is nature and there's no way you'll ever be 100% sure of how your dog/dogs will react in certain situation.

I did hear from someone that they are looking to stop people walking more than 6 at any one time??  Anyone else heard that?

I read something about that the other day, but I think it referred only to commercial dog walkers, not those walking their own pets.

There was an article on Radio 4 within the last week, can't remember which programme maybe a search of their site would find it for anyone interested, they were talking about a limit on numbers of dogs walked, to 4 I think, but they seemed to be talking in terms of anybody not just licensed walkers I suppose to catch up all the cash in hand types too.

Oh I hope little Bobby will be alright! Too much of this going on. Somebody I know had her Papillon killed a few weeks ago. I'm now terrified of going anywhere with my little Papillon (also called Bobby) unless I have one of my Malinois with me on lead for protection so I can let it go if needs be. And it shouldn't need to be like that! As for dog walkers, I definitely think it SHOULD be law as has been discussed that anyone should only be allowed to walk a certain number of dogs at a time -although I think the figure of 6 which I read somewhere is way too high unless you are on your own land, fenced off securely. I have 8 dogs and I have in the past walked as many as 6 dogs together but I started to realise that it just isn't safe, my dogs are all extremely reliable when it comes to recalls, but more than 2 or 3 dogs and it is IMPOSSBLE to keep your eyes on all and a good recall is worth nothing if you don't spot the dog about to do something and can call it!, and it makes life so much easier to limit each walk to 2 as I do now unless I have a second person with me and we take 3.

I have found in all my years of dogs that complete black dogs with dark eyes do tend to be attacked the most and I have been told by a few different experts that it is because the other dogs cannot see the black dogs eyes.

yes , i spoke to my mum again, & the vet said its because of the dark face & dark eyes & the other dog cant see the expression. the commercial dog walker has passed on the owners details to my mum & the guy has paid the vet bill £126 up to now . she will not be walking that dog again, but mum said she usually has between 5 & 9 , and always walks them 3 times a day . i think there should be a restriction on the number of dogs she takes. Bobby s face is really swollen & he will be having pain injections / anti  inflammatory for a few more days yet. i would have thought that she, the walker, should have public liability insurance, and find it strange that the owner is paying. i mean if that had been a child or an adult as in the post above , it would cost a lot more than a few quid !!!

I just read on my forum that the oldest dog (the one that was killed by police) was an import from UK. Apparently from a very good, reputable breeder....... I feel sorry for the breeder. he must be very sad to hear about one of his dogs. :(

I have been attacked my Bullmastiffs before. So I am very wary of the breed.

I was 16 when it happened and in my own yard. My neighbours had 2 mastiffs that jumped the fence to get at me, I ran trying to get into my house but they were faster. I have no idea why they attacked, I was in my yard minding my own business.

My lower back, bum and thighs are now a mass of scars from where they mauled me. The whole time they were attacking me I could feel them ripping chunks of my flesh out.

I know that the breed is generally concidered safe, and friendly. But in my experience the odd nasty ones are very very nasty.

Both dogs were destroyed by the council, the owners fined $2500 - which in my oppinion isnt enough. And after all that they tried to sue ME over the loss of their animals.

All they lost were 2 dogs a few thosand dollars. I lost a helluva lot more. I was a promising swimmer, not any more, I was confident and out going, not any more.

Im now 21 and can only now look at a Bullmastiff without going into a panic attack.

I'll never trust these dogs, and I cant beleive that they are 'gentle giants'. Not after what I have been through.

Oh my god, I am so sorry!! :( I understand you had a really, really bad experience that will stay with you for life. Obviously the dogs were not trained properly (or not at all) and I believe this is a breed that is very specific and not anyone can have it. It takes a LOT of experience, hard work and training....... but this world is not perfect and I can see all the wrong people end up with all the wrong breeds!!