The Most Cringingly Apologetic Response To A Dog Attack I’ve Ever Read

And I've read a lot:

A woman remains in a critical condition in hospital after being mauled by three dogs at a home in Dandenong, in Melbourne's south-east. Police were forced to shoot the dogs when capsicum spray failed to subdue them during the attack on Thursday.

Normal people will wonder why the police even bothered with non-lethal attempts in the first place. 

A hospital spokesperson said her condition on Friday continued to be listed as critical.

The RSPCA's chief veterinarian Bronwyn Oke said it was "an absolute tragedy" for the woman, the police officers who were confronted by the dogs and had to shoot them, and the dogs. "We don't know what's gone on here," Dr Oke told ABC Radio Melbourne. "I can only hope that this woman makes a strong and rapid recovery."

‘Recovery’? Her arm’s not going to grow back, is it? 

But Dr Oke cautioned against a response that focused on the breeds. "We get a real emotive response to pit bulls," she said. "Pit bull isn't actually a breed, it's an umbrella term for dogs that have descended from bulldogs and from terriers.

"When we say things like this breed or this pit bull needs to be euthanised just for being in existence, what we're actually doing is potentially destroying dogs that are absolutely fine.

The precautionary principle in action! How many times have we heard 'I don't understand, he was always fine with my kids!' as a grieving mother faces the news cameras? Since we don't know which dogs of this wretched breed are really 'absolutely fine' and which are ticking time bombs, better not to take the chance, surely? 

She said it could also stop owners from taking their dog to a vet to be desexed. Dr Oke said the way dogs were treated and other environmental factors were often the underlying cause of their behaviour. "We also know that when animals are in larger groups, they can mentally switch, they can go into pack mentality," she said.She also said dogs could behave differently when they were scared, uncomfortable with a situation, in pain or suffering a medical condition. "We've got to remember that animals are animals, they can't express to us in words what's going on," Dr Oke said. "It's really important to know your pet, to read its body language and if you have any change in behaviour to get that actually formally assessed, have a veterinary opinion to see is there something going on."

It's because of attitudes like this that neighbour complaints about these animals go unanswered, leading to this sort of tragedy. Which, if the comments on FaceBook are anything to go by, is also the case in yesterday's Kinross case in the UK, with the dogs responsible being well known and reported to police. 

Seriously, 'Straya, don't you have enough lethal native wildlife to suit? Why would you want to import more?