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nonameisgood wrote:However, be careful using pepper spray around small children, they can react with fatal consequences.

Great point.

john L wrote:I am a dog lover and have never found a dog I couldn't back down by standing my ground. That being said, I would of put myself between the stroller and the dog; had it made an attack it would have been me getting bitten and of course it would of been shot at that point. Law enforcement would probably not give you a bad time what so ever if you have a bite or torn pants to show it was in attack mode.

Why do you feel the need to let yourself be attacked/bitten first BEFORE you defend yourself? That's like waiting for a mugger to cut you with a knife or shoot you with a gun before you defend yourself. You have the God-given right to defend yourself from an attack BEFORE you are actually physically harmed.

Adding on to Joe's comment about Health and Safety Code Title 10 Chapter 822 .... section 822.005 ATTACK BY DOG specifies specific CRIMINAL PENALTIES up to a third-degree felony for the OWNER of a dog that attacks humans. IANAL

Above being said, plus the unpredictable nature of any animal, especially a loose dog, I would take what happened to OP as a very serious threat. If the dog is snarling, growling, and approaches within a few feet of my family and cannot be instantly scared away by yelling and waving arms, I would not hesitate to put the animal down. Deal with the consequences later.

I knew a young woman in college who had been mauled by a pit bull as a young child. Dozens of surgeries and literally hundreds of thousands of dollars later this beautiful young woman still had significant scars on her face that caused strangers to do a double-take when they first met her. It was/is - obviously - a lifelong burden for this poor woman. And she is alive to experience it. Others who are attacked by aggressive animals are not so lucky.

A pair of aggressive dogs got loose in my neighborhood recently and mauled a much smaller dog owned by my neighbors. The owner of the attacking dogs paid all the vet bills for my neighbor and now keeps his dogs strictly on a leash (they were unleashed and sitting next to the owner in his open garage when my neighbors walked by with their little dog). Neither of these attacking dogs are of the "typical" breeds with aggressive reputations - some form of retrievers, I believe.

My wife and I and our two young children walk by this same house often on evening strolls. After hearing this story, I told me wife that if I ever saw these dogs growling and running toward our two young children I would shoot the dogs in their own yard before they hit the concrete of the sidewalk. Who knows if a small child making shrieking noises from the sidewalk would set off these dogs same as a small yapping dog already did.

Point of all this is - rightly or wrongly - I would be MORE INCLINED to shoot an aggressive dog sooner than an aggressive human. I guess I figure a human who is yelling and cussing and carrying on is more predictable than the equivalent from a dog. Plus dogs are generally faster, and more violent/dangerous in and of themselves (sharp teeth etc). I would give a human more leeway to reconsider and back away than a dog. Either way, at first sign of potentially life-threatening aggression by either species, my gun is drawn and aimed at the aggressor. If I feel there is time, the human might get a "BACK AWAY NOW!" whereas the dog likely would just get the BANG.