Austria
Jogger fatally injured by fighting dog – now the husbandry law should be put to the test
An American Staffordshire Terrier attacked a runner in Austria (symbolic image)
© Bernd Thissen / Picture Alliance
The dog owner tried to drag her American Staffordshire Terrier away from the jogger – but the attack ended fatally. Now the law on keeping dogs should be reviewed.
In Austria, a woman was bitten to death by a dog while jogging in the morning. As the police announced on Tuesday, the 60-year-old suffered several injuries in the incident in Naarn in the state of Upper Austria. When the emergency doctor arrived, she was already dead. The animal, an American Staffordshire Terrier, was euthanized on the orders of the district authority. In Upper Austria there are no special requirements for keeping this dog breed – unlike in many German federal states. Now state politicians want to rethink the current regulations.
According to police, the fatal incident occurred on Monday morning on a dirt road in Naarn, a small rural community near Linz. The dog’s 37-year-old owner was walking her American Staffordshire Terrier there. As the 60-year-old woman ran past, she was attacked by the animal. The owner tried in vain to drag her dog away. She was injured herself. However, she managed to bring her animal back to her nearby house and alert emergency services, a police spokeswoman told the German Press Agency.
According to the police, it was initially not possible to question the woman. Therefore, the exact course of the incident is not yet clear. However, initial investigations revealed that the dog was on a leash but was not wearing a muzzle.
Controversial classification of dog breeds such as American Staffordshire Terriers
In Upper Austria, the muzzle requirement only applies to individual dogs that have been classified by the authorities as conspicuous because they have threatened people or animals. The American Staffordshire Terrier from Naarn had not previously been noticed as aggressive, said the mayor of the community, Martin Gaisberger. According to Gaisberger, the owner and her partner own several adult dogs and a litter of kittens.
In three Austrian federal states, a permit or a dog license test is required to keep potentially dangerous breeds such as American Staffordshire Terriers. Upper Austria is not one of them: all dog owners there have to complete a course. The state minister responsible for animal protection, Michael Lindner, announced on Tuesday that the Upper Austrian dog ownership law would be evaluated. “We cannot simply go back to business as usual, but must critically examine the law and enforcement with experts,” said Lindner.
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In Germany it is generally forbidden to import American Staffordshire Terriers. Keeping these so-called fighting dogs is only permitted in most German federal states with permission from the authorities. This breed is not allowed to be kept in Brandenburg and Bremen.
This classification of dog breeds is controversial. In an overview study in 2019, the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna came to the conclusion that the breed-specific dangerousness of dogs can neither be scientifically proven nor proven by reliable bite statistics.