So Jacques and I were walking across the Champs de Mars yesterday when he was set upon by two pit bulls. For pit bulls they were friendly, so no real damage was done. However these two fundamentally dominant dogs were off-lead. Their owners did not have them under voice control. They mobbed Jacques and scared the shit out of him.
The owners were these classic overprivileged Americans, East Coast, probably New Jersey, to judge by their accents, and beyond clueless. I don’t know how they even found pit bulls in France but putting that aside, haven’t they noticed that Parisians don’t have aggressive dogs? Seriously, the 7th arrondissement, where the Champs de Mars is located, is all about Westies and dachshunds, chihuahuas and Silkies, maybe the occasional hunting dog. Didn’t they notice that an area of the park that is normally pretty full of dogs was empty, except for theirs? Wonder why…
I called one of them on it. I told her if she didn’t have her dog under voice control, she should have it on a leash. She claimed she was in a dog park. Excuse me, a dog park with no fences but with “no dogs allowed” signs all over? Maybe she was too busy sipping her Starbucks latte, there on the bench chatting with her friends while her dog was running wild, to notice.
Those dogs were just puppies, barely reaching the stage where they are truly going to assert themselves. I could easily imagine them taking a nip out of a toddler, just playing, probably, though pit bulls have been known to go for a full-on attack. The worst effect would be on the toddler, of course, and on the dogs, who would likely be put down. After that, it would be bad for the reputation of pit bulls and for Americans — all of us, not just the witless ones that their parents are paying whatever it takes, just to get them out of the house for a while.
Regardless of whether anyone is bitten, if the Champs de Mars starts filling up with aggressive dogs, the police will start enforcing those “no dogs” signs and we’ll have one less place to let our regular pets socialize and run around a bit.
Okay. Rant over. I feel better now. If you stuck around this long, honestly, I’m amazed.
At Home in France 
Justified rant. Lord preserve us from the over-privileged and the under-accountable.
Dog’s need to be under control, for their own sakes and ours.
Hope this doesn’t spoil Jacque’s happy interaction with other dogs
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He’s definitely more wary than he used to be. He’s still fine with people but if a dog kicks up any sort of fuss, or pins him down, like these two dogs did, he no longer brushes it off. To some extent it’s just a learning curve — some dogs don’t want to play and that’s their good right. But the rest, no, not so good. A lot of people won’t take their dogs to the Champs de Mars because of the aggressive dogs that are allowed to run loose. I cross it fairly regularly to, for example, take Jacques to his groomer, so I don’t always have that option. However I do think I’ll choose my route to avoid the main dog-tolerant area. I know of another nearby area, so far generally frequented by friendly little guys, so we’ll go there to let him play.
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Glad that Jaques is okay.
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