I had an interesting conversation with a fellow biker at a trailhead this week, that seems appropriate to post here.
He told me he was riding the same trail the previous week when he encountered a guy walking his dog. The dog was on a leash and the owner was letting it take a crap in the middle of the trail! When he made no attempt to clean up the waste, the biker stopped and confronted the belligerent dog owner! The dog was viscous and straining against the leash. The conversation got heated and at one point, the owner let go of the leash letting the dog attack! The biker, who is licensed to carry, quickly pulled his pistol and shot the dog dead before it could reach him!
The police were called and the owner told them the dog was harmless and was shot for no reason. Since there were no witnesses, and it was one word against another, the biker was charged with animal cruelty and faces a heavy fine. He told me his only mistake was not letting the dog bite him first. I told him I though his mistake was confronting the obnoxious dog owner in the first place.
I have no idea if this story happened the way it was described, or even if it's true at all. The fellow rider was quite convincing though and at one point, showed me the pistol. True or not, it raises an interesting scenario. I've encountered my share of viscous dogs on the trail but luckily, have never been attacked. On most occasions, I've been able to evade or outrun an aggressive dog. I do carry dog spray but there have been a couple of times when I wished I had my pistol. I do have my CCP, but for reasons I described in post #19, I no longer carry a gun.
Thankfully, most dogs I encounter would rather love you to death than cause harm. Still, I wonder if you could be charged with animal cruelty if you used spray on an aggressive animal.