Hmmm, am I a dog lover? Well, I love people more than dogs. Perhaps that makes me a racist - I love the human race more than dogs.

That doesn't mean I don't love a well behaved dog.

Yes - it is the owners fault - but there isn't much I can do about them, unless the dog bites me. Pardon me for not waiting for that to happen.

The dog (and the owner) has broken the law ( both legal and social ) by allowing their dog threaten people using a public area. Why do I have to wait for them to bite me?

If I come on your property and threaten you - do you have to wait for me to do something to hurt you or yours before you take action? Yes, you do have to evaluate and determine if the person accidentally pulled into the wrong driveway - but if a person comes onto your property (or a public place) and acts like they are going to injure you or someone you love - are you telling me that you don't care?

The illustration regarding babies isn't valid - babies can't really hurt me, nor do I tend to have problems with them trying to chase me down on a public road.

My point is very simple - if a person comes into my home or in a public area and threatens me with physical harm, they have put themselves at risk. A dog has good enough instincts to know that if it threatens something - it might not survive.

The alternative is to just give the road over to the dogs.

Today, a dog barked at me - threatening - and it was over on a field that was public property. I did nothing - why? One, the dog was warning me off and wasn't running at me, two, it was only warning me away from it's puppies. I would have been the fool to mess with it. Almost certainly it was a stray.

My animal danger today was I was nearly ran over by a stallion, a mare and a filly. I guess it is never safe! We really need to install a animal cross walk at that place... (they had been spooked by some heavy equipment making a road)

Please understand, I have been riding for a lot of years - I have only killed three dogs, and two were while hiking. Everyone was either that or get bit. I have flung more rocks than I can remember to teach them a lesson.

Most dogs get killed not by nutso bike riders like myself - it is usually because they go out to chase a cyclist and get killed by the car right behind. That is usually the cause of death. It is generally a matter of time. Dogs that chase people (or cars) almost never die from what they are chasing - it is the one that comes up behind that they don't hear because they are barking so much.

If you love your dog - keep it off the street. If you love dogs - teach them a lesson not to chase things on the street.