Doggy Theory

[Nolerama]

So a pizza guy is confronted by a small dog, which does no damage outside of a few tears in the guy's pant leg. He asks the owner to take care of his dog, which the owner simply pushes the dog inside with his foot and boxes it in while paying for the pizza.

When the pizza guy gets into his car, the dog escapes, barking at the pizza guy, who doesn't know the dog is loose and accidentally runs it over, killing the canine. The driver, in a big pickup takes off, unaware of the dogslaughter he just committed.

The dog's owner is mortified and called the manager of the pizza place. The manager maintains that his employee did everything in his power to get the dog away from him, and is adamant that he won't fire said employee.

Now the dog's owner is organizing a boycott of that particular pizza place, as well as it's entire chain.

What are your thoughts? Who's at fault here?

 

[Bob Hubbard]

The owner.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Dog owner

 

[CanuckMA]

In New England and California, the Republicans, everywhere else, the Democrats.

 

[terryl965]

The dog and the way the country is going it will be with the dogs.:erg:

 

[Ken Morgan]

The owner.

 

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

Owner. Shoulda run the owner over, instead. Dogs are lousy boycott organizers.

 

[MA-Caver]

When the pizza guy gets into his car, the dog escapes,
What are your thoughts? Who's at fault here?

The owner of the dog for not maintaining a better hold, control over the dog. Conceivably a dog owner is supposed to be in control over their animal at any-given time. Even a dog charging full blast should stop in it's tracks by the owner when called to... or at least turn around and return when called. People own dogs and make them part of the family but rarely (in my experience) train them to be instantly obedient when necessary. This is with ANY dog, large or small. Constantly working with the animal for even 15-20 minutes each day reinforces to the animal that YOU are in charge of it and not the other way around.
I've known dogs that obey even when I (total stranger walking by the house and the animal is running towards me to bark (maybe bite) stop when I stop and point at it saying NO! SIT! and they stop and sit (hesitantly) ... so conditioned to obey that command. THAT to me is a well trained dog and a dog worth having. People seem to forget that they are predatory mammals and have predatory instincts... even the smallest ones have that ingrained genetic need to hunt, attack and kill.
The dog's owner should've had it's little mutt trained well enough to SIT at the door wide-open and it's yap shut while visitors/delivery are standing outside the thresh-hold. The dog should be made to feel that it's doing it's job guarding it's den and it's pack but as it's been taught to do. Watchful, wary, silent and ready should that thresh-hold be crossed without consent of the Alpha-male/female.

The owner of the dog lost control and the mutt got in the way of the tires, being small and hard to see (and hear if the pizza guy's stereo is blasting (which isn't illegal... unless it's obnoxiously loud)).

The story reminds me of when I stopped in to see an old friend who was a pizza delivery driver for Pizza Hut... I walked into the resturant feeling good that I'm going to see him because it's been a while. The manager approached me and before I knew it I was this irate customer who replied to the "Can I help you?"...
Me: "Yeah, one of your drivers ran over my cat!"
Manager: (confused and taken aback) "excuse me?"
Me: (slowly as if talking to a dummy) One of your drivers ran over my cat!
Manager: "Are you sure it was one of ours?"
Me: (a little more excited) "yeah it was one of yours it had the Pizza Hut sign on the roof!"
Manager: "uh, can you describe the vehicle sir?"
Me: (slightly exasperated) "It was a brown... piece of crap Dodge Ram Charger with big wheels.The driver was a tall lanky guy with glasses, he delivered a pizza to our place then backed out of our driveway and our cat ran out in front of it and he just ran it over... my daughter saw the whole thing and now she's at home crying her eyes out ! I want to talk to this driver... now!
Manager: "Uh, okay well, umm... that is one of our drivers alright... let me go in the back and get him."
Me: "You go do that!"

The manager went on back... my friend came out and saw me and laughed his *** off with me busting up right with him because I couldn't hold it anymore... I apologized to the manager heavily and shook his hand for being a good sport about it all. My friend told me later that the manager went to the back found him in the break room and the first thing he said was "Whatever you do... do NOT leave the store!" :lol: "Why?" "some guy is pissed out there saying you ran over his cat!"

Sigh... okay... back to seriousness of the situation... The owner was responsible for it all.

 

[jks9199]

The dog owner. The dog is his responsibility to keep controlled. The rest is irrelevant.

 

[Jade Tigress]

Obviously the dog owner. As has been said, it's the owners responsibility to control the dog and I don't know of a single state that doesn't have a leash law.

 

[Cryozombie]

The Pizza Delivery guy is at fault, because he wasnt there in 30 minutes or less.

No seriously. The Dog's owner is at fault.

 

[Carol]

Not enough information. Could be any of the three.

 

[FearlessFreep]

Not enough information. Could be any of the three.

I keep waiting for this to be some political metaphor that we are all going to look stupid for our answers

 

[Stac3y]

I don't know...could it be....SATAN? :angry:

 

[Carol]

I keep waiting for this to be some political metaphor that we are all going to look stupid for our answers

It does seem to be written in a way to elicit a particular response. Why that is, I don't know.

But no politcal metaphor here. I just don't do make-believe very well so I think in terms of the pragmatic instead.

I can see where the dog owner can be at fault, that was well described by you folks. I'd lean towards the dog owner if the driver had a legal right to be there. He may not.

What if the pizza shop owner hired the driver and put him on the road knowing he was not properly licensed? The shop owner then unnecessarily put everyone on the road at risk. I'd lean towards the owner's fault as being the most significant.

Pizza drivers may not have much contact with their managers except to run in to the restaurant to grab the next box and run out. What if along the way the driver started drinking alcohol to the point of legal intoxication, or using illicit drugs? A fast run in and out could hide signs of his use. I'd lean towards the driver's fault as being most significant.

 

[CoryKS]

I keep waiting for this to be some political metaphor that we are all going to look stupid for our answers

I blame George W. Bush. And the dog owner. But mostly Bush.

 

[CanuckMA]

It has to be the Republicans. If the dog had universal healthcare, he would have survived.

 

[jks9199]

It does seem to be written in a way to elicit a particular response. Why that is, I don't know.

But no politcal metaphor here. I just don't do make-believe very well so I think in terms of the pragmatic instead.

I can see where the dog owner can be at fault, that was well described by you folks. I'd lean towards the dog owner if the driver had a legal right to be there. He may not.

What if the pizza shop owner hired the driver and put him on the road knowing he was not properly licensed? The shop owner then unnecessarily put everyone on the road at risk. I'd lean towards the owner's fault as being the most significant.

Pizza drivers may not have much contact with their managers except to run in to the restaurant to grab the next box and run out. What if along the way the driver started drinking alcohol to the point of legal intoxication, or using illicit drugs? A fast run in and out could hide signs of his use. I'd lean towards the driver's fault as being most significant.

Even if the pizza driver had no business being on the road (let's go the full boat, the vehicle isn't registered, won't pass required safety inspections, and the driver is not only unlicensed, but revoked, and illegally present in the US so can't legally work at all, too)...

The death of the dog is still the dog owner's fault. It is his duty to control his dog; as was said, just about every state has a leash law, as well as other laws requiring owners to control their dogs. But it's even simpler than that. Dogs are chattel; they're property in the eyes of the law. (More in a moment, if the lynch mob will hold off.) If, instead of a dog, it'd been a roller skate that the pizza guy tripped over, which later rolled under the wheels of the truck, there'd be no doubt it wasn't his fault. Same thinking applies.

But... there's a different business issue here, too. While dogs may be property in the eyes of the law -- they're family to many people. I agree with the business owner about not firing his employee, or even disciplining him. But a wise business choice would have been to do something to show he cared; I don't know if he did or didn't. I'm not suggesting that the pizza owner run out and buy a new dog... but an open show of sympathy, some token gift (several free pizzas, etc.), and an apology might have gone a very long way, too.

 

[still learning]

Hello, The Owner had a chance to chain up the dog? ....he didn't ...his loss....

Pizza anyone? .....

Aloha,

 

[crushing]

The pizza place's parent company, because they have the deepest pockets.