Gone to the dogs

An exceptional case:

Long long time ago in a very distant different time, when it was even still snowing from time to time and distancing was a not known word.

One of the very few professional mushers in Germany earned his daily bread as well as the daily bread of his dogs by offering rides through parks on his dog sledge to tourists.

One day, the musher was just driving a customer through a park, a dachshund jumped on his pack of sledge-hounds. Directly from under a bush at the side of the path, he stormed directly into the middle of the twelve sledge-dogs.

Not only was the dachshund loaded with adrenaline but also the sledge-hounds had been concentrating on their task and were thus quite unhappy about the disturbance, which lead to aggressions on all sides.

A pack of hounds has a very strict hierarchy. An external, not known dachshund will surely not be accepted to disturb this order.

At the same moment, the dachshund-owner entered the scene. He was quite shocked. Not only because his dachshund seemed to be devoured by twelve grey-white beasts, but also and mainly because he had – of course – not expected to be confronted with a dog-sledge.

Luckily the musher reacted instantly. He called his dogs to order, jumped into their middle, took up the marauding dachshund and gave him to his owner.

But this is when the story really started. The dachshund was so excited, that he had nothing better to do that to bite his owner’s cheek. He convinced of the lack of intent and capability of his dachshund, reported the musher under the claim of non-intentional criminal assault.

Section 229 German Criminal Act stipulates: Who unintentionally causes bodily harm to another person will be punished with term of imprisonment of up to three years or a fine.

The judge, quite amused, suspended the court procedure.

The action of the dachshund was not the responsibility of the musher. He was neither responsible for the riot under his pack, nor was he to be held responsible for the cheek-bite.