Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

facebook.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 493 posts

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#111

Post by JumpCrisscross »

kdf83 wrote: post #95
cgriswald wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing Wag screwed up was its total lack of empathy in trying to buy silence. > a couple thousand maximum Maximum? Many pups cost more than this and you'd be paying to replace at least. You might also be paying for any amount of vet bills if the animal isn't killed on the spot. If you hit a service or working dog, be ready to shell out tens of thousands for replacement due to the unique tasks performed (not all do…

"In any case, Wag and its walker are probably not at fault. I'd be after the driver." Have you considered the dog was at fault? I mean unless the leash is incredible short it would be pretty easy to jump into an oncoming car if pavement is small. Playing devil advocate here but since we've considered Wag, the walker and driver surely we can consider the animal at fault too unless the lease was 20cms and dog was pract…

> Have you considered the dog was at fault?

It is never the dog’s fault. We brought the dog into an unnatural environment. It is in our power and thus our responsibility to keep them safe. This is why pet accidents are so devastating.

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#112

Post by mikey_p »

wutbrodo wrote: post #97
metildaa wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was that, a bathroom rental service? Sounds like profiteering off basic bodily functions, in a way that was previously uncommon & often socially unacceptable.

It's Wag, a service that matches you with available dog walkers. The pee-ers in question were pets.

That said, there is actually an app for finding and paying to use a restroom: https://www.good2go.global/index.html

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#113

Post by Judgmentality »

dsl wrote: post #102
Judgmentality wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a persons' dog is more important than most other humans to most dog owners, yet the law treats dogs as nothing more than property Something I've always found particularly infuriating is how police dogs are considered officers and often carries a worse punishment than attacking an actual police officer. Not because I am upset that the dogs are being protected, but that the police basically can shoot other people's d…

Police dogs are not actual officers, as they can not meet the training and oath requirements. I'm not aware of any laws protecting the dogs specifically other than general animal cruelty laws. But because they are very expensive to train (I know of a bomb dog that cost $30k+) you are facing felony property damage charges if you injure or disable them. You should take a break.

So I did some googling and like most things, "it's complicated."

It varies by state, but killing a police dog can put you in jail for 10 years (and this has happened) and that is a federal law. There are some states pursuing stricter measures themselves where killing a canine officer is equivalent to killing a human officer.

As to what I said about killing a police dog having a harsher punishment, that was based on a single anecdote and I meant that the judges serve harsher punishments, not that the laws themselves are stricter.

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900010289/senate-approve...

https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96229&page=1

https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/man-who-killed-pittsburgh-po...

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#114

Post by astura »

anonymous5133 wrote: post #96
idontpost wrote: post #7

Incredibly stupid decision to respond this way by Wag. How bad to you have to be at PR to screw this up? It's not hard. Liability in the case of harmed pets is extremely limited, so you just pay it all and apologize profusely. There's no way the bad press will be worth saving a couple thousand maximum. Absolute idiots.

Also on the other end. Wag seems to be having issues with walkers committing fraud against the company. I think wag needs to take a more aggressive approach at putting a stop to it. If walkers are committing fraud through the app then they should pursue legal action against those walkers and hold them criminally for fraud. From what I understand...what walkers are doing is signing up for their friends/family and lett…

This is basically a side effect of the "gig economy." One can even just sell their account (and good will) when they decide to quit dog walking. Pretty scary when you really think about it.

Also heard of uber drivers hiring illegal immigrants to drive under their uber account, not sure of the credibility of these reports.

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#115

Post by crowbahr »

fanzhang wrote: post #66

The Streisand effect strikes again. This is what happens when the legal department has no customer empathy, and to these lawyers, everything is a nail to their hammer of a contract. Some people mentioned that Wag should have offered more and demanded less -- absolutely! But think about if Wag even said "sorry this happened, that's all we can say for your terrible loss" even without a compensation offer and without an…

Perhaps have the walkers be bonded as well?

Even if it's 1k that's a pretty serious amount of money to lose, but low enough a barrier of entry that you still have people making a go at it.

Obviously it gets returned to you when you close your Wag Walker account.

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#116

Post by ratsoman2 »

dsl wrote: post #102
Judgmentality wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a persons' dog is more important than most other humans to most dog owners, yet the law treats dogs as nothing more than property Something I've always found particularly infuriating is how police dogs are considered officers and often carries a worse punishment than attacking an actual police officer. Not because I am upset that the dogs are being protected, but that the police basically can shoot other people's d…

Police dogs are not actual officers, as they can not meet the training and oath requirements. I'm not aware of any laws protecting the dogs specifically other than general animal cruelty laws. But because they are very expensive to train (I know of a bomb dog that cost $30k+) you are facing felony property damage charges if you injure or disable them. You should take a break.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96229&page=1

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#117

Post by crowbahr »

issa wrote: post #100

I realize this wasn't the point of the story, and I'm so sorry this happened to anyone's dog. But please do not buy dogs from breeders when there are plenty of amazing dogs waiting to be rescued at shelters.

While you're correct do note that not everyone can handle or wants to go through the pain of training a shelter dog.

A dog you've raised from 8 weeks old is very different than a dog someone else has already abused and abandoned. Even if they're only 6 months old the habits have been learned and they're hard to break.

Young puppies go instantly from shelters for that reason, and few people want to adopt a pit bull with behavior problems.

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#118

Post by cranky_coder »

kdf83 wrote: post #95
cgriswald wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing Wag screwed up was its total lack of empathy in trying to buy silence. > a couple thousand maximum Maximum? Many pups cost more than this and you'd be paying to replace at least. You might also be paying for any amount of vet bills if the animal isn't killed on the spot. If you hit a service or working dog, be ready to shell out tens of thousands for replacement due to the unique tasks performed (not all do…

"In any case, Wag and its walker are probably not at fault. I'd be after the driver." Have you considered the dog was at fault? I mean unless the leash is incredible short it would be pretty easy to jump into an oncoming car if pavement is small. Playing devil advocate here but since we've considered Wag, the walker and driver surely we can consider the animal at fault too unless the lease was 20cms and dog was pract…

Would you blame a toddler for leaping into traffic while being babysat by a paid adult human, or would you blame the paid adult human who was tasked with the job of watching over this life form?

Personally I’d blame the “paid professional” before I’d blame the being with minimal rational thought.

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#119

Post by Judgmentality »

gnulinux wrote: post #87
Judgmentality wrote: post #33

I admittedly wasn't a huge fan of Wag ever because it always seemed like taking the lowest available bidder to walk your dog (instead of someone who truly loves dogs and has years of experience training them), but I'm curious how much of an influence Softbank has been since their investment. Everybody talks about how Softbank is the smartest money in Silicon Valley. Obviously time will tell, but I feel like Softbank…

Haha a little off topic but I'm curious. I work in a Softbank invested startup (not Wag). Could you elaborate about Softbank being the most silly part? Is it silly in this case, or in general about companies Softbank invests in?

I'm just unimpressed by their investments, and their ridiculously large sums of money thrown into companies which may not need it. I worked at a Softbank company before, and while the fundraise was heralded as a brilliant move at the time the few in the know realize that the company likely would have shut down had Softbank not put up their ridiculously large sum of money (the public and media still love this company and knows nothing of this).

Obviously this is just my opinion on their investment strategy and time will tell - they make money or they don't. But I have insider information that at least one of their bigger deals is definitely going to fail.

Re: My dog was killed on a walk with a walker ordered through Wag

#120

Post by labster »

astura wrote: post #114
anonymous5133 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also on the other end. Wag seems to be having issues with walkers committing fraud against the company. I think wag needs to take a more aggressive approach at putting a stop to it. If walkers are committing fraud through the app then they should pursue legal action against those walkers and hold them criminally for fraud. From what I understand...what walkers are doing is signing up for their friends/family and lett…

This is basically a side effect of the "gig economy." One can even just sell their account (and good will) when they decide to quit dog walking. Pretty scary when you really think about it. Also heard of uber drivers hiring illegal immigrants to drive under their uber account, not sure of the credibility of these reports.

Why would anyone care if an undocumented immigrant drove your uber? As long as they're licensed and insured, they're just as qualified as any other driver.
Post reply on HN