Another disturbing article

[Alberta Hanko]

This is an article from today's LI Newsday. It's about a little girl who was petting a Rottweiler at Petco Monday afternoon, and was bitten in the face. Newsday states that the little girl;'s mom was not alarmed when she saw her daughter petting the friendly looking dog but then heard the "growl and the snapping of teeth". The little girl has had surgery to repair the damage to her lip, and the article goes on to say she will need furthre surgeries. The article also states that the man who was with the dog was not it's owner.

I am hoping that these upsetting articles will spur more discussion in the dogs and kids together forum, on how to prevent these things and what to look for when our dogs are interacting with kids.


http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-ligirl274602848jan27 ,0,2992883.story?col l=ny-top-headlines

Alberta & Linus

[Jesse Cruz]

Hi, yes I saw that sad story and it brought me to tears. I was sad for the family and the dog as well. The poor thing didn't know what it was doing. They took it to a shelter and a rescue group took him in and were going to work on training the dog. They want to eventually put him up for adoption, which I think is the right thing to do. He was a pup, doing his normal puppy play, unfortunately there was tragedy but nothing he maliciously did. I pray for the family of that little girl.

[Jen Greaves]

That's horrible. It's so unfortunate that things like that happen. A ban on pitbulls has recently passed in Ontario, now owners have to muzzle their dogs in public, even if they're a mix! They're calling mixes 'grandfathered' so they are still pitbulls. All the pitbulls I've ever known have been the biggest sucky lap dogs. I know there are mean ones, but there are also mean everything, its how and who raises them. Sorry, just venting a bit. It's situations like this one that caused the ban here, granted you shouldn't have mean dogs in public but they didn't go after 'mean dogs', just one breed, its ridiculous. If the owners want a mean dog, they just going to move onto another breed now, ridiculous. They have increased the fines for biting, ok that's good, but once again only for specific breeds and can you believe that siberians are on that list!! Ok I'm done, sorry for the vent. lol

[Alberta Hanko]

I hate the idea of breed specific anything, and agree that the Rottweiler biting that little girl will just convince some that Rottweiler's are dangerous. I have known some really loveable Rottweilers. I think that poor dog was put in a position, tight spot, little girl up to his face, petting over the top of the head, and directly staring at him, where he felt he needed to get her away. I did read that he growled. And of course I am completely against kids being allowed to approach dogs without a parent, or a responsible adult running interference. It's sad that the child will face further surgeries, and sad that the Rottweiler will be euthanized for being a dog, and not being protected from a perceived threat.

Alberta & Linus