Comment

Comment by RILEY, MAGGIE and Christine Kemp on March 2, 2010 at 8:23pm

This is a sad, sad incident, with an unintentional consequence. The family has suffered a tremendous loss. The responsible party or parties have been held accountable (they have suffered the ultimate punishment, the loss of a child). As a parent your responsibility is to protect this most precious of all gifts. I don't understand where a parents head is when they allow a child to to be unsupervised around any animal that is capable of such a horrendous act as this. Unsupervised in any circumstance, sometimes, doesn't have a good outcome. "The dog is also a victim."

Comment by Kimberlie on March 2, 2010 at 2:52pm

The issue here isn't the dog or the breed, it is the mother who desided to leave a 3 year old outside unattended, dog or no dog something bad was bound to happen. Esspecially becuase she didn't even notice anything going on. But from my experience dog attacts arn't silent. Maybe if she was more careful and had consideration to keep her ears and eyes on what was going on outside she could of pervented it going so far. Animals are animals, and any animals could attact when it feels threatened. This isn't a dog at fault, this is a humans fault (she created a oppertunity for disaster).

Comment by John Wolff on March 2, 2010 at 1:03pm

Never leave a "dangerous breed" unsupervised with a small child. It only takes a moment of inattention for something like this to happen:

I love this cute photo, but drawing on the dog is one thing. Sticking a lollipop stick into its ear is quite another.
Even with a corgi, although I trust them with children, I have seen Al snap at other dogs who've gotten too up-close-and-personal; what might happen with a child who didn't know not to stick its fingers in a dog's eye? I love showing off my cute doggies to little kids, but I'm always right there.

Comment by Beth on March 2, 2010 at 12:15pm

I had a nasty little cock-a-poo mix when I was young (a teenager, not a toddler), and she bit me several times hard enough to draw blood. BUT she weighed about 16 pounds and honestly I wasn't scared of her. She would snap once and retreat, and sometimes she'd catch you and sometimes not, depending on her mood.

I feel badly for the family. The article says another Rottie was removed recently after biting an adult. My cousin had two and they were very aggressive, but their origin was uncertain (rescue) and they may have been mishandled.

Comment by Laura & Lola on March 2, 2010 at 11:58am

Lola being crabby with Owen.MOV

This is pretty much the extent of Lola getting moody with our little one. If I do leave Owen alone in a room, she usually will follow me or finds a quiet area of the house to sleep. She'll sometimes hang out with him though & I feel comfortable with it. I know you can never be too sure of what a dog is capable of, but I pretty much add that to the million other worries I have on my mind with a child who is learning to crawl/pull himself up! I'm not going to lock my dog up or seclude her. She's always been a part of our 'pack' and doing something like that will just make her feel resentment towards him & neither of them will learn to be around one another. I monitor them about 90% of the time...but I can't always be watching over them so I hope my training with my dog (and as much 'training' I have done so far with my son) helps to deter any attacks.

Comment by Alice on March 2, 2010 at 11:48am

I was left alone with our family dogs when I was very little. We had a Golden and a Fox Terrier mix. The Fox Terrier came from a bad background and it took her a while to settle in but she grew very attached to me and became a sweet dog. Before she came to us she was in a home with various teacup breeds, a couple of which she had killed. After a good swat from our Golden, she knew her place. The Golden was the sweetest, most gentle dog in the world.

When my Mom was little she was often left with a German Shepherd as a baby sitter and there was never an incident. She has fond memories of the dog pulling her back by her dress if she tried to leave the property.

In both cases, these dogs were not raised to be nannies but it was in them to be gentle and acknowledge that children are different and require great patience. Not all dogs within the same breed are going to have the same disposition and it's up to the parents to determine if the dog is trustworthy with kids. I use to baby sit for a coupe that had two little kids, a Yorkie and Rotty. that Rotty growled at me more than once and if I had tried to take something from him I'm sure he would have snapped. That dog should not be around kids when it's inevitable that they will take something from his mouth.

It's true that any breed can be aggressive. When I was young I knew a vicious Cocker Spaniel. She'd chase me and try to bite. i was scared to death of her. Does anyone remember not too long ago when an officer with his police dog (German Shepherd) were being interviewed by the news and the anchor was kneeling next to the dog when the dog flipped out and attacked him?

I know that Finn would never hurt a child and the only reason I would not leave him with one unattended is because he jumps and I would not want him knocking a child over.

Comment by christy fry on March 2, 2010 at 11:46am

Sam just posted it on the daily blog

Comment by christy fry on March 2, 2010 at 11:45am

This happened in Astoria Or. the father is acutally featured on a show called AX-Men on Discovery I beleive. The Authorties have the dog and are trying to figure out what happened but the Mother was inside and didn't see anything.

Comment by Bev Levy on March 2, 2010 at 9:25am

It is amazing that people still leave their children alone with their dogs. I read an article years ago by a vet that decided to investigate some of the "deaths by dog" around the country. Unfortunately I can not reference it but the story that really stuck with me was about the family St Bernard that killed their 3 year old child. The family vet autopsied the dog and found a sucker stick shoved in his ear. All the way in! The pain must have been horrible. Usually I think we are protecting our dogs from the child when we are watchful. This also saves the child. Unfortunately some breeds are more apt to cause severe damage. My grandson at 9 months bit our doberman and Misty stays away from children to this day. Fortunately her first instinct was to leave not bite!

Comment by Jane Christensen on March 2, 2010 at 9:15am

We just had a dog(not sure what kind) in MN that killed an 8 day old baby! Parent had the baby in a car seat on the bed unattended! Why are people leaving their children unattended? I don't mean to be cruel but why would someone do this? My dogs love kids but I still will be watchful and still crate my dogs if I'm out of sight because my grandson does like to crawl right in their kennel...this could be bad if someone wasn't right there.

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