3-year-old mauled by neighbor's dog

[aseemom]

Originally Posted by Tara

"The dog was on his own property in a fenced-in yard. At this point, there doesn't appear to be any violations of the law," Smith said.

the 4-foot chain-link fence dividing the properties .

So the owner may not have violated the LAW, but sense and safety, yes. The fence is a 4-foot chain-link, lower in spots, with an unlocked gate!!! It neither protects the dog nor children. Common sense dictates if you leave your dog alone outside two conditions NEED to be met. . . the dog cannot leave the enclosure and no one can easily enter the dog's space. It may not be the LAW but it is what is responsible.

[R G Haley]

Originally Posted by BuckshotSableMolly

Great question! I also couldn't agree more.

No one will ever be able to completely decide on what grounds, just as owning a gun, deems you competent to own an animal, however, there has to be something. They can decide who can drive, buy alcohol, buy guns and smoke. Why is an animal so much different?

More So...why, why are CHILDREN SO MUCH DIFFRENT!!! Should be a REQURIMENT in school!

[R G Haley]

Originally Posted by aseemom

So the owner may not have violated the LAW, but sense and safety, yes. The fence is a 4-foot chain-link, lower in spots, with an unlocked gate!!! It neither protects the dog nor children. Common sense dictates if you leave your dog alone outside two conditions NEED to be met. . . the dog cannot leave the enclosure and no one can easily enter the dog's space. It may not be the LAW but it is what is responsible.

I agree completely. Humans choose to have animals as pets and therefore should be held responsible for ensuring the health and safety towards other humans as well as the pet’s welfare.

It has nothing to do with the breed, could have been any breed, this owner is clearly irresponsible. Who on earth would let a dog capable of attacking a CHILD much less another animal, be left tied up outside without supervision??!!!

[debbiej]

This is just too bad. When I hear about something like this I examine my own situation more closely. When I leave my house, one dog is crated inside, the other, Boris, is either crated inside or in a 6' chainlink kennel outside. the kennel is inside our walled back yard. Could a child enter the yard and open the kennel? unlikely. What would Boris do if he did? I don't know, he hasn't been around children very much. I suspect he might play rough, and a tragedy could occur. Lets all just think about the unthinkable. I should make sure he is more used to children, perhaps I should put a lock instead of a snap on the gate to his kennel. when children come to our home, both dogs are only out on leads in my hand, one at a time, to meet children. If I'm not holding the lead, they are crated if children are around. and they seem to like children, but we don't have enough experience around them. I've had other dogs I trusted less than my rotties, but none more capable of injuring a child without intending it.

[rottnkidd]

IMO, a 4' fence is inadequate for a dog left unattended. If the child had entered the yard through the gate, a padlock or 2 could have made all of the difference in this situation.
These avoidable tragedies make me ill.
kathy

[derektjeep]

Let's hope that story helps fuel drive against tying dogs outside to unlocked backyard like this.

[frontierrots]

The dog was not tied. It wasinside it's own 4' fenced backyard that the police had to break the gate to get into. 4' is not high enough, no but whywas this kid outside? "I thought he was taking a nap" is no excuse

[onthedl74]

Is anyone else wondering WHY a 3 year old was left unattended? It's not like the kid was 9 and climbed the fence! 3 years old ... 3!

[aseemom]

Originally Posted by frontierrots

but whywas this kid outside? "I thought he was taking a nap" is no excuse

No it is not an excuse. But would you like to potentially bet a child's and your dog's lives and the breed's reputation that the parents are supervising their children as they should. I am not. I cannot fix the parenting "skills" of my neighboors, but I can prevent the neighboorhood children from accessing Asee unsupervised. She plays great with my children. Do I completely trust either (Asee or the kids)???? Heck NO. I cannot undo what they are, kids and a dog.

[fbkeays]

I have a 6 foot solid wood fence. A few years ago a teenage boy didn't like the fact that Duncan barked at him while he was ditching school to smoke who knows what outside our fence. The kid kicked in the 1x8 redwood boards. Duncan didn't escape and the boy wasn't bitten. But I am NOT going to build a cinder block wall around my property to prevent some other delinquent from being able to do the same thing.
My understanding is that the "low" spots in the fence had to do with the ground on the other side of the fence, not the dog's side. That is the responsibility of the parents to child proof their own yard.
Some smaller dog is crapping in my front yard. I have spent several thousand dollars to redo my front yard. I have even put in a picket fence. But either someone is allowing their dog to roam or has their dog on a flexi and is allowing it to cross the driveway to take a dump on my new sod. I am so tempted to put up a live hot wire fence to FRY the dog that is pooping on my yard. But my husband points out that would not be the lawful thing to do. But it would prevent the dog from getting onto my yard.
So is what is a rottweiler owner supposed to do? Put up razor wire, trip wires and klaxons to prevent the idiots from tresspassing??? The dog owner, according with interviews with the other neighbors, never let his dogs roam. They didn't escape. They had never been a problem or caused trouble in the neigbhorhood before. So you still place the blame on the dog owner?
How about placing blame on the parents for not preventing their child from escaping from the house? Why are you saying that the dog owner needed to have padlocks on his gate. Why are you not saying that that the parents need padlocks on the child's door? Or how about padlocking all of the exterier doors? That would make sure the child would not escape, would it not?
Would be be blaming the driver of a car if the child got out, and ran infront of their car instead? No, we would be not even discussing it, but if we did, we would not be blaming the driver for not having the brakes installed that could stop from 25 mph to 0 in 1 foot distance.
Or how about if they lived near rail road track and the kid escaped and was hit by a train. Would we be vilifying the train engineer for not stopping in time or better yet- avoiding the child on the tracks in the first place???? Should the train engineer be able to derail the train inorder to avoid the child on the tracks?

[BullDaisymom]

While my heart goes out to the child.....IMO the responsiblity here IS the parent. I have kids and dogs. I made sure that so my child couldn't get out I made exit out of the door very hard for small children. I made sure my dogs were and are in a safety enclosure so that children can't get to them without my supervision. These parents knew the was a dog next door ( don't matter what breed) and having a young child...should have taken more steps for the childs safety. In no way was this dog owner at fault. I agree with fbkeays.

[mrs1885]

One of the best pieces of advice I got when my 2 year old learned how to open a door was to put a chain lock at the very top of the doors. No telling how many times it saved him. He woke in the middle of the night on many many occasions and was quiet as a church mouse. I would get up at 5 to feed his sister and find him with Kool Aid dumped all over him and the kitchen floor. Once he was bigger we installed a dead bolt that only opened and closed with a key at the top of the door. No help in the poor little boys case, but something that could save another little one.
This does make me re-think our situation now, though. When we leave, we kennel Roxy and the 2 terriers inside, but never Bear. He has never bothered anyone/anything, so we have allowed him full roam of the house unsupervised. When they go outside, we let them out the back door into a 4' chain link fenced back yard and wait for them to scratch at the door to let us know they are ready to come back in. The blinds are always open when they are out there, but they are unsupervised and we don't keep the lock on the gate. Anyone could open the gate on the side of the house and we would never know. The dogs would love to go wander. Anything could happen. I called my oldest son tonight and told him to go lock that gate and from now on when they go out back, at least one of us will be out there with them. And first thing Sunday morning I will be bringing home a kennel for Bear.
It's a terrible tragedy, but one that, hopefully, many will learn from. I know it made me think.

[Brody-boy]

I agree with Bruce Lanthier......... who knows what really happened. The child was in the dogs territory. Who knows what the child could of done to the dog as well. You all know that young children (3 year olds) are capable of some mischief. He might of done something to upset the dog.

[poohbearsmom]

Originally Posted by Brody-boy

I agree with Bruce Lanthier......... who knows what really happened. The child was in the dogs territory. Who knows what the child could of done to the dog as well. You all know that young children (3 year olds) are capable of some mischief. He might of done something to upset the dog.

While the dog himself is not to blame... ALL adult humans in the situation are. A child has been mauled. Let's not forget that horrendous fact.

[michael1]

I think the parents were at fault. There is no way possible the owner can be held resposible for this . I'm sorry it's sad that people don't want to stand up and be parents anymore so when something like this takes place they want to place the blame else where. But the owners of the dog did nothing wrong at all . The dog was safely confined to it's property not running loose outside of the property. Like one person said i'm not going to build a wall around my yard just to keep people out . For kids the parents need to teach there kids to stay out of other peoples yards. I planted some flowers in my front yard this past summer and had my grass looking good and one night around 11:40 pm the teenagers from next door was all in my yard turning flips all in my flower beds and in my grass and i told them to get there butts out of my yard shoot i don't let my own kids play in my front yard. I hope the boy recover from this.