Yet another dog attack on a child

Dreadful for the child and family, but why do these news stories always say the dog is an SBT?? I find it hard to believe it's the same breed every time :confused: Yes I am biased, but know of plenty of other breeds that can be agressive given the right circumstances.
 
And why when it's another breed is it not sensationalised anywhere near as much. The media love staffy bashing. Even if there are no injuries the attack is described as being savaged.
 
Yes it's ALWAYS either a staffy or a bull terrier "type" very rarely anything else or heaven forbid, just a "dog"
From what I can determine from the story it sounds like the boy was in a garden he shouldn't have been in and maybe the dog was just defending it's territory as any dog would?
If this proves to be the case, the parents should shoulder some of the blame for letting him wander.
I am not saying it was right that the dog attacked the boy but until all the facts are known I think the media are doing no favours to dogs in general especially staffy types by writing this.
 
Indeed. I would never let anyone leave their kids alone with my dogs. But out of the 4 of them the staffy is the one I would trust with kids. Read about a collie that bit a child, tiny paragraph in paper about it. If it had been a bull breed it would have been a huge story accompanied by the usual
image of a pit bull showing its teeth. The wrong owners have ruined staffys reputations. And the media don't help :(
 
Whilst there are irresponsible parents/guardians there will always be incidents like this. DO NOT leave a baby/toddler/yound child on their own with a dog. If a dog is loose around a child, do not become complacent and assume that because the dog has never shown aggression tendencies that it is safe. Would you leave a toddler in a stable with a flight animal like a horse? No, so don't leave them alone with a dog.
 
blazingsaddles said:
Whilst there are irresponsible parents/guardians there will always be incidents like this. DO NOT leave a baby/toddler/yound child on their own with a dog. If a dog is loose around a child, do not become complacent and assume that because the dog has never shown aggression tendencies that it is safe. Would you leave a toddler in a stable with a flight animal like a horse? No, so don't leave them alone with a dog.
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Cannot agree with this enough. I am one of the fools that thought as long as an adult is present in the same room it would be enough. My one year old daughter was bitten in the face by my collie and to this day we aren't exactly sure what happened because we were being complacent and not watching them both like a hawk. Lesson learnt the hard way!

Daughter is now nearly 4, absolutely no fear of dogs but very respectful of them and is starting to read body language quite well :) Dog is still with us and has shown zero aggression towards my daughters since then, but obviously I don't trust him as far as I could throw him!

From what we worked out with the involvement of a dog behaviourist and the vets, the dog was on edge anyway (we'd all had swine flu so minimal walking for 2 weeks), he'd developed a bit of guarding behaviour of the kitchen doorway (that we failed to spot) and unknown to me, I had conceived my second child 2 days ago - coincidence? Daughter was bitten in the doorway of the kitchen when I had gone out to the loo, leaving OH with dogs and child. I *think* my dog probably gave my daughter a collie 'stare' to say 'move please' and then proceeded to move her when she obviously didn't move (and my OH failed to notice what he was up to). He occasionally does this to the cats and I genuinely believe he was expecting her to jump away like the cats do as he's never ever hurt anything (and we have had chickens, chicks, hamsters, rats, kittens, ducks, guinea pigs). My dog looked so shocked when he bit my daughter that he ran to the furthest corner of the room and sat looking very confused.

It happened so fast. I cannot empasise that enough I also think dogs nowadays are asked to tolerate far too much. I cringe when i see friends dogs being crawled all over, or chased around. But, even knowing what happened with my boy, people still believe it won't happen to them. It's almost guaranteed the first thing people say when a dog has bitten is 'well, he's never done it before'. Just because they haven't doesn't mean they won't. A big dose of common sense when dogs are around little ones goes a long way but is often lacking (like with me, hindsight is a wonderful thing!).

I hope the boy in the news story is doing ok, poor little thing.
 
Its always the owner's fault yet they put the poor dog down. Problem is the dog's not immune from the law even if the attack happened on the owner's own property and not in a public place, so if the toddler happened to wander into an open garden, really its down to the owner to make sure the garden is secure in the first place to protect dog and any passer bys.
 
If it is a staffy though how are the media supposed to report it? I don't think you can bash them if they are actually just reporting the facts.

It certainly is sad that this occurred as it sounds completely preventable.
 
ester said:
If it is a staffy though how are the media supposed to report it? I don't think you can bash them if they are actually just reporting the facts.

It certainly is sad that this occurred as it sounds completely preventable.
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Apparently neighbours have said it was bigger than a staffy so more like a bulldog type....so not really reporting the facts or at least not being sure of them.

Dog has been destroyed, they are worried about kid's sight and part of ear and nose were bitten off :-(
 
Ester I expect them to report it properly and not sensationalise it. As I said in previous post, I've read reports where a collie bit a child and drew blood. The report said just that, fair enough.

Then you get the report where a staffy has done the same, small cut to the hand but this time the dog "savaged" the person and they always use the same pic of a snarling pit bill type dog.

I have no problems with paper reporting news but do me a favour and don't make it sound ten times worse when it's a bull breed!
 
I do understand your point but I think I have always seen the overuse of descriptives with regards to dog attacks rather than it being breed specific. Although that might be because I would generally only pick up on the reports of injuries that were significant enough to be described as mauled/savaged etc.

If they didn't report what sort of dog it was at all it would be a query on many people's lips.
 
Although saying that did you read the report in the Sun about a ferret that "mauled" a child! You had to laugh the child had a small cut a bit like a paper cut. Apparently it took 3 grown men to keep this savage ferret at bay! :)
 
Well I was bitten by my own ferret, they do lock on and his teeth met in the middle of my finger...it was a small cut but I haven't since felt pain like it, was worse than a dog bite and I have had a couple. I popped his jaw and his head snapped round and got me on the same finger of my other hand. So I can see why assistance may have been needed to get one off a child.
 
CaveCanem said:
Well I was bitten by my own ferret, they do lock on and his teeth met in the middle of my finger...it was a small cut but I haven't since felt pain like it, was worse than a dog bite and I have had a couple. I popped his jaw and his head snapped round and got me on the same finger of my other hand. So I can see why assistance may have been needed to get one off a child.
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I got bitten by a ferret. Two little boys had chased it into my friend's yard. I asked them what they were doing there and they said it was their pet and they were afraid of losing it. Niavely I believed them and tried to help. :o

I reached to pick the ferret up, it bit me right through my thumb joint :eek: so to get it off I grabbed its back leg with my other hand. It spun round to get that hand but I was too quick, so it ran up my jeans and bit my leg.:eek:

At this point the little dears told me it wasn't theirs, they'd just spotted it loose and been chasing it and tormenting it for ages. :mad: So it was actually a terrified and very cross ferret!

I did catch it in the end. It was taken to the vet and once it had calmed down was taken home by the vet nurse who said it was a little sweetie.

Meanwhile I had to go to casualty and ended up having wear a ridiculous sling to strap my hand very high for three days. :o:o
 
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