Boy, 9, savaged by dog at home

Sorry I either interpretted wrong or took my pissy pills this morning and they just wore off LOL. I just cant stand people suddenly blaming the dog. The parents have some responsibility too (shocker in our society today)

Sydney? As in Syndey, Australia? The country where American Pit Bull Terriers are BANNED? The country that has some of the toughest restrictions getting SBTs into the country because of the law?

Back when I was a child, if one of us got bitten by a dog, the first thing out of my parents' mouths was "What did you do?"

Sydney? As in Syndey, Australia? The country where American Pit Bull Terriers are BANNED? The country that has some of the toughest restrictions getting SBTs into the country because of the law?

Back when I was a child, if one of us got bitten by a dog, the first thing out of my parents' mouths was "What did you do?"

A dog should be socialized, and trained, and should not bite the neighbor children, even if they were sitting on the fence. IF the dog is not a hundred percent with children, they should not live where children are likely to be. OR the fence should be raised to a height of safety and beware of dog signs posted.

Sydney? As in Syndey, Australia? The country where American Pit Bull Terriers are BANNED? The country that has some of the toughest restrictions getting SBTs into the country because of the law?

ABSOLUTELY.

Blame the owners, not the dog?

It wasn't the owners that bit the chilld..... But yes, they should take responsibility for not training their dog.

But the dog is NOW a liability - blameless or not.

Yes, God Forbid a parent teach their child that a neighbor's fenced in yard is NOT public territory and should be respected as a boundary. God forbid that the owners of the dog responsibly fenced in their yard to keep their dog from running loose. It's CLEARLY the dogs fault.

I live beside idiots like this. Idiots that despite how many times I've told to stay out of my yard, do not approach Hannah, that Hannah hates them, they STILL come into my yard. I have put myself in front of Hannah when the kids run up to her because I know that Hannah has no tolerance for these two children. I have told the parents. Yet, do you think those kids stay out of my yard? NO.

The dog is not always to blamed. Even the best trained dog is still an animal, and has a breaking point. Children are notorious for pushing buttons, pushing the boundaries. Why? Because they can, because they're "kids" and there are no consequences anymore because people are too scared (or too lazy) to discipline.

And then there's the question of whether it really IS an APBT or not . . . wouldn't be the first time a dog's breed was mislabled as a Pit.

I get so tired of the blame game. Blame the parents, blame the kids, blame the dog, blame the breed....

It is never just one thing that creates an issue. It is always a combination of factors.

When did humanity loose the simple art of reasonable thinking? For goodness sakes, "LIFE HAPPENS", we can't always control it, and I'm darned glad that we can't. How else would we be able to learn from our mistakes and advance in our understanding if we never met any unexpected events?


Should a child have to experience the trauma of a dog attack? Believe you me, if I could prevent it from ever happening again I would. But the only way that will happen is if we build a dome over humanity and ban dogs entirely.

We can/do try our hardest to prevent these combination of factors that create these situations from ever reaching fruition, but even with the best of efforts put forward, it WILL happen again. And thats a FACT.

Now we (as in humanity) can accept the fact that shite happens and move on after learning not to ever do that again, or we can continue to try to fix life so nothing ever happens to anybody and end up stagnating in our blissfully sheltered state.

Rant over...

Sorry, having a bad day today.
But you see, shite happens

Banned here too - doesn't necessarily mean you couldn't find one if you looked hard enough.

This was the point I was trying to get at. I perhaps used the wrong language. I did not mean that kids are stupid (in fact, they are quite clever, that's part of the problem) . . . and yes, they perhaps possess common sense . . . they just don't USE it when they should. Yes, the kids know they are supposed to do it . . . and they do it anyway.

I also grew up on a farm, and ran around pretty much loose. I was well taught. I DID get bitten by a dog, and the event was totally my fault. I was 8 and I knew it was my fault. The first thing I said, once I got over the shock, was, don't blame Toby, it was my fault. I don't blame my parents, my grandmother (who's dog it was) or Toby, the dog, for getting bitten. I blame myself, and I blamed myself then. I knew better, but I was 8 and not thinking, and I did what I KNEW I was not supposed to do.

It being the time and place it was, no one thought to blame my parents or my grandmother, or come after the dog. They stiched me up, (it was not a very serious bite) and told my grandmother that if I didn't have any sense, she should keep the dog away from me. (Unnecessary, I treated that old dog with immense respect until they day he died).

I probably would not have dangled my legs in the yard of a strange dog, or a dog known to be mean. (Definately not if it was known to be mean). But I'm quite sure that there are children who have been told better, especially not farm kids, who would do so. I grew up with a deep understanding that animals are generally nice, but unpredictable.

We don't have the facts. But the automatic blaming of the parents isn't fair either. Perhaps they never dreamed he would do such a thing . . . I did lots of things my parents never dreamed I'd do . . . I was their first child, and they were always learning that I could get into the most amazing scrapes . . . There may be good reasons to blame the parents . . . or there may not be. I mostly object to the knee-jerk reaction that if a child is hurt it is automatically the fault of 1) the parents, 2) the goverment, or 3) Society, 4) Whomever was nearby or owned the property. Sometimes it is the fault of one of those. Some times its the kids fault. Sometimes its no one's fault because the kid didn't have the judgement to even know there was danger (or the danger was inobvious enough that most people wouldn't know) and accidents happen.

We can't protect our children from all risks, I'm I'm rather convinced that we shouldn't try. One because a lot of risks are very small risks, and two because I know how I learned. My parents told me not to do things, and sometimes I listened . . . and sometimes they told me not to do something. I did it anyway, and I learned that I should really, really listen to my parents.

I think I had very good parents, who gave me about as much responsibility as I could handle . . . enough that I could learn through experience, but not enough that I could get into REALLY dangerous situations. But that's a tough call for parents to make . . . you may know your kid very well, but luck is a factor.

We simply don't know enough about this situation to judge.