Dog Attacks 4-Year-Old

I have a 'bully breed mix' that I rescued from the pound. I am not sure excatly the mix but he has pit, mastiff, and boxer in there. He is a gentle loving dog with my kids and my family but he is very protective of us and the house. I am not sure if he would bite or not so he is NEVER allowed to run free and is ALWAYS supervised by myself or my husband. He is allowed off his leash in the fenced backyard but is never left aloneout there, partly because I am afraid he would be stolen for fighting. He is rather intimidating in appearance and whenever we walk him we warn the neighborhood kids to stay away and make sure we avoid the playground or areas where kids are if possible. We know the responsibility of owning a dog that could be aggressive and take that seriously. I do not want to have to put him down for biting someone, like these people should have done the first time he attacked a child. People like this are the reason these breeds are considered dangerous, because they do not take the animals natural instinct to protect their family and territory seriously and take proper precautions for safety of the animal and neighbors.

Not only should stupid people not breed, they shouldn't be allowed to own guns or violent dogs.

These mouth breathers didn't have the mininum required intellegence level to own a bad dog.

The report said she was walking the dog, now wouldn't you think this meant she should have had the dog on a leash? Or maybe she just couldn't hold the dog once it went after the child, either way this dog should have died, and the owners should pay alot of money for what this child has, and will go threw!!!!. Stupid owners. Ir's not like they didn't know this dog would attack.

Albert wrote:

Some on this issue keep blaming the parents of the little girl. No where in this article does it say the little girl attacked the dog. As for the child playing outside, every child at 4 years old plays outside.
I have a small pet dog and I love it dearly. I put up an invisible fence and trained it to not go beyond the fence. It is the owners fault this occured and not the little girls fault.

Who lets a 4 year old play outside in the front yard alone?

Jason B Bour wrote:

<quoted text>
Who lets a 4 year old play outside in the front yard alone?

I take issue with this jason, the kid wasn't alone, and it was her front yard.

A kid should have a right to play in their own yard without fear of being eaten alive

justwonderingoutloud wrote:

<quoted text>
I take issue with this jason, the kid wasn't alone, and it was her front yard.
A kid should have a right to play in their own yard without fear of being eaten alive

I agree JWO, but I agree with Jason too. A four year old should not be unsupervised. It may be my opinion but I do not let my 3 and 5 yo play unsupervised period.

I re-read the article...where does it say the kid was unattended? I'm not getting that, or am I missing something?

"Keeping" any dog(especially a high energy dog) on a chain is a bad idea.
If you are interested check out "UnchainYourDog.org "
If you know someone who keeps a dog chained check out this site.

Jazzysis wrote:

This was a preventable act the man should have keep his dog on a chain. The dog should have only been allowed out when the owner was present. I have two pits and I only allow my dogs off the chain when I'm out side.
The owner is responsible for the actions of the dog and with him knowing that the dog has the potential to become violent he should have taken control of the situation to prevent this act from occurring.

should of had thier dog inside,that's where i kept my pit-bull.whenever she was outside,someone was with her and in command of her.just because of the bad rep pits get.my dog saved my grandsons life and in the process got injured.leaving her with an crippled front paw.pits are lovable dogs,it's all in how you raise them

Mr_Obvious wrote:

<quoted text>I agree JWO, but I agree with Jason too. A four year old should not be unsupervised. It may be my opinion but I do not let my 3 and 5 yo play unsupervised period.

No child is ever unsupervised in this neighborhood. I see kids playing outside all day and there are always adults outside. There were older kids out there and other parents so she was not unattended. Animal Control should be partially blamed as well. I call them every week about dogs being lose in this little neighborhood and the dogs are still roaming freely. After this attack I think parents are not letting their kids run through the neighborhood anymore. It's terrible and almost like a jungle here.
I dont have kids but I wouldnt raise them in this neighborhood.

metroteach79 wrote:

<quoted text>
No child is ever unsupervised in this neighborhood. I see kids playing outside all day and there are always s outside. There were older kids out there and other parents so she was not unattended. Animal Control should be partially blamed as well. I call them every week about dogs being lose in this little neighborhood and the dogs are still roaming freely. After this attack I think parents are not letting their kids run through the neighborhood anymore. It's terrible and almost like a jungle here.
I dont have kids but I wouldnt raise them in this neighborhood.

Nor would I raise my dog there

"It's not like the dog sit down and mauled the little girl. A dog, it was a 70-pound pit bull. It bit the girl and threw her down and that was it," he said.

"The dad of the kid, I wasn't going to sit here and watch him beat my dog with a baseball bat because he came up here with a baseball bat to beat my dog," Stewart said.

What?? Are you a complete idiot? Ok, this guy need not have another dog EVER and let's pray there is no offspring coming from this trashy waste. I can't believe anyone would make those comments and on the news to boot! I am sure that dog is in Alabama at his trashy relatives looking for victim #3.

victim # what? Wonder how many kids or anyone that this dog has really bitten? the owners should be held accountably, and banned from EVER having another dog. I know alot of people have pits that say they never have bitten anyone, they love their dogs. But so many dog bite have come from this breed. I love dogs. Have a big black lab,"baby", but I would never keep her after she had bitten the first child, must less the next one. I love baby, but not at the risk of her biting or maybe killing someone.

jmf wrote:

victim # what? Wonder how many kids or anyone that this dog has really bitten? the owners should be held accountably, and banned from EVER having another dog. I know alot of people have pits that say they never have bitten anyone, they love their dogs. But so many dog bite have come from this breed. I love dogs. Have a big black lab,"baby", but I would never keep her after she had bitten the first child, must less the next one. I love baby, but not at the risk of her biting or maybe someone.

I agre with you on that

Dogs can be very visious creaters.I like cats a lot more.I hope Zoe turns out all right and that Michelle will not be emotionally scarred for ever.