Wow, a particularly tragic weekend this weekend.
A three year old Ocala, FL girl was fatally attacked by a dog outside her home yesterday.
The girl's mother, Lori Haaker, was apparently cleaning the pens for the dogs and went inside to use the restroom. While the toddler was outside, alone, she wandered into the pen where four dogs were chained to trees. The girl apparently became entangled in the chain restraining one of the dogs and a the dog ended up attacking, and killing, the young girl.
While many of the early media reports were calling the attacked dog a 'pit bull', the more recent reports are calling the dog an American Bulldog -- and also noting that the family bred American Bulldogs under the name of Haaker's Dream Bulldog Ranch -- which bred and sold working American Bulldogs.
It's a tragic story that highlights a variety of misteps along the way - -including why tethering dogs isn't the prefered way to keep dogs and why it is important to supervise children when they are around dogs and interacting with dogs.
It is also an interesting that in so many media reports the dogs were called 'pit bulls' in spite of a sign at the home that declared them to be bulldogs.
A tragic and preventable incident. My heart goes out to the family in this case.
The story has been picked up by 8 media outlets, only 2 of which have the accurate breed in the article.
Honestly, if the property had a sign that said "Alaskan Malamutes sold here", I'd still expect at least some media to report it as a Pitbull.
Posted by: YesBiscuit! | February 21, 2010 at 02:47 PM
what a shame pit bulls are so hated, our dogs are the best and most loyal you know of.
Posted by: ocala relocation | October 12, 2010 at 12:57 PM