Tough day for Children in Dallas Area

Two major dog attacks happened in the Dallas area yesterday, and the victims were both young children.  The attacks were very similar in nature. One girl is in critical condition, one is dead.

The first incident involves a neighbor's Golden Retriever that attacked a toddler in Dallas.  According to the owners, the dog had shown aggressive tendencies toward children before.  The owners sound like the really love the dog, and tried to keep young children away from the dog, but the girl, Breanna Webster, was near the dog, more or less unattended, and the dog attacked her.  The surgeon called the attack the worst dog bite he'd ever seen.  You can read the whole story here.

The second incident, involved a pit bull that attacked, and killed, a 2 year old girl in rural Dallas County in the town of Combine.  The dog was chained up in the back yard, and broke free from the chain while the father was using a weed eater, and attacked the girl who was riding a tricycle.  In this instance also, neighbors had called police (there is no animal control for this area) about the dog because it had been aggressive toward children.

Both of these cases are pretty typical of the how major dog bites occur -- dog has shown signs of previous aggression and a child playing close to the dog and not well supervised.  I'll also note again that tethering dogs for long periods of time is such a horrible idea.

It's a shame, these two incidences were entirely preventable.  And yet, one life is ended way too soon, and another, is traumatized early on. 

Comments

[Stacey]

I think the incident with the golden retriever really illustrates the fact that PARENTS as well as dog owners have a responsibility where kids and dogs are concerned. I have had neighbors allow their kids to climb into my fenced, locked back yard to play without knowing if my dog wad kid friendly or not. Now, I don't let my dogs outside without an adult supervising them, so we never had an incident. Still, it could have happened because that particular dog hated that particular kid (turns out he didn't like the smell of pot which the parent smoked around the kid occasionally). I wish more parents would watch their kids with the degree of supervision expected from dog owners. (I have 4 kids, and yes they were supervised when they were little)

[Keesha Andrews]

I feel that children should be supervised when playing or in the presence of dogs, especially aggressive breeds. As a child I remember doing mean things to dogs and at the time I did not think they were mean I was just being a child. A hard tug or climbing on the back of a dog to ride them like a pony was innocent. We as parents must teach our children about dangers that some dogs can cause.

[brianna webster]

im am the girl that got bit 8 years ago by the golden retriever I am doing well and have 3 surgerys left

[Brent]

Wow Brianna. Great to hear that you're doing well. And so sorry to hear that you still have more surgery remaining. Best of luck to you.