Well damn. In what had been a fairly quiet year on the dog attack fatalities front there comes a second fatality this week. 14-month old Addison Sonney was killed by her family's English Sheepdog mix yesterday afternoon. No one seems to know what caused the dog to attack the child. The child's mother was present and was also injured in the attack trying to save her daughter's life.
After the attack, the dog escaped and roamed the neighborhood and wes eventually gunned down by police officers. The dog apparently continued to be aggressive toward officers, quite some time after the attack.
My heart goes out to the Sonney family as they deal with their loss.
I'm sure we'll hear more about this story over the coming days -- I'll continue to update the story here.
Do they do autopsies on these dogs? Makes you wonder if there was some kind of health condition in some of these cases...
Posted by: MichelleD | July 25, 2008 at 09:55 AM
My thoughts exactly. Could be a stroke, epilepsy, poisoning, rabies or even heat stroke.
Or maybe he just 'snapped', since OES's were traditionally bred to guard and fight, doncha know, and the One Drop rule must apply to them too.
Right?
Posted by: Caveat | July 25, 2008 at 11:05 AM
Actually, since the dog attacked it must be mixed with 'pit bull'!
I'm sure that's what the assholes over at D@g$B!te will say... If it bit, must be a pit!
Posted by: MichelleD | July 25, 2008 at 11:32 AM
What infuriates me is the amount of sympathy and support for the damn dog - i love animals but if there was a choice between a child and an animal - i mean in all honesty it wouldnt even be a choice - all comments ive read are - oh the poor dog got shot 4 times - boo-hoo
People a CHILD WAS KILLED - whats did you want a dart gun to keep the dog alive and then what give him to another family for a pet??
Posted by: disgusted | July 25, 2008 at 12:34 PM
D@g$B!te troll perhaps???
Of course we're sickened to hear about this poor child. We want to solve the problem of dog attacks and for that you have to understand WHY. In this case where the dog did APPEAR to be a family pet something else had to be the cause. By determining if their was a health (or behavioral) issue in play you can look for it in the future and warn people of things to look for to prevent attacks.
Now that the dogs dead you can't do a behavioral eval either...
Posted by: MichelleD | July 25, 2008 at 12:55 PM
OK, how come you get more trolls than I do? What am I doing wrong?
I don't see any sympathy for the dog on this thread - just questions about what might have happened. It's a subject a lot of us find rather interesting.
Contrary to the blather perpetrated by the pitchfork/torch crowd, dogs don't just snap and kill people (or even bite them) out of the blue for no reason.
Posted by: Caveat | July 25, 2008 at 04:16 PM
I'm not sure Disgusted is a real troll. I just think she got caught up reading a whole bunch of the comments on different news articles on the story and decided this was a "safer" place to vent. I could be wrong, and she could have been trolling, but I'm not 100% sure. I can see how reading comments on newspaper pages will make you crazy. I've determined that those are the official gathering places for idiots.
Posted by: Brent | July 25, 2008 at 04:24 PM
[quote]I've determined that those are the official gathering places for idiots.[/quote]
It`s too bad you feel that way.
Misinformed idiots just feed off each other
if there aren`t informed "idiots" there to provide factual information,should they choose to read it.
A person with your knowledge could be doing a great deal of good there.
A light bulb moment might happen.
I can guarantee you that they are not coming here to read your information.
They are the ones clamoring for Breed Bans.
They are the ones who are abusing the dogs.
They are the ones who you need to reach.
Take your message to them.
Convert them one at a time.
Posted by: One of the informed | July 27, 2008 at 12:37 PM
OOTI...I can assure you he spends a lot of(too much) time converting the idiots/sincerly well meaning but misinformed wherever they gather.
Caveat, you should post that link to the cartoon of my husband:
Wife: "Honey, are you coming to bed?"
Brent: "No, I can't. Someone is wrong on the internet!"
Posted by: The Wife | July 27, 2008 at 10:13 PM
Ha ha ha it fits us all! I can't find it or I would post the link.
I do the same thing, wander around and blow their minds with a few facts and salient points.
However, I also pick my battles and decide how much time I want to waste at any particular salt lick.
Posted by: Caveat | July 28, 2008 at 10:05 AM
To The Wife,
I think you may have misunderstood my comment or I failed to make it clear.
This was not a criticism of your husband.
It`s obvious he spends a lot of time educating.
My point was that the people who need to see this great information don`t come here.
Perhaps when there is a real attack as opposed to a nip(or just plain nonsense reporting) and further information becomes available,that information could be posted on a forum in that particular city where it will be available should some of the posters wish to read it.
I hope you will consider taking the follow up information on the real attacks to the people who need to see it.
Posted by: One of the informed | July 28, 2008 at 01:54 PM
Informed,
I think the criticism is fair and noted. The wife was referring to the fact that I really do spend quite a bit of time in different forums and stuff trying to "reach out" with the message. I find that as a whole, many of the comments areas become overrun with idiots who "already know all the answers" and are not open to hearing. I do though enter the fray if there appear to be people searching for answers. I just have such a low tolerance for the people who know everything there is to know by reading a couple of newspaper articles and find them by and large to be very frustrating...
Posted by: Brent | July 28, 2008 at 02:05 PM