Update: 1/12/08
The more that comes out about this story, the more sad it becomes. It turns out that 4 year old Alex was a foster child -- and had entered the foster system at 7 days old when authorities determined that one of his older siblings had been physically abused. Alex was scheduled to go into a possibly permanent home later this month.
On the dog front, it sounds as if the dogs were outside dogs, and not allowed inside with the rest of the family -- so not true "family" dogs. While the boy was in the back yard, it appears that an adult that lived at the house was using a snowblower in the front yard -- so he was unable to hear the attack taking place.
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4-year-old Alex Angulo was attacked and killed by at least one of the three dogs owned by his family. The dog that is most blamed for the attack was a Rottweiler, while there was also a second Rottweiler and a standard Poodle that lived in the home. All three dogs have been euthanized.
The boy was found dead in the back yard of the home by the boy's father. The boy was apparently left there in the back yard with all three dogs without any parental supervision...thus, no one really knows, or may ever know, what sparked the attack.
On the surface (and that's all we have at this point), this case is earily similar to the fatality that happened last week in Georgia and the other one in Australia. There were three different breeds of dogs involved in these attacks, but the characteristics surrounding them were pretty similar.
At some point we need to make the conversation about how people keep, train, socialize and care for their dogs, as well as providing basic supervision when our young children are in a yard with multiple large dogs. Talking about "breed" ignores the real conversations we should be having when it comes to these tragedies.
My heart goes out to the family in this tragic event.
Amen, Brent. Amen.
Posted by: Becky | January 12, 2009 at 08:49 PM
Tragic.
Posted by: TONY | January 13, 2009 at 12:56 PM
What a sad story.
Ditto about 'breed' Brent - especially when most of these dogs aren't purebred and aren't accurately identified when they are.
It's like talking about what kind of clothes a criminal wore as if it's somehow important to the story. Can you imagine the headlines?
Two deaths already and we aren't even halfway through January yet.
Posted by: Selma | January 13, 2009 at 04:38 PM
What a sad story.
Ditto about 'breed' Brent - especially when most of these dogs aren't purebred and aren't accurately identified when they are.
It's like talking about what kind of clothes a criminal wore as if it's somehow important to the story. Can you imagine the headlines?
Two deaths already and we aren't even halfway through January yet.
Posted by: Selma | January 13, 2009 at 04:39 PM
One has to admit that some breeds are, indeed, stronger than others. Certainly the jaws of a Rottweiler are much, much stronger than the jaws of a poodle, no?
Posted by: Chicago Dog Mom | March 06, 2009 at 07:40 AM