20 Month Old Died From Dog Attack In New Port Richey, FL

A 20 month old boy, Dallas Walter (or Walters), was attacked and killed by a dog owned by his great-great aunt & uncle (Lisa and Preston Evans) earlier this week. All of the circumstances surrounding the attack remain a little unclear.

The reports on the story are a bit contradictory...even to the point that the boy's name is unclear.

According to the majority of the reports, the boy was a visitor in his great-great -Aunt's home. The Evans' got the dog, described as a "Rottweiler" in many reports, and a "Rottweiler-Lab mix" in others, two months ago.

The dog was apparently "Supposed to be chained up in the back yard", but somehow got into the home when the family opened up the back door to let in some air.  Most of the reports note that the child may have had a cookie in his hand, and dropped the cookie, and the dog attacked the boy when he tried to get the cookie -- although at least one news source (that gets the victim's name wrong in the story) -- says the boy was eating potato salad.

The boy's father, noted that he thought the dog may have been unable to reach his food bowl in the back yard, and thus, because the dog was deprived, his son became prey.

This story has been covered by over 400 media outlets -- and it seems that most have completely missed the point. Even one article that tries to make the case for it not being a breed-specific issue, completely misses the point.

The dog was new to the family -- and obviously, new to the victim who was visiting. The dog apparently lived its life contained on a chain in the back yard (as evidenced by the feeding on the chain -- which makes it less of a temporary set up). So we have a dog that is chained -- so likely under-socialized in general - -that isn't well socialized with its own family, let alone the visiting family members.  And, there was likely basic food aggression (which is fairly common across all breeds of dogs) involved.   

These incidents are highly preventable - but ONLY if we talk about the real issues behind the attacks -- like socialization and how we keep our dogs. Instead, we have a tragic case that people seem content not to learn from.  Dogs don't just "snap", but attacks like this are usually a combination of events that lead to a "perfect storm" for disaster.

My heart goes out to the family in this incident.  What a tragic way to spend the holidays.

Comments

[Nichole]

Dogs don't just "snap"

Thank you for this. I can't say this enough to people.

Dogs give TONS of warning signs, we're just usually too dense to see them.

And I agree, until we educate people on how to properly raise a pet, and how to properly interact with dogs, this issues won't go away.

[Vicki]

Psstt...Title typo

[Brent]

Thanks Vicki. Fixed now.

[dan]

Too many of these...

I saw an anonymous plea on Craigslist about a week ago. Gave an address, said the dog in the backyard was nearly always tied up, sometimes escaping through a hole. Wanted people to go by and tell these people to behave differently.

You could try talking with people, and I have, but in my experience most strangers are likely not to trust you or change their behavior, regardless of your good intentions. The lady across from us lets her dog roam free. I have spoken with her gently, suggesting that his forays out into the street barking at passersby might end with his being hurt, or flattened by a car. Nothing has changed. Later I offered to rebuild a gate, but no.

I generally don't think laws are the answer, but perhaps a combination of laws and citizen action might be effective. There is an ordinance against roaming here, but when an officer came by one day the owner explained that the yard he was in was part of their property and the landlord backed her up. (It is not part of her lot, but it does belong to him). So the AC folks left and haven't been back. But when AC gets involved the dog often winds up getting removed, then they just get another free one from a neighbor and the problem continues. Almost needs a case-worker approach, and a judge who intervenes while the pet is kept there.

I think most readers here would agree with most everything in Brent's post and the comment. Do they prompt you to think of "actionable" ideas? For example: The HSUS could use some of that money they are getting from their exploitation of Fay for a social marketing study (such as what they did on how to reach people with an effective spay/neuter message in the hardest-hit areas post-Katrina) to find out how best to reach out to these good people, our neighbors? Calgary is pretty proactive about this, maybe something like that?

The actual events may be so infrequent that we cannot stop them, but if nothing is done the reaction might well be ineffective and/or lead to more tragedies.