Four year old Christian Gormanous, of Conroe, TX, died tragically over the weekend after being attacked by a neighbor's dog. The boy was outside playing in his backyard with his 9 year old sister and climbed over his neighbor's fence and approached the neighbor's dog that was chained up in the fenced in back yard. The boy apparently got within reach of the chained dog, described as a "pit bulls, and was severely bitten. The boy's sister pulled him from the dog, and went to get help. The boy later died of the injuries.
The incident is very similar to three other incidents that occurred in 2012 in which toddlers under the age of 4 wandered off their own property unsupervised and up to dogs that were otherwise confined -- 2 via chain and 2 others (one incident) behind an electronic fence.
My heart goes out to both families in this tragic case as they not only have to deal with their loss, but also with the emotions of the 9 year old sister who witnessed the tragedy, and further underscores the need for strong supervision of youngsters as they tend to not understand canine behavior and thus, when to leave a dog alone.
This story has been picked up by about a dozen media outlets thus far.
How can anyone interested in contributing to the family do so? Is there a church or community organization making arrangements for what we hope will be a good response from across the nation? Thanks
Posted by: Kevin Pettee | January 22, 2013 at 06:32 PM
Kevin -- The family (rightfully) immediately requested that the media respect their privacy in their time of grieving...and as such, no public record of where gifts/donatinos should be sent are available.
Posted by: Brent | January 22, 2013 at 06:46 PM
This was a tragedy that should never have happened; since the dog's owner had the dog confined by chain (!) on a the owner's fenced property. Which of course is scant consolation to the parents and sister of the poor little boy. Dog owners should not leave their dogs chained like that; it increases territoriality and protective/aggressive instincts; but I believe it is legal in most places. The parents could have been more proactive in emphasizing the importance of never going near that dog, or any dog without an owner's permission; and now it is too late. A tragedy. The little girl is going to have horrible, horrible memories, too.
Posted by: Pat F. | January 23, 2013 at 07:07 PM
It's sad that the dog is going to be (or has been) destroyed, when it's the person who tied it to the tree, and the people who perpetuate the idea that's okay to tie a dog to a tree, who set up this situation. Yes, there was a fence, and the child did the wrong thing by climbing over, but he's had to have seen (or heard) the dog was there and was curious to see it. The dog's owner should have made sure the neighborhood knew about his dog and that because it was chained, it wasn't considered a valued member of the family, with training and socialization skills taught by the owner(s). Of course, the owner's parents, if they had dogs, likely kept them chained too, so no luck there.
If city council (mangagers/mayors) would bother to learn that there's a fairly simple fix to radically decrease the number of dog bites by making sure that dog chaining is illegal - and explain to the population why it's a mean thing to dog to dogs and people, a big dent might be made in the numbers of these incidents.
If someone who lives next door (or close by) has a chained dog - behind a fence or not - starting a discussion with that neighbor - and with city hall and police - is a sensible thing to do. Too many people are afraid to create an issue, but the issue is already there and could easily become a horrible example of 'what shouldn't have happened.'
Posted by: Karen | January 24, 2013 at 03:44 PM