Hot Topics: 3 year old gets 96 stitches from a dog but no charges laid
By Sian on Jul 13, 2009 with Comments 6
In our local news, a toddler is recovering in hospital after he was attacked by a large dog in the Vancouver area last week.
Half of three-year-old toddler’s face is covered in 96 stitches after a dog bit the boy on the face.The boy was left with deep gashes to the right side of his head — including one above his eyebrow and at least three to his cheek. Now, his mother is demanding changes to what she calls toothless animal control laws.
“Out of nowhere, the dog just lunged and grabbed my son by the head and tossed him to the ground,” said the mother. “I had to pry open the dog’s mouth and pull my son out,”
The mother says the attack was completely unprovoked and she thinks the dog should be put down. “There should be a law the dog automatically gets taken away and destroyed,” she said.
“The dog is dangerous obviously and could do this at any other time.”
But the mother says she was stunned to learn that nothing will happen to the dog, or its owner.
What do you think of this story? The GGS girls give their two cents worth:
GoGo Girl: WTF? I was shocked and horrified at this story. I could not believe they would let this dog live when it could have killed this little boy. I think all dogs should have ’one bite that causes a stitch’ automatically destroyed. There are way too many dangerous dogs around that belong to irresponsible dog owners.
Crazy Legs: I love dogs, and we own a dog - but this story horrified me. I have four children and there have been many times when off-leash dogs have bounded up to my kids. The owners always say, “oh, he/she is friendly”. What I think people forget is that although a dog is “friendly” to its owner, how it feels about a stranger is an entirely different matter. In this case, the dog should be put down, the owner should be charged with negiligence AND the owner should be banned from owning another dog.
Pink Panther: I can’t believe that this happened to this child and with this dog belonging to the child’s aunt and they are still not doing anything about it. Something definitely has to been done about our laws on dogs attacking people. There has been too many cases where dogs have attacked people in the lower mainland. I sure hope this child recovers from this horrible incident quickly.
Filed Under: News: The Latest & Greatest
that’s horrible, dogs should be put to death that inflict serious bodily injury—but people who automatically jump to the conclusion that it’s a pitbull or pitbulls have kill genes are seriously mistaken. less than 1% of dog bites each year by statistics are pitbull attacks–labs, collies, chows/chow mixes etc. ALL have large bite statistics–but to have unjustified hate for a breed that you don’t know or understand is unbelievable.
I’m mom to three pit bulls and one beautiful daughter–we have taught her to respect all dog breeds and not pass judgement, all dogs can be dangerous-big or small, pitbull or lab and to use common sense and caution.
This is something that seems to happen at least 3-4 times a summer in Chicago. Usually, here, though, the dog is confiscated and put down, and the owner is at minimum ticketed, and usually faces some sort of misdemeanor criminal charges.
Oh no, that is my worst nightmare. That poor little boy (and his poor mom)!
The owner needs to do something to ensure that it never happens again. If they don’t want to put the animal down, they should find somewhere to send it, where it can’t hurt another child. However, I’ve been told that once a dog draws blood, it can never be rehabilitated. Putting it down may be the only option, but something needs to be done for sure!
Pit bulls dont have a kill gene any more than Black people have a crime gene. Its racist and ignorant to think the one and simply ignorant to think the other. It is the responsibility of the dog owner to control their animal, and teach them non-aggression. Pits and Rotts arent even in the top 10 nationwide of dogs who bite humans. Weineramers/dalmations/goldens do a lot of biting themselves. All their OWNERS fault. Blame the owner, not the breed/species.
How horrible! I can honestly say that if it were my dog that I would voluntarily have it put down. Regardless of whether or not the child the dog attacked was related to me or not, I would not be able to rest knowing that at any time something like that could happen again. My daughter was attacked by a small dog when she was about 6 and the dog tore a big piece of skin off very close to her eye. My children understand that big and little dogs can potentially be a threat and they have learned to be very cautious with all animals.
it doesn’t say what kind of dog it was but if was a pitt bull those dogs have a kill gene…hate those dogs!