Another dog attack- 4 year old killed. Devastating

[singingsussie]

Just woke up to this news this morning. It's just so incredibly heartbreaking for all involved. Seems to be happening so much more than ever these days

People on here blindly defending dog breeds etc.. just fyi - that is not the hill to die on 👍🏼

I hope this little girls death is not on vain and actual change comes in regards to dog ownership, training, breeding etc

I don't understand why dog ownership isn't heavily regulated in the UK.

It is in other countries.

The vast majority of these attacks take place at home by the family pet. Muzzling in public would have little to no effect.

I have a medium size breed (she's 11kg). Bred to be a companion breed. She's chipped etc. Chipping is compulsory but Facebook groups are full of "dog found, taken to vet, not chipped"

I have no problem with some sort of registration or licensing but if some people won't even chip their dogs, they're not going to pay for that.

Why do you think reducing child deaths by adults, with all the laws and measures already in place, is the 'easiest'?

At any rate, we have extraordinarily different world views of how public policy should be prioritised (I don't think there should be a 'too hard basket' that allows difficult problems and decisions to be ignored) so we probably aren't going to have a useful discussion about it.

@Moxysright
Or we accept this tragedy as a accident and thankfully very rare, realise that the existing laws work for the vast majority of good dog breeders and owners

Is it an accident? To bring a large breed, adult dog of unknown temperament into a house with a young child.

Thats not an accident. It’s negligence.

@JassyRadlett
i am of the same opinion as you, but there does seem to be far to many problems to sort out in this country and it has been heading this way for decades, social services is like a lot of places vastly underfunded and understaffed for the cases the ever growing case loads they now have, we can’t fix everything at once unfortunately or if we even can.

Agreed. It’s not an accident at all, and the parents should be charged with neglect.

@RunningFromInsanity
thousands of dogs are rehoused each year without a incident, on this case, yes more could have been done, but we go from this one incident to that’s muzzle every dog on a lead everywhere etc,

@berksandbeyond
i would imagine they will be in bits themselves,

Most of these dog attacks happen in the owners home, so suggestions of all dogs being muzzled in public or being kept on leads would not solve the problem.

We have 2 dogs. One Staffy and one Staffy Cross. I would welcome stricter rules on licensing, compulsory training, etc. but I don't believe this would solve the problem. Training isn't currently compulsory, but both of our dogs are well trained as we chose to do it. The owners who do not train their dogs now are the same owners who would not follow any rules around licensing. Where would the resources to police this come from?

Interesting that people are commenting on the breed of dog involved in this attack, has the breed been confirmed?

Except it’s becoming more and more common for recently rehomed dogs to attack and kill children in their new homes.
Several last year spring to mind.

No, requiring dogs to be on lead or muzzled in public won’t stop these attacks so that isn’t the answer, but something needs to be done as it’s undeniable that the rate of fatalities is increasing.

@mumto2teenagers you’re forgetting about dog attacks that don’t kill. Plenty of dog attacks happen in public. I think muzzles and leads are an important step in combating all dogs attacks (not just the fatal ones).

@mumto2teenagers yes it’s another XL bully that’s attacked

@Unphased but it’s not this one attack though is it. Over 8000 attacks every year from dogs.

Of course it’s an xl bully. I notice they say it was rescued. I highly doubt that, I don’t know a single rescue that would ever allow that type of dog to live with a four year old.

What the fuck were her parents thinking. They should be prosecuted. It’s neglect at the very minimum. It’s like allowing a 4 year old to play with a box of dangerous drugs.

The parents should be prosecuted for neglect and manslaughter.

reiterating comments about the high number of non fatal dog attacks - many thousands per year in the uk. Many hospitalisations and most common victims are young children.

‘Rescued’ as in probably rehomed from someone else on the estate that couldn’t adequately look after it. It probably spent much of its life tied up in a garden. Disgusting and yes they should be prosecuted. That poor little girl. Sad pathetic individuals who think they look hard with a bully dog. They’re always the ones that without the dog couldn’t fight their way out of a paper bag. I am so angry for that little darling.

I agree with this. Why on earth would you bring an American Bully of unknown temperament into a home with your young children? Even if they were never left alone and always supervised, how confident is anyone here that they could successfully intervene, with little or no damage, if one of these dogs was determined to cause injury. Nobody should have a dog unless they are strong enough to haul it off a child/dog if they had to. I really feel for the parents, they've paid the highest price possible, but Jesus, what were they thinking. That poor wee soul.

You can't even legally carry pepper spray in the UK but it's perfectly legal to walk around with dogs unmuzzled, unleashed.

@HaveYouSeenNancy its a lack of education combined with ‘it’s the owner not the dog’ brigade. Too many daft pictures of husky’s with babies on Instagram, people are completely clouded to the risk that dogs pose.

I think we need those public service adverts back but this time about the dangers of dogs

That will be because pepper spray will definitely cause injuries of some sort 100% of the time it is used 👍

What nonsense is that?

A large breed dog bite will also cause some sort of injury 100% of the time.

Can't believe I just replied to such nonsense.

Not sure why so many on this thread are blaming the dog rather than the parents for not looking after their kid and / or not training their dog.