4 year old killed by a dog.

[louise5754]

Poor girl x

People say rescue dog when they've bought it off gumtree for £50 sometimes.

It would be highly unusual for a rescue to place a dog with a child of 4, especially a large bull breed.

Poor girl

It’s a shame the bull breeds aren’t completely
banned. Too many of them in the wrong hands.

I have a staffy who is 16 years old and has been a gentle girl with our 3 kids but I still think they should be banned. Too many of them with inadequate owners.

Reputable rescue centres rarely (probably never) rehome to houses with DC under primary school age (resident or frequent visitors eg DGC) and usually it's secondary age, or teenage.

So people who cannot get a suitable, temperament-tested dog that should fit in to a busy household, turn instead to other ways to get a dog. Which could mean rehoming privately (ie "buying an older dog") and people don't always make the distinction between rehoming and a rescue.

It's fairly classic, unfortunately, for behavioural difficulties to start showing about 1-2 months after a rehoming - and that seems to be pretty much the length of time neighbours are reporting they had the dog

Poor little girl - it’s just awful.

I personally think all American pit bulls, XL pit bulls, pit bull crosses, etc, should be banned. That dog in the advert above looks scary. When I see an American bullie in the park (and there are a lot of them) none of them look friendly and you can see the strength in them. They look bred to cause serious harm.

Someone mentioned Rottweilers and GSDs. I’d make it that you needed a special licence to own them. Dobermans too, and Staffies, and Cano Corsos, etc. There’d be normal ‘pet licences’ for things like spaniels, poodles, etc. I know they can bite too, but I think the risk is less.

Yep, that was me.

I notice you haven't said I was wrong - plus you didn't ask what "type" - in fact it was YOU that trotted out a stereotype that I didn't mention

These types of dogs are owned by overly macho men who have no intention to train or be trained as owners and no clue how to deal with them

Before you throw another insult - do you honestly believe that I am wrong?

Well that’s an odd interpretation of
“No suggestion except several news reports that state the family got the dog from a rescue centre you mean?”

@GorillaGame
i thought my point was fairly clear - I neither claimed a personal source nor confirmation of anything. I simply pointed out that it has certainly been suggested the dog came from a rescue centre

If the parents brought this dog into their house, then they are as much responsible for their child's death as if they had brought a loaded gun into their house and kept it unsecured. Accident waiting to happen.

So if these are the facts, I don't particularly think they deserve sympathy. It's awful they lost their child and they will have to live with this forever but perhaps if manslaughter charges were brought in such incidents, people would think twice.

Pit bulls and all pit bull crosses are already banned

"A family pet"
Suggests to me they might have more than 1 pet, maybe even more dogs?

In the same way all cutlery can be used as a weapon, but while you may let your child play with a wooden spoon, you wouldn't let them play with a sharp knife, and the bully breeds are the sharp knives of the dog world.

Cutlery serves a purpose. The world could exist quite happily without "domesticated" dogs in human spaces. Even small dogs can be a danger to small children, and frighten them completely unnecessarily.

I’m a huge dog lover. I don’t believe they should all be kept on leads and muzzled. I do think there should be far more restrictions around dog ownership - licenses etc. I was driving round the city I live in today and saw multiple traffic wardens. Made me wonder why some kind of system like that can’t be put in place. You park in the wrong place, you’re caught and given a fine within ten minutes. Loads more dog wardens, a central database for breeders and the puppies they sell, where they go etc. If you can put this much money and officialdom into ensuring everyone parks their car in the right place, why not in ensuring responsible dog ownership?

Good idea. But it must of course be funded by those who choose to own dogs. Otherwise, better to just ban them entirely.

This issue needs to be debated in parliament as a matter of extreme urgency.

I agree!

It's not another fucking "accident". It's irresponsibility and children are paying with their lives for it.

This is madness, why is an emergency legislation not happening? No one with any political weight appears to be doing anything on this???

You mean in the same way that traffic wardens are funded solely by car owners?

oh wait no, they aren’t 🙄

The world could exist without many things that cause harm to children - cars, log-burners, ultra processed foods.
are you planning to ban all of those too?

They also kill, and kill many more people than dogs, just in a more insidious way.

there's good research benefits for dog ownership on physical and mental health outcomes in a way that doesn’t exist for cars, log-burners and ultra processed foods.

ill-conceived, extreme, knee jerk responses help no one, and are certainly not the basis for legislation. The risks from the vast majority of dogs to children are negligible.