Kids, Dogs, and Selective Reportage
Posted By Randy on December 10, 2012
This morning on the CBC News website I found an article with the title Cole Harbour child recovering after pit bull bite. Lest it gets the usual, all too common, retroactive CBC editorial treatment, I’ll supplement the direct link just provided by quoting the article in its entirety, as it appeared this morning:
A four-year-old girl bitten by a pit bull in Cole Harbour was taken to the IWK Health Centre in Halifax on Sunday. RCMP were called to a home on Arklow Drive at about 1:15 p.m.
Staff Sgt. Peter Ferguson said the girl’s injuries were non-life threatening.
“The child was actually a visitor to the residence at the time of the incident,” said Ferguson. “I’m not sure whether the child was familiar with the dog or not from past experiences. The pit bull remains in the custody of the homeowner on Arklow Drive where the bite occurred.”
Ferguson said he doesn’t think the dog has bitten anyone in the past.
Members of HRM’s Animal Services are investigating to determine if the owner will face charges and what will happen to the dog.
So, to sum up, a four year old girl visiting a residence was bitten by the family Dog – a Dog believed by police to have no prior bite history – and subsequently taken to hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. Police were called, and left the Dog in the custody of its owners, inferring that they did not regard the animal to be an ongoing threat to public safety. The matter was referred to HRM Animal Services for investigation and further action as deemed warranted.
The events as described, while undeniably traumatic for all involved – including the Dog – are far from notable. This week in Canada alone, similar stories will play out repeatedly, for reasons I’ve previously discussed in such articles as Some Tales From the Unpredictability Chronicles – Kid and Dogs. Exacerbating the potential for disaster at this time of year is that the households of the nation are presently in the throes of playing host to holiday gatherings that bring excited children, family pets, tantalizing foods and smells, and frazzled, distracted parents into tight quarters.
As a professional Dog behaviour consultant, I don’t expect any news reporter to provide the kind of details that might permit some sort of intelligent assessment of what transpired between the girl and the Dog in Cole Harbour, but I do expect responsible journalism. If the Dog had been roaming at large, attacked the child, and was subsequently removed from the equation by police, then I would consider it newsworthy. If the family that owned the Dog were known to be harbouring a fierce and dangerous animal, or responding police felt justified in making that assessment while on the scene, then that would be newsworthy. My assessment of the net news content of this story is that it serves primarily as a vehicle for making damn certain the reader knows the Dog involved was a Pit Bull, and that is the least important part of it.
The majority of child/Dog bite encounters share a common element that has little to do with the breed of the Dog, and that’s not simply my opinion. Rather, breed is routinely rendered irrelevant to the equation because the owners involved have behaved as though it doesn’t matter, either unknowing or uncaring that some breeds, and some individual Dogs regardless of breed, will have limited tolerance for child behaviour. Speaking for ourselves, we’ve long gone past all possible tolerance at the commonly held definition of a “good Dog” as being one that is permissive of being struck with hands and objects, having its ears, tail, and coat pulled, toys and food taken away, and being used as a punching bag/trampoline/mattress by the children of the house. While I can’t say with certainty that negligent Dog handling or parenting were the foundation of the recent Cole Harbour case, I can say that what has been reported fits the profile, breed notwithstanding.
As I have mentioned to you in the past, I do not let my kids near strange dogs or near my own personal dog without supervision. They are dogs and kids tend to be noisy and careless around animals – perhaps this comes from watching too much Walt Disney where all dogs are like Pluto.
I will repeat my story on Greyhound Day at the Bridgewater Mall, as I am old and tend to repeat myself the older I get. I had a lovely, red fawn male who weighed about 90 lbs. and stood near my mid-thigh in height. I arrived at mall day with my dog bed, water and aforementioned grey, Garrison. About halfway through our alloted time, a mother with a very young child came to see Garrison and the child made a leap for his face. The mother apparently thought this was acceptable behaviour and said “give the doggie a kiss”, to which I replied, “Please get your kid away from my dog”. Looking surprised, she asked whether the dog bit. I replied “It’s a dog.” I was never asked to attend mall day again with my grey as I was making the breed appear to be aggressive and not kid friendly which is not their mandate.
Fast forward to a month ago when taking my now 89 lb sable German Shephard who is built like a brick shithouse to the vet. The family at the counter turned to see us enter and go to the side where we would be out of the way so they could continue their business and exit without having to interact with us. The mother told the young child to go play with the doggie. I very clearly stated that this was not acceptable and that my dog would eat her child if it came near us. She made a comment about my dog being vicious and they concluded their business and left.
Moral of the story is, parents can be asshats when it comes to dogs and kids. Treat every dog, your own and strange dogs, as if they will end your kids lives in the blink of an eye. Dogs are dogs, not people and they won’t put up with your crap or getting pulled on and poked by ignorant brats who don’t know how to act.
Asshat parents indeed! In what world is it acceptable to give permission to your kid to do anything with someone else’s property.
“Oh, your Dog is vicious!” – “No, its fucking owner is.”
“Go play with the nice shiny chain saw dear.”, said nobody, ever.
Unfortunately, your experiences are far from uncommon, and we hear the same complaints, or worse, from other Dog owners in that way people talk to kindred spirits. Yet their concerns get muted in the face of the public out of fear that their objections will somehow lead to the end of all dog ownership – a stretch, but if even as a tiny echo at the back of the mind, the fear is real, and it can’t be denied it’s affected specific breeds in some jurisdictions. Thus, the hooples of the world successfully avoid getting educated, and the march toward turning the world into a child proof daycare centre continues, unopposed.
on CTV news the owner of the god said she was sleeping.
They said the dog was locked in a room.
The said they don't know what happened.
So why visit sleeping people?
who let the dogs you WHO WHO! sorry 😛
And did the 4 year old may let the dog out? did she hit the dog? blow in it's face?
something to make the dog think it was play time?
My step son was attacked by a dog about 18 years ago. The dog didn't just bite him and leave him alone, it bit him over and over, lucky for the dog and my son, jared was smart enough to roll to his belly and cover his face. So I may have only seen one attack, but I know If I was attacking I'd hit over and over, not just one time.
The father also said something on the line of ' pitbull owner should be ore educated on dogs like this' and he mentioned something about them being aggressive.
Maybe he should educate himself on pitbulls before he tries to educate others. I know TWO pitty that are so scared of kids, I think they'd piss themselves before they'd attack. Sorry Selina but your puppy is a pussy 😛
Joe I said the same thing, why were they they if the owners were sleeping. I think I would have to question that one.
I long stopped to speculate what might have happened when I hear stories like that, because even if adults were present, most don’t understand even basic body language. So, it is education we need – all adults should know how dogs function, and then teach their children. Period.
Randy, your chainsaw analogy is brilliant – I was thinking along the same line but cars. Every parent teaches their offspring how to navigate roads and traffic, regardless if they have a car or not. The same needs to happen with dogs, and then perhaps stories like that will cease, or at least diminish.
But even dog people who should know better miss opportunities. At the last Dog Expo at the Forum
there was a French Kiss booth, where people could pay a toonie and kiss a French Bulldog for some rescue group.I didn’t stop long enough to see who it was because I was too pissed. WTF!
As far as this dog is concerned: I never look at who’s at fault or if a bite was provoked, cause from the dog’s point of view it always is otherwise he would not bite. I look at the damage the dog does. Repetitive bites with slashing or deep punctures spells euthanasia for me. How much damage this dog did isn’t clear – or not clear to me. It speaks of surgery, but CBC reported one toonie diameter cut on the forehead.