This case is horrible in so many ways, in my opinion. Not only did this poor child suffer a traumatic and painful experience but also the way the owner reacted was a bit over the top (maybe?). I'm not sure...considering what happened something should have been done about the dog but stabbing it? Shouldn't he get charged with animal abuse? After all it wasn't in sell defense but rather revenge... Then to have the other dog (who had nothing to do with it) put down as well because it was a "dangerous breed". Then he campaigned to have dangerous breeds banned.....

I'm not sure how everything went but I think that the owner made two grave mistakes and its largely his fault for what happened. 1. Left a child playing around a dog. 2. Probably never trained the dog to not resource gaurd. And if the dog growled and immediately snapped how much you guys want to bet that he'd been punished in the past for growling?? This is why you never want to punish growling...because the dog will skip over that growling warning and go straight to biting.

I dunno...seems very complicated what do you guys think?

One of the reports I read said that there was a female dog in heat in the house at the time. Dogue de Bordeaux's are typically good with small children. I'd say the owner was at fault as much if not more than the dog. There are so many clueless people who put kids and other people at risk with the things they do with their dogs.

Ann wrote:

One of the reports I read said that there was a female dog in heat in the house at the time. Dogue de Bordeaux's are typically good with small children. I'd say the owner was at fault as much if not more than the dog. There are so many clueless people who put kids and other people at risk with the things they do with their dogs.

Yes this one says that as well.

Had to blog about this, here's a longer version of what I posted above if anyone would like to read and discuss: http://dog-notes.blogspot.com/2010/03/2-year-old-girl-had-jaw-ripped-off-by.html

I feel SO bad for the child. The adult should be held SOLEY responsable for this ... I have always preached that you should NEVER leave a child under the age of 8 alone with a dog!!!

Betterdog4u wrote:

I feel SO bad for the child. The adult should be held SOLEY responsable for this ... I have always preached that you should NEVER leave a child under the age of 8 alone with a dog!!!

Yep, says he only turned away for 2 seconds...but I'm not sure how reliable or credible that is....

Steven_L wrote:

Yep, says he only turned away for 2 seconds...but I'm not sure how reliable or credible that is....

Even if he did ONLY turn away for 2 seconds, a 2 yo kid shouldnt be ANYWHERE NEAR or EVEN within the reach of the dog.

yikes...crazy story.poor child!