Town shocked by fatal dog attack
Posted Wed Jan 7, 2009 6:08pm AEDT
Updated Wed Jan 7, 2009 6:10pm AEDT
Police describe the dogs as large cross-breeds. (Stringer: Vince Bucello)Residents of a small town in the New South Wales Riverina are shocked by a dog attack this morning that killed a toddler and seriously injured her baby sister.
A three-year-old girl was found dead and her 15-month-old sister is in Wagga Base Hospital with serious injuries after being attacked by four dogs at Whitton near Leeton.
The female neighbour who was looking after the girls was also injured in the attack.
The attack happened some time before 11:00am AEDT and neighbours were among those trying to rescue the injured.
Whitton has a population of about 350 and police Inspector Tony Reneker says it is very bad news for the town.
“Whitton is a small community and I’m sure that it’ll affect a lot of people in that community,” he said.
“It’s a very, very sad occurrence and I feel for the family involved.”
Police originally said the dogs were family pets but they have now confirmed that the girls’ parents had left them in the care of a friend at Whitton.
Police describe the dogs as large cross-breeds and will apply to have the animals put down.
Inspector Reneker says the dogs’ owner is still in shock.
“Police haven’t been able to speak to the owner of the dogs; she’s still being treated at hospital,” he said.
The dead girl’s name will be released when relatives are informed and police are preparing a report for the coroner.
Tags: human-interest, animal-attacks, law-crime-and-justice, police, dog, australia, nsw,
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/01/01/2461113.htm?section=australia
This article highlights an absolute tragedy, but one that should be read by anyone that has young children and dogs. I feel deeply sorry for the parents and the dogs owner as this will live with them for the rest of their lives, and my sympathies go out to them.
So what went wrong? What ever comment is made can only ever be theory, but there are some indicators that highlight potential warnings.
These young children were being baby sat by Ms Conlon at her home, which is the dog’s home and the dogs are treated as though they were Ms Conlon’s kids. When the two children came to the home they were intruding into the dog’s territory and the dogs would see them as being part of another pack. When the dogs owner started playing with the children, this immediately set up a challenge to the pack heirachy.
If the dogs had decided the challenge to their environment and heirachy had become too much, they may have decided to discipline the intruders, this is a normal behavior pattern, and the usual technique for canines is to snap at the face, head or neck, this is why so many dog attack victims suffer facial injuries.
The dogs appear to be mastif crosses, which would make sense, they are common in country towns and are often used for pig hunting. This is an irrigation district and feral pigs are a problem in irrigation environments, so good sport is offered by pig hunting with dogs. The article makes no comment about them being used for hunting, but the image shows them to be this type of breed, and it could be an inbred trait coming from the dogs parentage.
The resulting high pitched screams from the young children, could also sound similar to the squeals of a pig, could this have also exacerbated the tragic chain of events?? Who knows, suffice to say that I believe that elements of this scenario could apply and be what triggered this terrible tragedy.
If there is any lesson to be learned from this tragedy, it is that young kids and dogs must be socialised and supervised, a dog will always be higher up the pack heirachy than a young child and as part of a normal behavior pattern, the dog will believe it has the right to administer discipline, nothing will change with this until the child is 8-12 yrs old and has taken on a significant roll in the dogs life, such as feeding the dog.
So please never take a family dog for granted, you have an obligation to understand a bit about animal behavior.
