Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - A 2-year old boy in Lockport has been hospitalized after suffering a sexual attack by the family pit bull.
The Niagara County District Attorney's office is investigating, and police are awaiting DNA evidence results from both the dog and the child.
"The initial assault happened inside the family residence and the dog became frightened when the mother screamed," said Det. Capt. Larry Eggert, with the Lockport Police Dept.
The child's mother watched as the child was taken outside, dragged by the dog. Neighbors rescued the child outdoors.
" I've been a police man for 27 years and I've never heard of it. We had to go outside the area to find some canine experts who had heard of this before. No one locally had ever heard of this," Eggert said
"We found one expert who has investigated five like this in his career," Eggert said.
Hear the interview with the chief investigator here.
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So here's the question...
Should the family have the dog put down or should they let him live? When I heard about this story, my initial reaction (and everyone around me) was to have the dog put down; but after thinking about it, wasn't the dog just acting on its natural instincts to mate? Is it not the parents fault for leaving their 2-year-old alone with the dog?
Think about it... would we put a dog down for humping our leg like they so often do? Dogs don't know any better and we generally accept that. In this case, the dog did not know that what he was doing was wrong.
If the parents decide to put the dog down, then it would be more out of revenge than reason. After all, they would not necessarily be vindicating the 2-year-old (as he would not be able to comprehend the act of putting the dog down), but rather they would be satisfying their own need for revenge.
Also, it would be illogical to assume that the dog would purposely seek out 2-year olds in the future to mate with. This was simply a freak accident that could have happened in any household.
My solution would be to simply remove the dog from the household and put him up for adoption with another family (with full disclosure of the recent event).
What do you guys think?
8 comments:
FREE Sparky!!!!! He didn't know what he was doing
Supposedly once a dog is allowed to attack and goes unpunished they are never the same and "taming" them again is difficult if not impossible, so to me letting the dog live is a problem.
But the bigger problem ... and I've said this for a while now ... is that we let anybody who wants to have kids have kids. How did a dog have that much free reign with a 2 year old?! Can we put the parents down too?
You know I read about this the other day... How sick. I agree with Gene - How in the hell did the kid get to "be" with a dog for so long? Where were the parents? We need to take a look at negligent child care... come on now..
I dunno Gene. I'm not a PETA activist or anything, but I think killing the dog is wrong. I think that no two year old should be left with a mature pitbull.
Had the dog violently attacked the kid because it was out for blood, that's one thing; but this was just a freak accident. The dog didn't know any better.
I think they should just give the dog up for adoption.
I think the dog should be allowed to live, but he should be given to a child-free home.
L
Ok, Brandon and Lola, why don't YA'LL keep the dog?! LOL. But here is a warning: DO NOT sleep on your stomachs. This dog knows what he wants and knows how to get it!!!
well... let it live... somewhere else... I agree... why would you have a pit bull around a little 2 year old.
Um, what parent would just WATCH while their child was assaulted and dragged outside by an animal. I would have beaten off the animal to save my child. I'm just saying.
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