Child Severely Injured in Dog Attack - WGHP

A child was severely injured in a dog attack near Pilot Mountain late Friday afternoon, according to a spokesman with Surry County EMS.

[christine]

dogs are not bad by nature. i have been around them all my life.
dogs are made bad by bad owners. if you can't treat your dog like a member of your family, then you should not own one.

[anonomis]

Well I know the owner of these dogs and even though I haven't seen or talked to them since 2004 at that time they were doing a lot of drinking and cocaine so it doesn't surprise me that something like this has happened. I feel bad for the child and others in the family

[Angela]

There is no reason for someone to have 20 dogs, you know they can not afford to keep them up to date on all vaccinations. Where were the parents of the 5 year old when this occurred?

[Kate]

the child shouldnt have been around the dogs rottweilers while they were being fed in the first place.The dogs were probly afraid he/she was going to take thier food and some dogs are just naturally agressive when you get near them while they are eating anyway.im 12 years old and my rottweiler he never hurt me and my father when we whent to feed him but if you tryed to take it away sure he would growl at you but nothing more but that doesnt mean that other dogs dont have a higher agession level it doesnt have anything to do with the breed either rottweilers are known for their protectiveness for their owner and they sometimes attack people but that doesnt mean they are a bad natured dog and thats the truth.

[jessica27028]

They should never have that many dogs around. Especially if there was a young child or children there.

[crhis]

There is no need for that many dogs. How do you get away with that many dogs anyway? I hope the dogs are taken and the owner criminally charged.

[Christopher]

What were these people thinking? How can you have this many dogs? These people need to have these dogs taken away and some type of charges filed against them. Plus I feel the county needs to do more to regulate how many animals a person can have. And with this many dogs theres no way all of them were properly taken care of or even been to a vet. I hate it for the child but these people deserve whatever they get!

[asp]

I agree with Christine, dogs are not bad by nature but made that way by their owners. But when you put that many dogs together they all aren't going to get along and so there was probably already some agressiveness going on. And it's likely that they had to defend themselves over food anyway. I hate this for this poor child. This is a sad sad situation that could have been prevented!

[ron]

No one should ever trust a rottweiler or a pit bull. They love to attack kids especially, but they're a ticking time bomb. I love dogs, but those breeds should be destroyed.

[Erik]

Its not the breed that should be destroyed, it is the closed minded people like Ron, that should be destroyed. That kind of thinking, is exactly what is wrong with this country and with the media. While Pit Bull attacks always make the news, rarely do anyother attacks by other breeds. Golden Retreiver's are known for an extremely high number of dog bites nationwide and when is the last time anyone heard about a golden retreiver attack. By saying those breeds should be destoryed is in my view a form of racism. I was robbed by a black man, so using Ron's theory, all black men should be destroyed because I was robbed and one point in time. Now one can see how stupid some people are in the comments they make. Don't Blame the Breed, Blame the Owners.

ron wrote:

No one should ever trust a rottweiler or a pit bull. They love to attack
kids especially, but they're a ticking time bomb. I love dogs, but those breeds should be destroyed.

[anonymous]

I get tired of people saying it is not the dog. It is the dog owner. It is the dog and the owner. A DOG is an animal with teeth. I have heard oh my dog will not bite. Every dog will bite. A lot of dog owners think of their dog as a person. It gets on my nerves. They are not people. Some people will spend money. They do not have on food for pets. When they should be spending it on food for themselves or their families.

[Sherry]

It sounds to me like these people should have their dogs AND their kids taken away. I deliver mail in areas like these and I see people like this who have more animals (and kids) than they have since, when it's obvious they don't have the means to take proper care of them. I feel so sorry for both the children and animals in these situations.

[troublechey8]

ron wrote:

No one should ever trust a rottweiler or a pit bull. They love to attack kids especially, but they're a ticking time bomb. I love dogs, but those breeds should be destroyed.

i have 3 pitbulls and have never had any aggression problems...you better watch out for the poodles and pekingneses...don't judge unless you want to be judged!!!

[Erik]

Most people see their dogs as members of their family, I know many people who decided against having kids and instead have multiple dogs. I'm sorry you get tired of people stating a truth about dog behavior and while every dog can bite, they won't unless they were taught to bite, or unless they were provoked otherwise. A friends dog bite a girl in the face and I don't blame it for occuring, the girl in pulling on its ears and pushing her face into the dogs, so there again is an example of how a dogs behavior is influenced by human behavior, if dogs were naturally prone to bitting people nobody would want them as pets.

anonymous wrote:

I get tired of people saying it is not the dog. It is the dog owner. It is the dog and the owner. A DOG is an animal with teeth. I have heard oh my dog will not bite. Every dog will bite. A lot of dog owners think of their dog as a person. It gets on my nerves. They are not people. Some people will spend money. They do not have on food for pets. When they should be spending it on food for themselves or their families.

[Crisp]

I do have over 20 dogs and I keep them all up to date on all shots.They are all in nice clean kennels lined with cedar shavings& shelter.They are feed twice a day and given fresh water daily. It is alot of work and responsibility and yes it is expensive to feed them. So I disagree with people saying no one needs 20 dogs. If you can take care of them you should be allowed to have as many as you want. I just hope this child we recover and that all concerned have learned something from this tragedy. I just hope and pray that the child will be ok.

[JustMe]

I live in a neighborhood with a family that has 12 dogs IN THE HOUSE (and not all small dogs) and 4 more outside in a pen. They run all over the neighborhood when they are out and have even "pinned" me in my car when I pull into my driveway. Animal control has been called before, but they do nothing about it. Some people just have no common sense.

[matt hill]

look people im this boys uncle and i thank all ofyou for you concern but or those o you tht say it not the pitbull and no te rockwiller hwever you spell it you ar al crazy andif youbegto differ im sorry but this dgs need to b put down and yes iknow for a fact that th dogs are not kept up an him and his 2 year old brother donot need t e around 30 plus of these dogs and his parents are spilt up and i wouldnt give you two cents for the entire family much less th mom and dad but yall will be hppy to know that he is in se what stble condition and they have started working on the back side no signs of improvment but also no signs of trouble he as far as seen has teeth marks to his head, neck, back stomach area and one that start behind his ear and goes completly across his head and has possible nerve damage to the left side of his face in my pinion all these dogs need to be put down

[Emily]

ron wrote:

No one should ever trust a rottweiler or a pit bull. They love to attack kids especially, but they're a ticking time bomb. I love dogs, but those breeds should be destroyed.

I'm sorry, but that' just not true. They don't love to attack chilren any more than cats try to smother babies. There are bad dogs of every breed and good dogs of every breed. I've worked around many dogs for many years and the worst bites I've ever had came from smaller dogs like spaniels. There's a terrible bias in reporting. I'm not saying that dog attacks aren't horrific, but any dogs kept in a large group with no real training are going to be trouble, and it wouldn't matter if they were poodles or pit bulls.

[Emily]

Crisp wrote:

I do have over 20 dogs and I keep them all up to date on all shots.They are all in nice clean kennels lined with cedar shavings& shelter.They are feed twice a day and given fresh water daily. It is alot of work and responsibility and yes it is expensive to feed them. So I disagree with people saying no one needs 20 dogs. If you can take care of them you should be allowed to have as many as you want. I just hope this child we recover and that all concerned have learned something from this tragedy. I just hope and pray that the child will be ok.

I agree. We don't limit how many kids people can have, so why dogs. If you can afford it and have the time and space for them, then you should be able to have as many as you want. The people who say we should tell people how many dogs they can have are probably the same people who would say we can't limit how many kids one can have.

[Vicious]

I, as an adult, have no problem in defending myself against any dog. No matter what the breed. I, as an adult, have the capability to know not to go into an area where 20 plus some dogs are being fed. This is a child...a child that is 5 years old, that obviously has been around these dogs for sometime. This is a child that does not go into the pen to purposely get attacked because this child does not have the capability to defend himself against any dog, who does not have the knowledge of knowing the difference of "feeding" time. This child does not pose a "threat" to these dogs. It is obvious that the owners of these dogs can not and will not have the knowledge to care for this many animals let alone a child. The dogs in questioned should be put down immediatly after the quarratine time. The other dogs should be removed, have a behavior test and sent out to be fostered till an appropriate home can be found. The owners of these dogs will have no time for the dogs anymore for which all their time will be spent on trying to care for a 5 years old child that is traumatized, injured and scared to death of these dogs. And let me clear the air on some of you people. If an "animal" has teeth, they can bite. Period, it is a fact. A child does not deserve to be bitten because he or she walks up to a dog and hugs it in it face-owners fault if that child does, otherwise just give the kid a loaded gun to play with. Period, it is a fact. It can be any breed or cat. When smaller dogs and hearder dogs bite, it is in a "Bite-Let Go-Bite Again" type of an attack. Larger and stronger dogs bite and hold on, which then leads to the all famous "LOCK-JAW" attack. Period, it is a fact. Stop defending the dogs all the time and stop attacking the dogs all the time. Start putting the blame where blame needs to be put. On the unresponsible dog owners and the unresponsible parents. Period!