A reality show person recently found out that her spouse shot the dog after the dog bit the child.  The child's skin wasn't even broken.  It seems common that the emotional response is to kill the dog.  And well, there is a certain percent of the population that is self reliant that they will not be going to the vet to have the dog put down.   Shooting the dog seems like a quick kill and ethical way not to torture the dog.

When you bring a dog and a baby into the home there is an inherent amount of risk.  It should be a bit accepted responsibility to those who put the dog and child together.  In part I feel taking it out on the dog in a fatal way is harsh on the dog and maybe the owner should face that's they are the one at fault.  

PETA is now calling for the guy who shot the dog to be punished.  This is the first time memorably I can side a bit with PETA.  Arguably, the guy did kill a dog.  If he had killed it without it doing any potential harm to anyone it would seem more cruel.  He could have just offered the dog to someone else, put it in a shelter, kept it away from the kid etc.  It's not like a dog is a vampire and once it gets a taste for blood it goes wild for it.


I guess I question whether or not we should have that level of autonomy over our pets.  To kill them at will?  If not, where are the dividing lines?

This reminds me of the fucked up story of my uncle's dog. My uncle has a massive german shepard. It was the nicest dog but fucking huge and dumb. After knocking stuff over in the house too many times Zeb got a place in the barn to chill at night. He had his own pen and the barn naturally could be closed up when my uncle went out of town. So they go vacation one day, Zeb is in his pen and the barn is sealed. The neighbor's toy poodle is let out to roam and gets over the outer fence of my uncle's yard, digs a bit under the barn door into the barn and digs a bit more to get into Zeb's pen. Zeb is a farm dog, that primary hung with the goats so he does what a farm dog does. He tore the poodle to pieces. Neighbor reports the dog is missing and hard yelping from the barn, cops come, break open the barn lock see the blood and Zeb and shoot him. My uncle comes home about three days after to his dog being killed, despite the dog being properly secured on his property in a pen, inside of a barn. The neighbors sued him for keeping an aggressive animal that killed their dog, and in court, the judge ruled for my uncle after the case was made my uncle did have a legal right to kill an animal that went onto his yard, but the police were justified in killing the dog because it was considered aggressive. My uncle got like 200 dollars for a new barn door lock and the neighbor's suit was dismissed. Story was freaking insane since I knew Zeb most of my childhood and the dog was excitable but super friendly. Dumb as a brick though, as he would love to fetch stuff, including horseshoes out of the air when people were playing with them. Would hear a nasty thud each time he got one, but then he would get up and happy as shit bring you the horseshoe. Animal laws are fucked up man.

Yeah, it's terrible that an officer can come onto your property, where you've properly secured your animal, and shoot them dead with no real repercussions. Seen the story time and time again.

This is a touchy subject for me.

When I was married I has 2 golden retrievers named Buddy and Bailey. We got Buddy with our wedding money six months before Caycee was born. They were the best of friends. Buddy was super protective of her and pretty much let her do anything to him. In 2002 my husband at the time went overseas to serve in Bosnia for 6 months, his parents moved into our basement and brought their two male dogs with them. Now overall the dogs got along but Buddy was very out of sorts what with his Alpha being away and these new dogs in HIS home.

One day I was out and my sister in law was watching Caycee who was 3 at the time. She was being a pest and annoying Buddy who usually took it good naturedly but this time something went off in him. He aparently had growled at her and my sister in law who was in the kicthen told her to 'leave the dog alone'. Of course being a 3 year old she didn't listen. Next thing I know I am getting a call from my sister in law telling me Buddy bit Caycee on the face.

I was beyond mortified. I had no idea what to do. Buddy was my baby too, but Caycee was my #1 priority. When he bit and released she pulled away and his tooth snagged the skin under her eye which required stitches. Because he drew blood we had to quarantine him while we made our decision. My ex's first repsonse was 'put him down' but I was not convinced. You can judge me for this if you want, but it was so out of character for him. I'm a person who believes when you take on a pet you take them on good or bad for their life.

The next 2 weeks were hell. I spoke to our vet and another vet about it. They looked at Caycee's face and both said that his bite was a warning. Based on how he bit her if he meant to 'attack' he would have taken half her face. It doesn't make it right but they also went to see Buddy and said he was under extreme stress. At the end I still had no idea what I was going to do. Finally it was my mom who said 'you've asked all these other people what they would do but did you ask Caycee. She's the one who got bitten and if she's afraid of him then you have your answer.' So I took Caycee to go see Buddy and she crawled into the cage with him and started crying 'I miss my Buddy'. So we took him home. He never bit her or anyone else again. And she is not afraid of dogs or any animal.

Now again, this was my personal experience and you might aboslutely disagree with my decision but I don't regret it.

My close friend had a beautiful Rottie named Mina. I LOVED this dog. They didn't socialize her and one day someone's kid went for her while she was eating and she bit them. My friend put her down. I personally blame my friend for not socializing Mina and also the parent of the child (who was 8 and old enough to know better IMO) not to bother a dog while she was eating.

I think you need to be vigilant with any pet and kids. They are still animals and kids can be little bastards. You need to teach your children respect when it comes to animals. Always ask the owner before you go to pet their dog don't just assume it's 'ok', etc. I had a cat that hated kids. We put him in the basement when kids came over. He was happier and so was I.

I'll be honest if our family dog bit someone or whatever the case may be and it was looking like the state would force her to be killed, I would take her in no question. I'm not sure how likely I would be able to hide her as I assume me or my brother would be the first "suspects" for her location. Do they do legit searches for that sorta thing? Or do they give up if they cannot be located at the current residence. I've read too many stories online about a kid going over a fence and having to be put down due to no fault of their own.

I'm pretty vocally childfree in my life, so reading IM's post was a bit of a headscratcher since she mentioned twice that not everyone agrees with the decision. It's weird to read that because that's the only decision I could think of. At the very least I would attempt to rehome them as heart breaking at that would be before I voluntarily put them down. Of course I'm not and never will be a parent, so maybe I don't understand that thought process. Of course if the dog bit us, my parents would blame us lol. That's what you get!

I agree @ness. In our house it was always guilty before proven innocent. In fact, the first thing out of my mouth in the emergency was 'what did you do to Buddy to make him bite you' and she told me. That's how I knew it wasn't just out of the blue.

I had people tell me I was a bad parent for choosing my dog over my child and worse.

This all kinda makes me think of those zoo incidents where kids or adult idiots somehow fall or otherwise get into the animal enclosure, and then long story short the animal has to be put down.

That always baffled me. Why should the animal be put down? If the parent or person themself is that much of a negligent idiot, I don't see why they shouldn't pay the piper with a little animal kingdom style population control. Some savage mother nature natural selection.

Then again, I guess I'm inclined to feel this was given that I probably side with animals 9 times outta 10 because that equivalent ratio of humans seem to suck.

🤯,I blame the volcano.

www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2019/05/man-falls-about-70-feet-down-kilauea-caldera-hawaii-volcanoes-national-park?fbclid=IwAR0vuBLfOo7gxtmTeLs8qQP1un0tsMkEm_AGD77M8wLpLlDLRaV2fyiM3JE

Fucking volcanos man. They need to put that fucker down hard.

He panicked and tried to protect his child before anything bad happened. If something worse happened to the child he would have been haunting for the rest of his life knowing he could have done something about it.

Now I don't agree with shooting the dog because to some people a dog is like a child/another family member. And he probably could have solved the issue another way or not let their two year play with a dog