8-Year-Old Girl Critical After Lithonia Dog Attack (Guns aren't only for self-defense)

[shadowrider]

8-year-old girl was attacked by two Staffordshire bull terriers in Lithonia Tuesday afternoon, DeKalb County police said.

The attack happened while the girl was playing in the yard of her home on Margaret Court.

CBS Atlanta spoke to the girl’s father on the phone Tuesday night. He identified her as Erin Ingram. He choked back tears as he said his daughter wasn’t doing well.

--snip--

“Three or four minutes being attacked by two vicious dogs can seem like eternity,” said DeKalb County police Officer Jason Gagnon. Gagnon said the first responding officer had to physically pull the dogs off the girl. Then when one of the dogs lunged at the officer, he shot and killed the dog. The other dog ran away and was later captured.

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/news/22789395/detail.html

I live out in the woods and people are always dropping animals out here. Cats, dogs etc. They come to the house because it's the first place they find. It's quite dark out if I have to go somewhere and I never know what's lurking in the drive.

[MercutioATC]

1. When, oh when, will we get sensible dog laws?

The dog nuts (that actually sounds kinda funny) make me sick.

[Euromutt]

3. A million dog attacks on humans a year

Of that million, around 30% require professional medical treatment. Most of those victims are small children, who often suffer permanent disfigurement to the face and head. Additionally, some 20-30 attacks a year are fatal. Dogs also kill over 20,000 head of livestock annually. Dogs are the primary vector of rabies to humans, not least because an estimated 50% of household dogs are not vaccinated against rabies, despite every state requiring it.

Nobody wants to take your dog away. We just want reasonable, common-sense restrictions on dog ownership. :evilgrin:

[TheWraith]

4. Dogs are, in some ways, more dangerous than guns.

A dog can go off on it's own and attack someone, a gun requires human intent. Fortunately the fatality rate is so low because of modern technology and the main threat being blood loss.

I speak as somebody who had a dog "attack" me (actually an accident since the dog didn't realize he was doing damage by landing on my face) and had to have my forehead sewn up when I was 8. Neither the dog chasing the ball nor the person who threw it at me had any ill intent, but I still spent the night in the emergency room.

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. The cop should've saved one for the owner of the dogs.

It sounds like these dogs were an ongoing menace to the neighborhood.

[YllwFvr]

5. Well the dog owner was lucky to have two dogs

He still has one left!

Hey isnt there some law regarding keeping dogs tied up? But we will blame this attack on the dogs.

(kind of like blaming the gun, not the crook pulling the trigger. See the connection?)

I agree with you, the owner likely knew the dogs were prone to violence, but didnt care/ was too lazy to properly secure them. The law never seems to work right when it comes to putting violent criminals away when they use a gun for crime, hopefully it will work with the dog owner. He should also pay for the medical bills, pay damages to the family, donate a kidney, and get her a pony.

Maybe not the last two, but I think the first ones were a good idea. All Im sayin is a pony would go a long way towards making her feel better.