Dogs, kids, and responsibility...

[gooeydog]

My aunt got Annie the Mini Dachshund from a petstore because she was "so cute" and she'd been wanting a dachshund for a long time. At the time she got Annie, she was married and had three other dogs, two Chows and a Chow mix. A few months after she got Annie, she filed for divorce. Her husband took the oldest Chow with him (it was really more his dog), and the Chow mix had been PTS a few weeks before because he had really bad skin problems (they had spent thousands in vet bills, but could not fix what was wrong, and the dog was miserable), and she kept Annie and the younger Chow (who by that time was about 8 yrs old). She also got another Dachshund (a Standard, about 10 yrs old) from a friend of hers who couldn't keep her anymore because she had a child and the dog had back problems. About a year after her divorce, my aunt had a boyfriend and in july 1999 she had a baby. A month after that, she moved into our basement apartment because her boyfriend lived out of state, and came here on his days off, so my mother and grandmother watched the baby while she was at work. She had brought the 3 dogs (and cat) with her, and the dog were kept confined (dachshunds in crates, chow in a room) most of the time because she didn't want them bothering her and the baby or laying on his clothes/blankets. When her boyfriend wasn't home, the baby stayed upstairs with us while she worked and slept, and I walked the dogs once a day when she was at work. Two months after she moved into the apartment, the baby died. He had been napping in his swing in the living room, and my aunt and her boyfriend went in their room (right next to the living room) to watch tv. They left the two older dogs (the Chow and Standard Dachshund) out in the house (Annie was in her crate). They had a baby monitor on, but fell asleep, and my aunt woke up about an hour later to find his body on the floor outside their bedroom door. His swing was tipped over, and the medical report said he died from head trauma when his head hit the floor. He also had bites on him (16 punctures). It is still not known whether the dogs attacked him, or whether the bites occured after the swing had fallen, but the simple fact is that his death would probably (almost certainly) have been prevented if he hadn't been left alone with the dogs. We think the Chow had been sleeping by his swing, and when she went to get up it caught on her and she panicked and ran out from under it, tipping it in the process. There were no loud sounds, so it seems unlikely that either of the dogs outright attacked him. The dachshund had torn up several of his diapers in the past, nobody though much of it because she was always digging in the trash, but afterwards everyone was questioning. I guess the point I'm trying to make is to never take your dogs for granted, and always remember that they're dogs, not furry little people who think just like we do.

[deepseasnake]

wow :o I wasnt expecting that when I started to read, are the dogs still around? or were they put down?

This is a really sad story goo, I will always remember it when I see dogs with little kids

[ShadyLady]

As a mother it is a really sad thing to heard this a child left alone let alone with dogs People dont realize that dogs are not human and for their safety and the childs seperation is best .How sad for you gooeydog :cry:

[Shannon_C]

Gooeydog that is a sad story, i take it that the dogs arent around now ?
One thing i should say is when you have got children and pets, never ever leave them alone in a room together it only takes a second for that child to get bitten, usually through jealousy of the dog having no attention because its all given to the child or mainly because the dog as been teased etc, dogs' like us humans have feelings and when a baby comes along it can be hard for them to understand why they have suddenly been left out after all the fun they had been getting over the years, dogs are happier when they are allowed to join in and when they are shown the right way, as well has children who can be cruel without realising it.... its not hard, time and patience is all that is needed for both to get along!
I am sorry to hear about your Aunts baby!

[Guest Anonymous]

OMG! That poor child...what his last few moments were like we will never know, but I am hoping and praying that they were quick and painless .... and the guilt your aunt must have suffered....and perhaps is still.... this is a sad sad story goo...and i am sorry you had to experience that too...my husband's cousin was killed as a young child by her mother's somewhat new boyfriend (thrown aroud and then down the stairs for wetting the bed while mom was at work) and their family is STILL not over it 20 years later....I am very, very sorry for your family's loss... :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Would you mind if I asked if the dogs are still alive - or around for that matter - we assume they are gone from the house...but could be wrong....
EBBY :(

[bk_blue]

How awful for your family Goo :(

And for yours EBBY :( It is different when a dog kills a child, a dog can't reason and think like we do, not that it lessens the crime of course. When a human being kills a child it's one of the worst things I can think of because a human can be rational and think and knows that a child cannot often control its emotions when very young. :(

Hopefully by now we have learned never to take children and pets for granted, it's all too easy to see how tragedies like this happen and how easily they can be prevented by a few simple precautions. Even if you think your dog would never do it, it can save a lot of heartache if you don't leave your dog and a kid unsupervised in the same room.

[mouseatthebusstop]

:cry: I am very sorry your cousin died :cry: it is a very sad story

[Rowie-the-Pooh]

:cry: How sad Goo..... :cry:

VERY sorry for your aunts loss....I can imagine how terrified she would have been! :o :cry:

Are the dogs still around? I know you have Annie, but what about the other 2?

[Guest Anonymous]

That's one of the saddest stories I have ever heard, must have broken everyone's heart. I think the never knowing will haunt them forever.

People sometimes just don't understand the needs not leave children and dogs together.

[gooeydog]

Animal control came almost right after the police and took all three dogs, even though Annie had been crated when it happened. They had the chow and standard Dachshund PTS, and held Annie in the "biters section" until we came to get her. My aunt knew what the dogs were capable of, though maybe she didn't really even realize it. She carried on for about a month after she moved into the apartment that she didn't want Goo around the baby because she's "crazy" and she might "turn" (even though Goo has been around babies and little kids since we got her, always supervised, and never been a problem), but she let down her guard with her own dogs, one of which had never seen a baby in its life. She never even considered that they could bump into something by accident, or that if something triggered an instinct or drive, they might react in a way she wouldn't expect. My aunt has lupus, and was lucky to have one child, so she and her boyfriend (husband now) are looking to adopt at some point.

As kind of a side note, my aunt found the baby at about 1 am sunday night (early morning), and the news reporters already had a story about it for sundays news at noon. They continued to knock on our doors (they didn't even get the right part of the house, my aunt had lived in the basement apartment, and they were at the upstairs part of the house) until the next Saturday. I went back to school on wednesday, and had to call my mother to get me out early because the reporters were waiting outside to "interview" me, so the school ended up giving me permission to stay home the rest of the week. The reporters went around our neighborhood looking for anyone who might know something about what happened, but didn't find out much (most of the neighbors knew what had happened, but just didn't tell the reporters). We had a hard time getting the dogs out to use the bathroom because everytime we tried to walk them there was a reporter outside (imagine if they had found out there was a pit bull in the house :roll: ), so we had to check outside before we could take them out, and hurry back in before one could show up. The news also showed some nice footage of our house :roll: , my window blinds (all broken up from when Goo used to get up there and peek out), and a "beware of dog" sign on our door. What all that had to do with the accident, I still don't know. What's more, they couldn't even get the baby's name right. They spelled it wrong almost every time, and once they even put the wrong address (you'd think they would know it since they came there to harass us so many times). One story's headlines read "baby eaten by family dogs", another "three month old mauled by family pets". The dachshund was not mentioned in the stories, they either said "three dogs were involved" (it was two), or "a chow and two other dogs". They tried to show a picture of a Chow on one of the tv stories, but I guess got a little mixed up because the dog they showed was a Sharpei looking mix. Sorry I got so off topic, I got a little carried away :o :lol:

[deepseasnake]

yeah I had a pretty famous incounter and learned to hate the news media as well, they dont care about anything they dont even attempt to get the facts and they dont even care about reason. I hate the news you cant trust them worth a sh!t :x

anyway thats a pretty disturbing story goo, once again I feel for ya :)