Indigo Mullin, 2, Mauled By Dog at Farmer's Market, But Owner Only Gets Ticket

i say the stupied little boy is at fault he should no way better and there was other little kids petting the same dog and it didnt attack them so that kid did something to incourage the dog to protacet its self

I was there. The mother of the child was not paying attention to her child the little boy was bouncing all over the dog and hanging from its neck for a good 5 minutes before the dog finally had enough...

The parent(s) of the child should have been watching the kid more closely and not have let him get beyond his/her reach/control. Having a dog that is generally friendly, does not mean it won't attack when it feels threatened.

I come from a family with 8 dogs total, each dog is 60+ pounds. One of them is mildly aggressive when strangers approach - adults or children. Children try to run up to the dog all the time to pet him, but my bro-in law warns them and their parents who aren't too far behind - that the dog may bite, so don't pet him.

If the owner had the dog leashed then s/he is following the law can't control others' kids esp when they come up from behind. I do feel bad for the kid, he's young and didn't understand, but his parents should have never allowed him to run off far enough so they couldn't catch him.

I think that families should be able to go to a Farmers Market with their young children. ( I am addressing this comment to people who said that the child should be on a leash.) Small children are curious and will approach and touch things that they shouldn't, but to protect the dog that mauled a two-year old child, requiring 100 stitches, broken bones and nerve damage goes a bit far! We should, and have a duty to, protect our children first!  Pit bulls, Bulldogs, Dobermans and Rottweilers are aggressive breeds and should not be unleashed in public anywhere! If they are leashed they should have a muzzle in public to prevent bites and mauling.  I love animals but I think out children should come first.

ok

Dogs shouldn't be allowed at any events where there are large groups of people, music, children and not to mention FOOD. Dogs get very nervous in these situations wether they are biters or not. By the way, I have two dogs that are very much loved, I would never put them in a situation where they could hurt someone and be taken away from me!!!!!

Why blame the mother?  What if the child had simply bumped into the dog instead of trying to pet it? There likely would have been a similiar reaction from the dog... I feel so sorry for this kid, nerve pain can be excruciating, it's  impossible to cure and sometimes difficult to treat... think bad tooth or better yet, imagine the feeling of hitting your funny bone everytime you chew. This dog should be put down, I don't know how the owner can live with herself now.

According to the mother, the owner told her it was safe for her son to pet the dog.  So mom was right there, and got permission first.

The owner did not pull the dog off.  She left it up to other bystanders.  That tells me she didn't have control over her own animal.

I don't understand the people who are saying the "poor" dog may have been startled.  Unless your dog is completely socialized and won't be startled by being bumped, stepped on or all the noise, don't take them to such a crazy, busy event.  Ever.  Leave them at home or take them to more dog friendly venues.I don't care how startled the dog was.  That is no excuse to bite anyone.

I have had dogs in the past that I would stake my life wouldn't even bite a person who beat them.  My current dog gets nervous around men in hats.  So she doesn't go to the beach or the farmer's market.   Would she bite?  I doubt it.  Would I stake a child's life on it?  Noooooooo.Maybe I could ask for a ban on hats so she can go...

Even if your dog was safe, why would you tell a total stranger that it's okay to pet it?  Unless you like being sued for millions when something bad happens.  Idiots.  And why would the mother of the child allow it to pet a strange dog anyway?  One bite to the face and his future is ruined forever.  Is it worth it?  

Both women should have had who they were with on a leash. There are brat leashes, just like there are pet leashes as well. So both bitches are to blame for not having leashes on who was with them.

*facepalm*

Because this story has been bothering me, I had to come back after checking out other stories on what happened...The way this story is written here makes it sound like the mother just let her kid go up to a strange dog and the owner made that "teddy bear" comment after the fact...According to other stories, when the mother and child came across the woman and her dog, the owner told them it was safe (which I take to mean she was saying safe to pet the dog) and called the dog "a big teddy bear"...http://www.wwnytv.com/news/loc...So I don't fault the mother for one second. The idiot of an owner apparently didn't know her damn dog as well as she thought and when the shit hit the fan she couldn't even control the fucking thing since a fucking bystander had to pull the killer dog off the kid...So I'm even more in favor than I was before of doggy going bye bye to puppy heaven...

I know there have been plenty of times that I've walked my dog and have a kid run up to him and start petting him. If the dog is minding his own business and just hanging out, when suddenly this kid comes up and startles him, how is it the dogs or the owners fault? The kid shouldn't have been allowed to touch a strange dog . Especially without the parents supervision and the owners consent. I feel for the kid, but the dog reacted. I can't count the times I see kids running around on their own w/any supervision. If something happens to them, it is no one else's fault but the parents.

I guess your flea markets are different than ours as pets are not allowed in.  In my opinion a flea market is definitely not the place for an animal and I don't give a rats ass how wonderful it is.  I have a little dog that I love more than I can say but there are places he's just not allowed to go.  Although I have been known to leave him in the car and if it's hot start it every 10 minutes so he has the air conditioner.  I think this dog should be put down and the owners responsible for the medical costs.

This was not a warning nip. 

I've had dogs for decades and only had one dog that bit anyone and in this case it was a young child. 

The dog was sleeping on our front lawn on a very hot day. A three-year-old little boy from across the street came running over to him and jumped on his rib cage. The dog (which by the way was half Rottweiler and half Lab and very large) reacted with a quick warning bite to the child's arm, then jumped up and ran away from the kid.

Despite the huge power of his jaw and his size in comparison to a three-year-old boy, the bite didn't break the skin. It did cause a couple of bruises on the little boy's arm but clearly it was a warning bite and not an attack. 

What I'm saying is if a dog that large, is suddenly woken out of a dead sleep by a child jumping full force on his rib cage and still is able to deliver only a warning bite rather than an attack, it tells me that the dog that attacked the little boy in the story above was not simply warning the child to get away.

For that reason I think the owner should be held more accountable for having the dog in a public place where something like this could happen. The dog was clearly on edge and nervous and the owner should've recognized that and immediately taken her dog out of that situation. 

Although I agree parents should teach their children not to approach strange dogs, it's pretty hard to get that message across to a two-year-old, and having had a two-year-old, I know just how quickly they can pull away from you when they want to. 

In this case I find it hard to place an equal amount of blame on the parent. The dog owner should not have had her dog in that situation -- there's no doubt in my mind the dog was exhibiting signs of nervousness prior to biting this child because of the extreme nature of its reaction. The owner failed both her dog and the little boy.

My heart goes out to the little boy and I hope he makes a full recovery.

there was a story in the local news in houston, tx.   The owner of pitbulls, had never had an issue with their dogs and young kids.

Until they came home recently to find their young baby dead in their home after one of their dogs attacked.

i have 2 schauzners,  that  love but i don't trust them 100% because they are animals. 

It's ridiculous the owner still allows that dog to continue to regularly sleep with them... after he almost killed a 2 year old.

I wonder if the dog was up to date with its shots. I can see from some of your posts that you have not gotten your rabies shot-i guess enzo the asshole has infected you all since your posts makes you look like a bunch of laughing hyena's foaming at the mouths.

if that was MY dog the fucker would be dead before law asked me

I was gonna call it a night, but I saw this story up top and it stopped me from leaving...that poor baby's face...I saw some people saying the dog was startled, can't blame the dog, blah blah blah...what happens the next time the dog gets startled? The next time it mauls a kid? Maybe the next time it kills the child, attacks it's own owner and then eats the neighbors calico kitten for a midnight snack...sorry, but if a dog fucks up once, whether it's "startled" or not, that's it...finito...I'm glad that baby didn't die, I'm sick of reading shit about kids being gnawed to death by dogs that were "the sweetest teddy bear love muffin dog ever"...fuck this dog...it chewed that kid up...if it were my own dog, I don't care how much I loved it, I wouldn't want it...I can't trust the thing, why the hell would I want to keep it around? And I don't give a shit what breed the dog is...I'm not biased against breeds...I'm biased against killer dogs and dogs that snap....

http://www.lovetoshopping.org

http://www.lovetoshopping.org

Texas has a fairly new law concerning dogs.  If the animal bites, the owner is responsible.  Period.  This baby needs to be healed and medical charges taken care of -- by the dog's owner.

Hope this little one recovers and eventually isn't scared of dogs. 

 First, far too many dogs are not properly socialized from a very young age.  Many people think they can socialize a pup when they get it at 8wks from the pet store (ugghh).  If the pup hasn't had interaction with people (except for feeding, cleaning) ie interaction, touching, until it's adopted, there is going to be a problem with that pup - maybe it will be loving and fine at first but down the road there will be issues (just as a child that was neglected for the first year of it's life will have problems that may not be apparent until later) to varying degrees - unnoticeable to unadoptable.  Some dogs are socialized but not exposed to noise, bouncing kids and touching/grabbing from behind - this is a big issue when adopting a pup/dog and/or taking it to public places or having it around sudden loud noises or touchy fast kids.  Many feel they have a trustworthy "friend" living with them - most of the time that is correct but this is afterall an "animal" and as an animal it will react as such.  If it feels threatened, it will bite.  This is no different than in nature - there is a pecking order and different packs do not infringe without it being okay or consequences.  Also, if a well trained loving dog feels someone in it family/pack is being threatened it will defend.  This dog might have felt threatened or it was protecting it's owner.This isn't to say that a well raised, well socialized pup/dog can't be put/walked in society with people/children/other pets but with an aware owner - the owner shouldn't be taking the pup to a place where he/she can't keep a very close eye on it,  just so it can be socialized (sure, there are dog parks and play groups - that's different.... little kids aren't suppose to be involved). Other side of the coin - as painful as this is, every parent should know and teach their kids to never go anywhere near an unknown dog w/o their parent's and the owner's permission.  Kids can be so loving, as it sounds like this boy was, but many dogs are not socialized to be touched by surprise and/or from behind and jumpy fun kids can feel like a threat to some dogs that are again threatened or defending their pack. I guess this is an unfortunate cautionary tale - they are animals, they can't be trusted no matter how much you love and trust (and how much you know your dog wouldn't do anything bad- we all feel that way about our pets/family members!) - there always could be something that could trigger any dog; and little kids should never be left alone with any dog of any demeanor.   I'm not going to play the blame game - sure, the parents should have had hold of their 2yo and the dog owner should have been watching her dog (even if it was on a leash) - even if she was busy with a purchase.  And at no point should the 2yo or any child be to blame.  

1- Why in God's name would you bring a big ass dog to Farmer's market????2- Dog's owner has mental problem just for letting a 2 yr old kid sleep with a bulldog.3-  The dog freaked and attacked?? most likely is going to happen again so 10 days of "time out" is not going to change the dog.4- My sister always make fun of me saying that I'm too paranoid because when i see a dog, even with a leash, I cross the street... I made her read this story to see why.