Family calls for dogs to be banned in public parks after dog attacks

Family calls for dogs to be banned in public parks

On Monday, three-year-old Caidynce King was bitten in the face by a Rottweiler tied to the bleachers while his owner watched a baseball game.  Reports vary on the attack.

Three-year-old Caidynce King was also at the diamonds with her family but wandered away and “ended up coming behind these two dogs,” said Gord McMahon, a peace officer with City of Grande Prairie.

When the child fell on top of the larger dog, it turned and bit her, McMahon said. – CBC.ca

However, another report says the child was playing with two dogs when the attack occurred.  The parents claim that she was running past the dogs to her mother.  The owner claims that her dog had been around kids before and that the little girl approached the dogs.  She told CTV that she was jumping down to be with “Charlie” when the bite happened.  The dog that bit the girl will not be destroyed, but will be required to be strictly controlled and monitored.  The owner is being charged with having an animal that “bites, attacks or injures a person.” The violation carries a fine between $200 and $2,500.

From what I have read, I think this is failure on both sides.  Parents should never let their young children approach strange dogs, run past them or play with them in a manner that involves anything approaching roughhousing.  Dog owners should be paying attention to their dogs in a public area and aware of who is approaching them and what is happening around them.

Even if one party is stupid enough to encourage an unsafe child/dog interaction does not make it all right for the other party to just sit back and let it happen. – Me.

However, the Kings’ call for a banning of dogs in public parks is just absurd and fortunately, the city is not considering changes to the bylaw allowing on-leash dogs in city parks.  More little kids are killed by cars than by dogs, but I don’t see people lobbying to remove cars from the city streets.  I’m wondering whether this is guilt speaking, much like the Ranfones and their pet door warning crusade.  No, it shouldn’t happen to anyone, but it does and I’m scratching my head why the Kings think that banning dogs from public parks is better than ensuring that their child never approaches another dog without close parental supervision.

8 Comments

  1. i say ban dumb parents and irresponsible pet owners from breathing. um ok too

  2. The child exited the dugout at the ball diamond’s and was surprised by the waiting dogs. She was with an adult who was supervising her at the time. Just imagine being the adult who now has to live with witnessing what happened to this little girl. The woman who had the dogs at the park had them there without the owner’s permission. She fled the scene and lied to police and media about what happened. Ultimately, the dog’s owner euthanized the dogs. Before criticizing the parents, people should know there is more to the story. This little girl almost did not live through the ordeal, had she arrived at the hospital minutes later she would be dead.

  3. If this account is accurate, then the dog handler is fully responsible for the dogs’ behaviour and should be held accountable for it.

    I maintain that trying to ban *all* dogs from public parks is less a product of public safety and more the product of the trauma of one’s child being injured. Banning dogs from public parks does not protect children. Responsible dog ownership and responsible child management does.

  4. really people this is so sad… first.. her name is caidynce because we loved the name so grow up and second.. if u do not understand or know what happened pls stop talking.. we are not dumb because we do everything with our family INCLUDING having a sitter who was 3 seconds behind my daughter … and yes is very messed up because of it..she was not playing with them she was coming to me.. me and my husband were on the same field just on different teams.. 2 rottys on one leash lunged and bite her nose off.. for you to make us to be bad parents because we had taken all of the steps including a sitter is unfair.. my daughter is the victim and she almost died because a women who was not given permission( she is not registered owner her boyfrind is and he would have never taken them there ) to have those animals there was not watching them and had them tied to the bleachers.. it has been almost 2 years and we will never be done with doctors or surgeries or nightmares.. and yet i have not ever gotten a appology or anything from this women for almost taking my daughter away from us.. so in the end people if u dont understand what happened pls dont comment.. and if u want to comment pls remember that my daughter was the victim and she was 3 and not doing anything wrong but trying to get to her mom with her brother and babysitter right behind her.. i dont want to ban dogs from going out all i want to do is bring it to attention that animals with aggresive behaviour( and yes they did ) should not be allowed in public places were children are present unless musseled and leashed PROPERLY with supervision.. fyi there is a large dog park right as u drive into the ball diamonds so ask yourself y she was even there with them in the first place with the knowledge that they were mean and should not be around kids.( mine were not the only ones there that day either) there was at least 10 families there just like every other day trying to enjoy a family outing

    • Nobody, absolutely nobody said or implied that that little three year old girl was “responsible” or doing anything wrong. Everyone understands that she was just a little three year old, and that it is the responsibility of adults to keep her, and other children like her, safe.

      BTW, the whole thing must be extremely painful for you and her, and that is terrible.
      My dog is absolutely gentle with kids, but I carry a muzzle with me just the same, so that if a child comes up to him or wants to pet him, I can take the “better safe than sorry” route by putting the muzzle on him as a precaution. And that’s for a dog that’s proven himself to be gentle with kids. You are correct that us owners of powerful dogs have a powerful responsibility, especially when children are around.

      I think muzzles should be used more often. And leashes are to be held by the owner, not just tied up to some object. Most fatal attacks on children are from dogs that were chained up to a stationary object.

      BTW, the blog writer may have been hasty initially to jump to conclusions about whether the child was being supervised but I admire her the way (see her comment from March 4, 2012) in which she listened with an open mind to new information in the comments section.

  5. First, I am scratching my head as to why you are choosing to “post-mine” a nearly 2 year old thread. As far as the Internet is concerned, this subject died a natural death in May 2010.

    Second, if you want to discuss a subject coherently, please ensure that your commentary is broken up into paragraphs and correctly spelled. Text-speak has no place outside of a mobile phone and certainly does not encourage people to take you or your comment seriously.

    Third, while I realize that this was a traumatic situation for all involved, my original post is based on the news story cited, where it was stated that the family was seeking to have all dogs banned from city parks. This is the only item that made the story newsworthy for the purposes of this blog.

    If it is the case that this was inaccurately reported by CTV.ca, by all means, post the retraction of the statements,

    “Her family is now calling for dogs to be banned from public places.”

    “You don’t get people taking their dogs to the mall and stuff like that and you don’t get dogs going to the schools, so why any other public outing place?”

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