Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. - Eleanor Roosevelt



Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Save Dakota!

Here's a little riddle for you: How can a dog get hold of an infant, drag it out of a house, unbeknownst to its parents, and go so far as to spark an actual search by the parents for the infant’s whereabouts?

This is a question I ask after having read an article about an incident involving a four-year-old Native American Indian dog going off with a four-day-old newborn in its mouth, causing injuries that left the baby in critical condition at the hospital. Of course, the dog, Dakota, is now considered dangerous, a threat and a menace and has been handed over to animal control. Her fate, most likely, death.

Though I can imagine what horror it might have been to live through such an incident as a parent, and the anguish a parent must feel toward any creature hurting their child, I simply cannot wrap my head around destroying an animal for being just that—an animal. Especially when the evidence is there that the parents themselves are responsible for letting such events transpire in the first place.

Everybody knows that dogs, or any animal really, can unexpectedly do things that are harmful to humans. Before I get to the core of my argument, however, let me mention that these lovely parents hailing from Lexington, Kentucky, actually left their child alone in a room with a dog roaming around freely—a dog with wolf ancestry, mind you. Now, whether you believe that four-day-old infants should never be left alone for any period of time, or believe that leaving your children alone when you have a breed of dog that even home insurance companies want you to be extra cautious about by raising your premium is totally and completely idiotic—the bottom line is, in my opinion, that these parents are solely responsible for this mishap.

If anybody ought to be punished for this tragedy, it is the parents for being so irresponsible as to leave a newborn alone in the first place; that was offense number one. Offense number two, is to leave the newborn alone with a large dog roaming freely.

I’ve never been a parent, but I’d like to think (and know I am totally wrong to do so) that common sense is a rather universal thing, and with common sense comes the knowledge that leaving a newborn alone in a room long enough for a dog to figure out how to get it out of a crib and out of the house is, well, bad parenting.

I vote for Dakota’s life to be spared and for her to spend the remainder of her years away from such bad owners, who ought to be paid a visit by social services, if for nothing else than for a little lesson in common sense for the welfare of their poor child-- who I’m happy to report is in stable condition and expected to pull through.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

this story just sounds fishy, the story keeps changing as well
I say save the dog and investigate the parents, please no puncture wounds from this dog yet all these damages. Apparently the dog snuck in the house, up the stairs opened the babies room door, found its way into the crib and back unto the floor(knowbody heard the thud or baby crying)drug the baby down the stairs and magically opened the door again to get out with the child hmmmm BS if ask me
Save the dog beat the parents!!!!
Oh and this dog is a Native American Indian dog, it has less then 1% wolf which means it is no more wolf then a collie, husky or so forth.

Reem said...

Either way, the parents come out looking bad, no matter how you look at it. I agree that the parents should be investigated.

Elisabeth said...

Hmm... I don't know the details, didn't read the article, but putting aside any allegations or suspicions of abuse or foul play, I say that though it may not be the animal's fault, an animal (specifically a dog) that shows aggression towards a human is a poorly raised and poorly socialized dog, and will likely attack some other person at some other point.

I do think these dogs should be kept away from humans whether it be by putting them to sleep or by other means. I guess I should have read it, but was it their dog? As I understand it, dogs are often extremely loving and protective of "their" babies.

We were VERY cautious when Regin was born. Bongo had already begun showing aggression towards people, so our trust in him wasn't very high. At the time we were considering putting him to sleep or giving him to my parents. But he even snapped at them a couple of times. He did finally begin to earn our trust more, but we never left him alone with Regin. Now Regin is much bigger now, but our current dog, Smilla, is HUMUNGOUS and if she decides to attack any of us it is bad news. Nevertheless, I trust her for the most part (she takes a lot of abuse from him without complaint) and they are allowed to play alone together in the back yard all the time. I don't think that's too many steps removed from leaving an infant with a dog. Regin is pretty much defenseless against such a large dog.