I am the owner of a Great Dane and the father of an 8 monhh old baby. THE SUN NEWSPAPER, can hardly be relied upon to give the accurate facts of a case. Hence the reason they are in and out of the high court like a yo-yo. Firstly the dog should not have been tied up in that situation, and secondly the child should have been supervised AT ALL TIMES: as someone said "she is a baby".

Judging by what facts the sun does give us, the dog owners were irresponsible and so were the parents. I don't think much of a mother wo lets her child pose for a photo in that way.I feel very sorry for the little girl and the dog. There are far too many irresponsible parents and dogowners out there in our soceity today. I am unfortunate enough to witness this on an almost daily basis.

The sad truth.....irresponsible people and the dogs end up paying the price.

I agree.

and I also agree with this.

i do agree with most points but at the same time i cant understand whenever a dog bites a child ppl always defend the dog, if a dog did anything like that to anything belonging to me or if my dog did it to someone else, then pity help it. as someone said a snap or simple bite can be forgiven but not an attack

Because until I took time off, I was a math's teacher and my wife is still a teacher I have met too many parents in my time.........................

At the risk of continuing to repeat myself, we don't know what actually happened. Unless the same story was repeated, fact for fact, in a number of more reliable newspapers I'm inclined to believe that very little in this story is actually correct - going from The Sun's previous and numerous debacles they call 'journalism'.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm 'defending' the dog for two reasons:

1. I appreciate accuracy - the report is hardly comprehensive or unbiased
2. The public, on the whole, believes the media without questioning - I own a breed that has suffered at the hands of such travesties of journalism and now witness people's reactions to him on a daily basis.

If the dog genuinely did 'savage' the child in an unprovoked and prolonged attack then yes there is a problem. If not, maybe the humans should take the responsibility - or should dogs be held accountable for our shortfalls too?

Becs

All dogs are a risk to children and all children a risk to dogs (and other animals). By their very nature they are unpredictable, and constantly learning. Archer; if you expect "children to be children" - why do you not expect "dogs to be dogs"?

IMO children and dogs should NEVER be left unsupervised together; and the responsibility lies with every single adult at the party; any of them could have "kept an eye" on the dog if the owner was irresponsible enough not to do so.

i do agree that the dog should be PTS cos it will never be trusted again and the owners need to show that they are doing somthing and not keeping a dog that might bite again. but who are we to say that is must be done, we dont know what happend before. we dont know how long the dog was tied up for. we dont know anything but what the paper says and we all know what the SUN is like

But what about the situation that the OWNERS put the dog in.

It's not right for the dog to have been tethered in this situation, it couldn't get away if it was getting annoyed with all the noise and hustle and bustle, it could have been getting teased, you don't know if it wasn't getting poked at and screamed around...

It could have been to overheated if it was a hot day...etc...A dog is just an animal at the end of the day, unless the owners were standing keeping watch the whole time to make sure any children were not being a nuisance to it, it should not have been tied up around them.

The dog should have been allowed to get some peace and quiet when it needed too...The owner should be held responsible in this case...For not thinking about the dog or the children.

As well behaved my dogs are I would NEVER have them tied up and left alone in amongst the chaos that a childrens party would bring it is unfair to expect them to not be able to move away if it has had enough.



P.S: had to have a bit of a chuckle at dibleys comment.

and i sincerely hope any child of yours never suffers an attack like this, would it still then be the childs fault??