Parents of the toddler mauled in Swindon

were on the news last night calling for greater controls on dogs, muzzles and leads at all times etc.

While I have th greatest of sympathy for the horrific situation they found themselves in I do wish that there was some balance in the reporting of this.

Its constantly stated that the incident happened on private land so nobody can be prosecuted but as I understand it the child wondered into the garden.

I wonder if he's wondered into the road whether there would be the same reporting and calls for cars to be limited to 20MPH etc.

The dog has been destroyed at the owners instructions, the incident should not have happened but seriously calling on dog owners to muzzle and tether their animals in their own back gardens is basically animal cruelty IMO.

I often wonder if the people who vote for draconian action against dogs would feel the same if the same restrictions were placed on their children/parents etc?

Whilst what happened was truly, truly dreadful, it could have been avoided if several things had been in place, the first of which was correct child supervision.

It is an unpalatable truth that the carers of this child failed in their duty of care.

so this child was in fact trespassing, its a shame it happened but maybe the parents should take responsibilty to keep their child under closer watch
ATD x

I think we need to find statistics of:

Car accidents
Human Violence
Teen bullying

I bet dog attacks are a fraction of those - we can then easily say that perhaps cars should be banned, humans detained, and teenager's mouths taped then!!

Agree with ATD too!

I am not sure which mauling incident you are referring to but as others have said, you might as well ban everything if that is their attitude. People have been bitten and/or killed by tigers, lions, bears, sharks, snakes, scorpions, horses, cows...the list goes on! of course, I imagine people are injured, mauled and killed by other people far more than they are by animals.

Its very true & with things like this on the news you'd think parents would be so careful but when I was working on my friends charity stall on Sunday I had my dog fastened by the stall & at least six young children. two of them really small toddlers ran up & grabbed her & patted her while their parent just stood & watched them. I was appallled by the lack of care of some of the adults. I know she's safe but they weren't to know.

There is danger everywhere, for every living animal on the planet. Danger is part and parcel of being an animal, death and injury is all part of life, it appalls and saddens me that so many parents today want to wrap their children up in cotton wool, whilst at the same time taking absolutely no responsibility for their safety when things go wrong.

My pet hate is those dang Parent & Child parking spaces ... I glean a lot of pleasure from parking in them with my 25 year old daughter

And if she hadn't of been, and the little darlings got a nip, imagine the hullaballoo and baying for her blood!!

I agree my kids are scouts which means they get to climb trees, light fires and run around in woods. There are risk assessments but its generally a case of, they'll be fine and you know what they are!

However, while I don't see why they have to be specifically close to the shop, those large parent & child spaces are because in order to strap children into the legally required seats you need to have the door fully open ordinary spaces you end up banging the adjacent car.

Nice. Why be so petty?