Arrest after baby girl dies in dog attack
The one-year-old child suffered severe head injuries in the attack just after noon at a house in Crawley, West Sussex.

Sussex Police confiscated the dog, a spokesman said. “It is very early in the investigation but we are trying to establish how this tragedy occurred," he added.

The girl, who has not been named yet, fell unconscious and died at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill.

A neighbour of the dog's owner, who lives in Cotton Walk, said he believed the man owned two dogs and often walked them in the area.

“The bloke himself is absolutely spot on, the dogs are well looked after, I don’t know what type they are, all I know is that they are big," he said.

“I am surprised this is what has happened, my little one strokes his dogs.

"He’s not one of those guys who has a dog because it’s a status symbol, he loves his dogs and he walks them miles, the dogs are walked every day. The guy is lovely, he’s not a guy who has got dogs because it makes him feel ’Mr Man’.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7100779.ece


UPDATE: Baby girl killed by dog - latest
Published Date: 17 April 2010

AN 18-month-old baby girl died after being savaged by a dog at a house in Broadfield.
A Sussex Police spokesman said: "Extensive enquiries are ongoing by Sussex Police's Major Crime Branch following the death.
The girl was attacked by a dog, thought to be a mastiff, although police have yet to confirm the breed.

http://www.crawleyobserver.co.uk/news/UPDATE-Baby-girl-killed-by.6235032.jp

I can't believe this has happened again
poor kiddie

people shouldn't leave dogs alone with young children it is crule

poor kiddie.:(

Classic case, my dog wouldn't hurt anyone or its the owners bad training etc just doesn't wash ....

Muzzles anyone? how many deaths, how many disfigurements does it take .... I am getting fed up saying this.

How can anyone possibly defend letting these unnecessary deaths continue - not only a very young girl but the affect on friends and family .....

I agree with DD to a point, muzzling in public is fine but not many dog owners would leave their dogs muzzled in the house.
Here we have a case that seems up to now to have been carried out by a dog who has been well treated and is owned by a good person. I have argued in the past threads on this subject that any dog can turn and bite, it happens on a daily basis, thousands per year, it is only the fatalities that hit the news.
Eventually, someone, somewhere is going to have to sit down and sort out what breeds of dogs are going to be allowed to live amongst us.
Most breeds were bred for a purpose, developed over hundreds if not thousands of years, what they were originally bred for has no use in today's society and yet we seem determined to turn them into docile pets and not expect them to return once in a while to their original what they were bred for behaviour.
Its unfortunate that the majority of people in this country go out and buy a dog and have no idea what they are buying, they don't do any research on the breed and are normally unaware of what their taking on.
I use this only as an example, what point is there in buying a Bull mastiff, that when fully grown could weigh over 10 stone and has a breeding background to drag bulls to the ground and rip them up. Where is its place in society now.

Stop thinking of dogs as humans would be something as well. Why anyone needs a dog the size of a wendy house is something I can't understand either. Never, ever leave dogs and little babies alone together is a good point, especially if the dog is used to being boss. One for the dogs too, don't buy a dog and then sod off to work all day and leave it on its own, that is not being an animal lover, it's being a prat.

Ban dogs altogether - problem solved. People obviously cannot be trusted in this day and age, to keep these animals and realise that they cannot be trusted around children, certainly not alone with children. And how many times do we hear animal lovers spout shit like "my dog would never bit anyone" - fact, any dog can bite when provoked, dogs can't tell you when their having a bad day or have a short fuse etc, why leave it to chance and think any dog will never bite?

They say any human can kill, and we all know that every human lashes out at some point in their life, I dont see why certain dog owners think "their" dogs are somehow exempt from being a dog and therefore being a potential danger.

dogs should never be left on their own with babies and young children,from the smallest to the largest breed.some people treat their dogs like children but from day one the dog should be taught its place in the family,ater all it is a pack animal and needs to know its place.

A number of recent cases of family dogs attacking children have been when the child is being babysat by grand parents. Unless the grandparents live with the family then the dog won't see them as a pack member, so it's all very well the dog owner saying the dog has never been seen acting aggressively because the dog won't do it in front of the owner (the alpha male if you like). Once the dog owner leaves the house then the dog's position in the household changes and so it may become aggressive out of stress or in a bid to be in charge. Until dog owners work that out and stop pretending they have no primal instincts left then these tragedies will continue to happen.

6 fatal dog attacks and 6 remarkably similar circumstances – attacks ALL happened at the location where the dog lived (dog’s family home) and in ALL cases the owner of the dog was NOT present at the time of the attack taking place.
If you were to ask me whether I thought it’d be OK for me to go out and leave my dogs in the care of someone who wasn’t their owner whilst children would be present, I’d say no. Conclusively no. No. No. Not happening.
What is missing is education and awareness. A distinct lack of understanding as to the risks associated with unattended dogs, children and an owner not present.

Whilst we have constant debates about so-called ’status dogs’ and trying to define a breed as being dangerous based entirely on what that breed happens to look like or who its parents were, we can – tragically – expect more of the same. More deaths, more ignorance – and that’s ignorance condoned by the Government.
As a nation, we must surely accept that we would ALL be better off if dog owners were more dog aware.
Not *some* owners. Not certain *types* of owners or owners of certain *types* of dogs, all dog owners. If all dog owners knew more about dogs and what makes dogs dogs, we’d benefit. All of us. Dog owner or not.
What we have here is a people problem, not a dog problem. People who are not fully aware of how dogs brains work.
Dogs CAN grow up with children and be an exceptionally positive influence on youngsters, but a simple lack of awareness about what circumstances can lead to tragedies as a result of dogs doing what dogs are capable of doing is what’s costing youngsters their very existence on this planet and it is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
Our current law doesn’t work.

The question is, will the Government be intelligent enough to recognise that fiddling around the edges of a bad law will not provide the answers we need? That focussing on ‘types’ of owners or dogs won’t prevent deaths? Or that the problem of ‘killer’ dogs is by no means confined to the mean streets of the UK, but – in fact – is most likely to manifest itself in a family home with a family dog, being cared for by grandma whilst the dog owner happens to be somewhere else.

This isn’t what we *think* might be true. This is what we KNOW to be true.

No breed bans.
No BSL.
No BS!
Education is the answer.

I read that myself on K9, but surely they mean some breeds of dogs shouldn't be left alone with children, after all i feel perfectly happy to let my young niece and nephew play alone with their Shitzu, they may one day get a nip, who knows, but there not likely to be killed by him.

NO dogs should be left alone with a child bert!
why even risk the kids being nipped by the dog anyway?

The thing is Tilly, there will never ever be a time when children and their dogs will never be alone together, that really is wishful thinking, I could never imagine that ever happening, its just not possible. Of course children shouldn't be left in charge of powerful dogs or i suppose any dog for that matter for long periods of time, but supervising children and dogs at all times is not going to happen.

i remember back in the 80s, i had a border collie used to take him to birkenhead park. he used to play with a german shepperd bitch. didnt see them for a while then saw him with a new dog.iasked where his dog was and hed had to have her put to sleep because she attacked an elderly labrador they had causing nasty wounds to it. he was grateful his grandkids werent there that day.