The family pet of 20 years bites a child, the dog has health issues and the child hit a "painful" spot, do you put the dog down or?

That is a tough situation and I guess it would depend on the severity of the child’s injury. If there was severe bleeding involved, a life-altering scar resulted from the bite, the dog attacked the child, or the dog tried to bite the child in vulnerable spots, such as the throat, then yes, I would opt for having the family pet of 20 years put to sleep. The pet would be very old and as many dogs become rather cranky as they age, I would have no reassurance that a similar incidence would not happen again in the future.

And if the dog attacked again and my child were seriously injured the second time around, I would never forgive myself for having allowed my child to remain within a dangerous situation. Of course, if the dog simply snapped at the child and gave a previous warning growl, it is likely an indication that my child has taken his actions towards the dog too far (maybe he tugged at his ear, kicked him, or petted him in a place the dog did not like being touched at). In this case I would tend to my child’s slight injury, put ice or a bandage over the sore spot after properly cleaning the area of contact, and talk to my child about proper behavior towards the dog.

I would likely try to keep my child away from this dog and depending on my child’s age, would keep a closer eye on my child. However, if this dog were living with me, I would likely try to ask another family member whom the dog is familiar with to adopt the dog, as I would not desire to have the dog around in our household if it places my child in danger. I cannot be with my child during every second of the day, and sometimes it takes only a fraction of a second for an accident to happen.

I could not take this risk, since although I am an animal lover and would feel horrible about having to give up my dog, my child’s safety and wellbeing outranks that of the dog.

My thought would be more so looking at the child (age & exposure to pet has a huge weight on this as well) and why they would have hit that spot on the pet. I think it would be wrong to put a pet down for this reason but if it happens again or if the incident occurred with the pet being unprovoked then that would be different also.

Of course not -- it's called self-defenseÂ! And every creature has a God given right to defend itself within reason. Did the dog try to seriously maul the child?

By your description, it does not sound like it. The dog simply set some boundaries the only way he/she knew how -- by giving the child a 'warning bite'. After all, the dog ( and most animals ) can't communicate a boundary in much of any other way.

Animals are living creatures with the ability to feel happy or sad, feel pleasure or pain; most have dreams when they sleep; and even the least intelligent of them can learn and grow from their experiences. They aren't objects to be disposed of or abandoned when they become an inconvenience. If you have adopted an animal, that animal is part of your family and should be treated with love, respect and kindness.

If your son or daughter hit someone else's injured body part, would you scold the injured person for being hit, or the child for being so careless as to aggravate someone else's injuryÂ? In this case, it sounds as if the child's actions are in need of correction, not the dog's.

Well, first off, a 20 year old dog would be very unusual in its longevity and is likely extremely old. That aside, if a dog reacts to being hit by biting, that would not be justification in my opinion to put it down, unless required by law. Assuming the parents of the child don't press for the dog to be put down (or at least are not successful in pressing the issue legally), I'd suggest the following course of action.1.Do not punish the dog at all.

It would not understand why it is being punished which would make it more likely to act out than not.2. Prevent small children from approaching the dog from that point on, and if that's not possible, at least make sure there are adults providing close supervision.3. When it is unavoidable to have children around the dog, and possibly as a means to defuse the parents' possible anger and pressure (if any) to kill the dog, train the dog to accept a muzzle.

By muzzling the dog when it is near children, you prevent the dog from successfully biting, but it can still hit someone with its muzzle to protect itself to some extent. This might cause a bruise, but will not likely cause any significant damage.

20 years is super old for a dog! So many times we insist that dogs shouldnt bite people no matter what, but then we wonder why some put up with abuse and fail to realize that we contradict ourselves all the time. If the child hit the dog, it would be no different than if the child hit another child, or adult.

We would want that child to be "taught" not to do it. A dogs only way of teaching the kid not to hit it is to bite. The dog reacted naturally.

If the dog bit for no reason that is entirely different,or if the bite was an all out attack. But in this case I would excuse the actions entirely and know that the child did something wrong. I would try to make sure the dog has places in the home it can go to get away from the kid (a crate perhaps, or other room).

I would look into getting medical care for the dogs aches and pains... but above all I would make sure the kid did not do this again! Mostly I would be amazed at the age of the dog. I would euthanize if the dog was in such pain and discomfort that its life was not enjoyable.

That is a tough situation and I guess it would depend on the severity of the child’s injury. If there was severe bleeding involved, a life-altering scar resulted from the bite, the dog attacked the child, or the dog tried to bite the child in vulnerable spots, such as the throat, then yes, I would opt for having the family pet of 20 years put to sleep. The pet would be very old and as many dogs become rather cranky as they age, I would have no reassurance that a similar incidence would not happen again in the future.

And if the dog attacked again and my child were seriously injured the second time around, I would never forgive myself for having allowed my child to remain within a dangerous situation. Of course, if the dog simply snapped at the child and gave a previous warning growl, it is likely an indication that my child has taken his actions towards the dog too far (maybe he tugged at his ear, kicked him, or petted him in a place the dog did not like being touched at). In this case I would tend to my child’s slight injury, put ice or a bandage over the sore spot after properly cleaning the area of contact, and talk to my child about proper behavior towards the dog.

I would likely try to keep my child away from this dog and depending on my child’s age, would keep a closer eye on my child. However, if this dog were living with me, I would likely try to ask another family member whom the dog is familiar with to adopt the dog, as I would not desire to have the dog around in our household if it places my child in danger. I cannot be with my child during every second of the day, and sometimes it takes only a fraction of a second for an accident to happen.

I could not take this risk, since although I am an animal lover and would feel horrible about having to give up my dog, my child’s safety and wellbeing outranks that of the dog.

Of course not -- it's called self-defense! And every creature has a God given right to defend itself within reason. Did the dog try to seriously maul the child?

By your description, it does not sound like it. The dog simply set some boundaries the only way he/she knew how -- by giving the child a 'warning bite'. After all, the dog ( and most animals ) can't communicate a boundary in much of any other way.

Animals are living creatures with the ability to feel happy or sad, feel pleasure or pain; most have dreams when they sleep; and even the least intelligent of them can learn and grow from their experiences. They aren't objects to be disposed of or abandoned when they become an inconvenience. If you have adopted an animal, that animal is part of your family and should be treated with love, respect and kindness.

If your son or daughter hit someone else's injured body part, would you scold the injured person for being hit, or the child for being so careless as to aggravate someone else's injury? In this case, it sounds as if the child's actions are in need of correction, not the dog's.

Well, first off, a 20 year old dog would be very unusual in its longevity and is likely extremely old. That aside, if a dog reacts to being hit by biting, that would not be justification in my opinion to put it down, unless required by law. Assuming the parents of the child don't press for the dog to be put down (or at least are not successful in pressing the issue legally), I'd suggest the following course of action.

1. Do not punish the dog at all. It would not understand why it is being punished which would make it more likely to act out than not.

2. Prevent small children from approaching the dog from that point on, and if that's not possible, at least make sure there are adults providing close supervision. 3.

When it is unavoidable to have children around the dog, and possibly as a means to defuse the parents' possible anger and pressure (if any) to kill the dog, train the dog to accept a muzzle. By muzzling the dog when it is near children, you prevent the dog from successfully biting, but it can still hit someone with its muzzle to protect itself to some extent. This might cause a bruise, but will not likely cause any significant damage.

I would not put a dog down no matter how old it was. I would be willing to muzzle the dog in public, and keep kids out of my house, but I see no reason to kill a dog because it doesn't like children or doesn't respond well to a kid whacking it in the face or whatever happened. So long as the dog was okay around me and the other adults in my home, I would keep the dog.

Children need to learn not to approach strange dogs, and how to interact with dogs that they do approach. If the child was doing everything right, however, and it was just a freak reaction from the dog, I would just consider that all the more reason to keep the dog, as the odds of recurrence would be pretty low. Personally, I think that so long as an animal is confined to a private residence, it shouldn't be anyone else's business.

In California, if my dog bit a child hard enough to cause injury, not only would the dog probably have to be put down, but my homeowner's insurance would pay the child's family the limit of their liability insurance also, in hopes that they didn't take my house. In California, there is a strict liability law on dog bites. When I was a claims adjuster I paid out more than two million dollars in liability awards to the families of dog bite victims.

None of them were seriously injured.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.