13-Year Old Killed In New Jersey Dog Attack
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Dogs are truly man’s best friend, except when they aren’t, as in the case of the two 13-year-old boys walking past a house in middle-class Paterson, NJ, when a 115-pound bull mastiff named Trigger escaped his fenced yard and attacked, killing one boy and hurting the other—and now neighbors tell the Star-Ledger they’d feared Trigger for more than a year.
“It’s nothing to play with. It’s like a miniature horse,” says one retired police officer, who adds that the dog attacked a teenager last year. Another neighbor says she had called the police twice before when the dog jumped the fence and escaped, sometimes entering other neighborhood yards and barking in a threatening way.
Neighbors say local kids sometimes taunted the dog, trying to provoke it into jumping the fence, but it’s not clear if that’s what happened in this instance. The boys who were attacked ran in different directions, and a couple out for a walk ran into the surviving teen, who was bleeding from his hand and “running. He was scared,” says the man.
Later, the boy went out with a search party looking for his friend. Kenneth Santillan’s body wasn’t found until almost midnight, in an icy stream. Coincidentally, the dog’s owner, Paul Clarke, was also bitten while stabbing the animal in an attempt subdue it, his wife tells the New York Post. It’s not clear exactly what happened to prompt that attack.
The dog was ultimately euthanized and Clarke may still face charges.
It’s unusual for a dog to attack without provocation or a history of some form of abuse, as is possible here. If the unfortunate boys taunted the dog often enough the animal would view them as a threat. By the same token it’s unknown if the owner of the dog had abused it or trained it to attack people. In any case one young boy is dead and we don’t yet know the full story.
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Charles, I am afraid you are wrong friend. There times when a dog, like a human, acts before it thinks or realizes it has acted out of instinct. My Rascal is treated better than most humans. In fact, when I die I would like to come back as him if I could have me and Shirley as owners. But, he does red zone when someone rings our door bell and has done it since the day we decided to keep him. He only does this toward people, especially males. When he is red zoning he does not recognize me and will turn and snap at me until I can break his focus. Once I break his focus he is OK. Never forget that at his core a dog is an animal capable of ripping you to pieces but like people has learned to control it.
Coincidentally enough, only two nights ago, I was bitten by our elderly, blind Yorkie. He has always slept on the floor and anywhere he chooses. When walking around in the dark, I will shuffle gently in case he is in my path. Usually, I will nudge him and he’ll wake up enough to know it’s me. I’ll pet him and slide him out of the way or step over him.
That night he awoke frightened and bite my big toe but not hard enough to break the skin, I tried to pet him and let him know it was me and he bit my finger hard enough to draw a lot of blood. I dripped on the floor into the bathroom, into the sink and ran enough water on it to fill a coffee pot. Fortunately, I had a cotton ball handy and managed to stop the flow. A band aid later, all was well.
By then, Kiko was back to sleep. That’s more than could be said for the rest of us.
Any dog will bite anyone if suddenly frightened. That’s a natural defense reaction for them. Maybe I should get some of those slippers with lights in the toes?
James I’m sorry to hear that. Older dogs, especially those who have lost their vision, are nervous all of the time, and as a result they may bite when startled, which apparently is what happened with Kiko. Good idea on the slippers 🙂
No dog would bite you for something like that. What have you been doing to this poor dog? He is obviously terrified of you. What have you done to him?
It depends on what you call provocation, but in general that is correct. However:
— Some dogs are bred to chase running animals, be protective of their home, feel threatened in confined spaces, etc. This behavior can be minimized if the owners invest in training and the dogs are generally pretty safe. Just like people.
— Most dogs will lash out if in extreme pain and there isn’t much you can do to train that out. It is just part of the dog’s personailty. This is sometimes why shooting, beating, or stabbing them during the fight only makes it worse.
— Some breeds will pick up on fear and that can amplifiy their actions.
— Some dogs actually don’t get provoked. They will run away first, so provocation isn’t always a trigger.
— Some inbred or violently trained dogs aren’t trainable to be safe.
Like humans it depends on the dog and how humans treat the dog. Here it looks like there may have been provocation and also not enough traininig by the owner. Almost all dogs can be trained so they are safe around humans. That goes for everything from a pit bull to a puppy. In 99.9% of the cases, it is the human that is the problem.
Jack you are correct in all your points, and I would like to add one more: don’t try to break up a dog fight with your bare hands, or any part of your body. Frightened and defensive dogs are capable of lashing out without thinking.
I’ve been around dogs all my life and I never knew one to attack without provocation.