It was also said the child was told to stay away from the dog by the dog's owner which the Mum denies was said. If true why did the owner take the dog into the gazebo? Where they invited in? Did they ask to borrow shade as often happens?
Like it or not we have only heard one side of the story. And no offense but it is a biased side, same as if the dog owner was on here telling their side. Emotions, understandably, are running high, every single person in the area would have heard, seen something different and all would believe they are telling the truth.
I hope the child recovers 100% physically and mentally.
Of course we don't know the whole story.
But whether or not they were invited to share the shade is not important I don't think. I may invite a person to visit my home - but if that person comes over and then beats me up with a baseball bat they can't say 'well I had her permission to be there'. Because that permission always implies a certain level of expected behaviour (in this case from the dog).
One of the sad things here is that these people are possibly friends, and it is very likely that the person was invited into the gazebo on that basis.
This thread has become quite divisive and I think that is unfortunate. I suspect it is very likely that both the mother of the young boy and the owner of the dog have followed this thread, and wisely stayed out of most of this discussion.
To both of those people I would like to say this - I really feel for both of you. You must feel awful about what has happened. I hope that you are both able to heal and move on from this awful incident. While there has been a lot of talk in here about who is considered to be at fault in some way, no-one here believes you intended what happened and deep down we all know it was an awful accident, and something that has hurt you both.
My aunt's dog attacked me quite badly many years ago. I was hospitalised, although most of my wounds were to my arms and hands (not my face - I was an adult). It caused real tension between us for many years. Then finally, years later, we talked about it. She still had the dog, but he was old by then. He still wanted to kill me, and on this particular day I was standing in her back room looking out her back window at him frothing at the mouth on a thick chain trying to break away to charge at me. I asked why she didn't put him down. She said she just couldn't do it. She loved him. She wasn't trying to defend it - just trying to explain it to me. Neither of us were angry in this conversation - I remember us both choosing our words very carefully and both being a bit nervous speaking about it so directly. It was a topic we usually avoided discussing. I rarely visited her while he was alive. But on this day I was helping her move some furniture.
I was very relieved when this dog finally died (he injured a few people in the end). I think we were all lucky the injuries weren't far worse. But I did come to realise that she deeply loved this dog, he loved her back, and she felt awful about the things he did.
She died a few years ago, and it was playing on her mind in her last hours, and she apologised to me again on her death bed. Which is just so sad really, isn't it? That it got between us all that time, and obviously played on her mind. It wasn't really her fault - it's just that it happened so fast and she couldn't stop him. In the end she did stop him (she pulled him off me with chains - no easy task) and she did the initial first aid on my hands while I cried. I'm sure she was almost as shocked as I was. I feel a lot of sympathy for her now. I don't blame myself either - it was just that's how her dog reacted and it took us both by surprise.
No-one wants their dog to hurt another person. Of course we all have responsibilities. But we are also all human.
