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BITE: Where responsibility lies

| September 26, 2010 10:00 PM

To the girl's grandmother, although it is a shame what happened to your grandaughter (deepest sympathies to her as I was bitten in the face as a young girl as well) you need to look at who is really to blame.

First, her parents for not teaching her to never approach a strange animal without them near.

Two, Audrey's parents for also not teaching her to never approach or touch strange animals without them near. Three, Jordyn's parents again for allowing her to go to the park where she was clearly not being supervised by a responsible adult but a child.

Four, the CARETAKERS, not the owners, of the dog for bringing it to a no dog park and further more for allowing children to try and pet the dog without being right with them or knowing for sure that the dog was safe with children.

Five, the dog owners for not choosing someone more responsible to care for their dog in their absence.

And finally, six, the city of Hayden and all cities in Kootenai County who have made the sad choice of making all parks No Dog parks. With all these No Dog parks and no dog area available for residents who pay their taxes to keep these parks open, what is a dog owner to do?

The dog should not be put down as it was not in the care of the owners and was startled into biting and did not attack. Since no responsible adults witnessed the supposed signs of aggression mentioned in the original article, they can only be taken as information given by a scared child and nothing more. To a small child, an excited jump of a tethered dog can appear as a lunge and an anxious tongue can appear as a nip. Without a responsible witness, the dog's life should not be in question. Charges should be on the caretakers of the dog, not the dog owner as the owner was not present. And the cities of Kootenai County need to rethink their No Dog policy at every park seeing as how this is a county filled with more dog people than not and they pay their taxes to help maintain these parks. After all, not all of us can, or have the time to, drive to the Coeur d'Alene dog park, play with our dogs, then drive all the way home after a long day at work.

In short, stop blaming everyone else. Make sure you have looked at the situation from an unbiased point of view and realize there is fault everywhere and it definately is not soley with the dog owner. Only nine comments were made on the original story, and none of them blamed your grandaughter. Again, why should they, it is the fault of the "responsible" adult who was caring for your grandaughter, not your grandaughter's, the dog, or the dog's owners who were not even there.

SARAH VALENTINI

Post Falls