Friday, January 27, 2006

PETCO Dog Attack Not The Fault Of The Store


Diane Christian knows how her daughter loves dogs. So when she saw little Danielle patting a friendly looking rottweiler in PETCO Monday afternoon, she thought nothing of it.

Then she heard a horrible sound -- a growl and the snapping of teeth -- and looked down to see 5-year-old Danielle's face covered in blood.

"It was very traumatic," said Christian, 41, of Bay Shore. "I picked her up and started running around, looking for someone to help. There was a lot of blood."

After a four-hour surgery to reattach her upper lip, Danielle is still recovering at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore. And Christian said more surgeries lie ahead.

"My child will never look the same because of this," she said.

The rottweiler was not on sale at the Bay Shore PETCO; it belonged to a shopper. PETCO has a policy of inviting animals to shop with their owners, a company spokesman said.

But Christian said letting pets interact with customers invites trouble. She's retained a lawyer, Kenneth Mollins of Melville, and plans to take legal action against the dog's owner and/or PETCO, possibly as early as today.


I don’t blame PETCO for this tragedy. This is the fault of the dog owner, who brought a dog into a public place that wasn’t good with kids. This is also NOT a Rottweiler problem. This could have happened with any breed of dog. I have seen many dogs, comprising a wide variety of breeds, that just weren’t safe with kids, and would bite them if the kids got too close.

3 comments:

Dr. Tanya Lyn March said...

I think many dogs have food issues. These kinds of stores seem ripe for this sort of thing. I have an unpredictible dog and always tell children and adults not to pet him when they ask and his body langage tells me he is affraid. He was a rescue and despite training dislikes the hand over the head pet. People do not care and try to pet him anyway.

It is not an issue if their hand is down and he can make his own choice. I also have had near misses with my child. Basically, I hate people who bring children and let them loose in dog parks but in a store I think the adult with the dog should have steped up the dog was on leash where was their eyes.

Unknown said...

My dogs were mauled in the Freeport petco yesterday by an UNLEASHED pitbull, who was taken off the leash by a store photographer. One of my dogs lost half an ear, the other gouged in the side, and I had to fight the pit bull, do I have any recourse against Petco?

Sam Basso said...

Obviously, this is my opinion, but what the law says might be completely different and often is. If anyone is an attorney out there, can you give an opinion?