4 year old girl attacked by customs dog at IAD

[KBUF]

DULLES, Va. (WUSA) -- Dulles Airport and Customs officials have confirmed a Customs and Border Protection K-9 in training attacked a 4-year-old girl just after 12 p.m. Thursday at Dulles International Airport.
The child was there with her mother and a younger sibling picking up a friend coming from Argentina.

Officials have not yet confirmed why the dog attacked the child, but she was bitten once and received a cut that was a half inch deep and two inches wide.
The child's grandmother tells 9NEWS NOW the dog bit the girl just under her pelvis and refused to let her go. The dog would not release her, even as the handler gave the command to release.
As her mother tried to intervene, she received numerous bites to her hand.
The dog was eventually subdued by its handler, and the girl was transported to Reston Hospital in serious condition.
9NEWS NOW has learned she has received more than 20 stitches to her mid section as a result of the attack.

http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=97332

That family should definitely sue the pants off of IAD and the TSA. Poor girl.

[Airfoilsguy]

Wow, never hear of this type of thing before.

[saupatel]

Thats weird. Maybe they mistakenly trained the dog to identify candy instead of drugs. I can almost feel a law suit coming out of this one.

good luck getting out of this one IAD and TSA

[Cargo Runner]

First of all the dog should be destroyed, put down because once it bites it will bite again, so the family should keep at this angle and then get the law case going.... hope the little girl makes a full recovery, mentally and physically.

[Rtyrpics]

You can tell you lot are American, seen as whenever there's a slight issue the dollar signs start spinning, and the only word you seem to know 'sue'. GROW UP.
If I was the mother, I'd be concerned about what my daughter was doing to attract the attention of a security forces dog.
As far as the girl making a recovery it's very tragic, however nothing she shouldn't get over in a month or so.
There will have been a reason the dog attacked her, but notice the press seems to have omitted that part.
A few words from those who live in the real world.
RT

[brianw999]

I don't understand why they are using Alsation type dogs for drug, explosives and/or weapons detection. Why use an animal with a breed history of attack tendencies when a Spaniel, Labrador or Retriever does just the same job just as well and are all breeds with a historically placid nature.

Male macho "look at me, I'm a nasty bastard with this dog" attitude possibly ?

[xspeedy]

Shouldn't the dogs be muzzled if they are only sniffer dogs? They aren't used for attack, so why not some sort of muzzle to prevent such situations as rare as they might be?

[leon]

You can tell you lot are American, seen as whenever there's a slight issue the dollar signs start spinning, and the only word you seem to know 'sue'. GROW UP.
If I was the mother, I'd be concerned about what my daughter was doing to attract the attention of a security forces dog.
As far as the girl making a recovery it's very tragic, however nothing she shouldn't get over in a month or so.
There will have been a reason the dog attacked her, but notice the press seems to have omitted that part.
A few words from those who live in the real world.
RT

my sister was bitten in a minor way by a dog (hunting beagle), and a year later she is still afraid of dogs. it doesn't matter what the kid was doing, as it is the dog handler's responsibility to control the beast and the situation...and there is NOTHING a 4 year old should have been able to do to invoke this type of behaviour in an animal that will be used in an area with hundreds of people ranging from zero years old to 100 years old. if the handler cannot control the beast, they should be removed from duty. the animal needs to be put down, that is for sure. of course there must be a lawsuit, as it is obvious that this animal and the handler (who it says was in training) were not capable of being in that situation. i hope the family gets piles of money, and i hope the lawyers make piles of money and i hope that a lesson is learned and that it is not repeated.

i live in the real world, and i don't agree with you at all

leo

[Rtyrpics]

my sister was bitten in a minor way by a dog (hunting beagle), and a year later she is still afraid of dogs. it doesn't matter what the kid was doing, as it is the dog handler's responsibility to control the beast and the situation...and there is NOTHING a 4 year old should have been able to do to invoke this type of behaviour in an animal that will be used in an area with hundreds of people ranging from zero years old to 100 years old. if the handler cannot control the beast, they should be removed from duty. the animal needs to be put down, that is for sure. of course there must be a lawsuit, as it is obvious that this animal and the handler (who it says was in training) were not capable of being in that situation. i hope the family gets piles of money, and i hope the lawyers make piles of money and i hope that a lesson is learned and that it is not repeated.

i live in the real world, and i don't agree with you at all

leo

SO sueing each other makes everything better? Does it, oh forgot your American in which case you can't handle the real world.
The dog should be destroyed I agree, however the handler is not entirely at fault, dogs are WILD animals and never can completely tamed.
I hope to god a judge tells them to grow up if it goes to a law suit.
RT

[Rtyrpics]

The dog will almost certainly be put down, and airport security will almost certainly lose the inevitable liability suit filed against them. Umm, that is the real world. The trainer was solely responsible for the actions of his dog, while a 4-year-old has no responsibility in this whatsoever. The argument of Well, that's life, it's a wild animal, the girl was probably teasing it, what do you expect? is outlandish. This girl was in serious condition after an apparently vicious attack by a supposedly trained dog. That is not an acceptable risk one takes when going through security. I'm not a fan of our overly litigious society, either, but I'm also not a fan of the attitude that no one has to take responsibility for anything, and failing to protect innocent people as a result.

Security dogs are not play animals like my Jack Russell, or your or the neighbors dogs. There sole purpose of the dog is to protect people, they are not for stroking, petting whatever.
In reality people sue each other usually because the person making the law suit is in the wrong and want's to hide it under someone elses mistake.

I struggle to believe a dog just though "I know I'll attack her" dogs don't have that conciseness. They don't attack for no reason, my dog doesn't bark for the fun of it. The girl will have in some provoked or attracted the attention of the dog in an unsavory way. As an example if you stick your hand through the cat flap in my house you'd expect my dog to stick his snout in. Same here play fetch with a security dog, it won't impress it.

Still, no one has answered the question, "why do Americans sue each other instead of deal with things, money DOES NOT make the situation go away, I would say it drags it out beyond compare."
RT

[Rtyrpics]

People like me understand that this incident is a complete cock up somewhere along the line, the dog and the girl, we will never know quiet what happened there. I agree that the dog should have being able to rise above the provocation but if i poked in the eye a dozen times your bound to get annoyed. (I'm not saying that did happen, but it highlights the scene).

Sueing to me is just out wright pathetic and is a way for people not to accept their part in the incident instead it's about how can I boost the bank balance. That's what I don't agree with.

We could sue each other every minute of every day, but we don't because we more important things to do.

Would sueinng the security forces, make it safer in future, I doubt it to be honest. Meanwhile saying to the force "your dog attacked my child, wouldn't it be advisable to set up control measures to make sure it wont happen again" Instead these people will tie the forces up in red tape so instead of them being able to avoid a repetition they have to work to protect their identity in the public eye.

RT

[leon]

SO sueing each other makes everything better? Does it, oh forgot your American in which case you can't handle the real world.
The dog should be destroyed I agree, however the handler is not entirely at fault, dogs are WILD animals and never can completely tamed.
I hope to god a judge tells them to grow up if it goes to a law suit.
RT

so i'm American, eh?

now how did you come exactly to that pearl of wisdom?

leo

[Gabriel]

In my last trip to the US, I and my luggage were sniffed by afunny and tiny cute doggy that I don't think was of any particular breed to begin with.

[leon]

Leon don't you know you are an American?

Are you another poorly educated bigoted Canadian that thinks there is only one definition to the word American? Perhaps Rtyrpics was falsely assuming that you were a US resident. You are an American; as one of the definitions of American, can be anybody or anything on or from the south or north American continents.


There are two main definitions of the word American.:

1) The scientific broad geographic definition of American pertains to the North and South American continents.

2) The nationalistic definition of the word American is an inhabitant or resident of the US.

I suspect Rtyrpics was probably referring American in the context of "US resident" (nationality) however he may very well have meant it in a context of "North America" (geography/continental) as I think Canadians are almost as much sue happy/crazy as US residents.

clutching at straws i see. you are so smart.

first you give me a definition i already know, then you go on to dictate to me that riddlemediddle was talking about the USofA. sit right on the fence and keep all possibilities open. yawn. of course he was talking about the USofA. you know it. i know it. riddlemediddle knows it.

i find that usually someone who starts with an attack to the person is the poorly educated one. so, i will forgive you for your ignorance, for you know not what you do.

leo

[Airfoilsguy]

SO sueing each other makes everything better? Does it, oh forgot your American in which case you can't handle the real world.
The dog should be destroyed I agree, however the handler is not entirely at fault, dogs are WILD animals and never can completely tamed.
I hope to god a judge tells them to grow up if it goes to a law suit.
RT