[derekgas]

Originally Posted by West Ender

I'm only going to repeat what I said in another thread some time ago. I have had dogs all my life, well trained, sociable dogs. I love dogs and I understand them and what I understand most is they are dogs.

Dogs may seem human in their habits and temperaments. They may understand "every word we say" and they may be "one of the family" but a dog is a dog. He's a pack animal and he has to have a leader. He will find his own position in the pack, and that should be at the bottom, but a very small child can't dominate him. It doesn't matter what breed the dog is, large or small. His instinct says there is someone smaller and weaker than him and, usually, that pack member needs to be protected but canine nature sometimes get it wrong and he will turn. He's not evil, unless he's been encouraged to be, he's behaving naturally. He's not a human being, he's a dog.

This story is so sad, so preventable and so inevitably going to happen again.

Well said, almost poetic!