I have a scar on my neck(back right side) from being attacked by a Rottweiler. I was 5, I remember the dog coming after me, and then I remember laying on my grandma's couch with a compress on my neck. Don't know why I wasn't taken to the hospital and don't know what happened to that dog. I am terrified of Rottweilers to this day. I do not blame you for shooting the dog.
It would have been a miracle if you *werent* scared of rotties after an attack like that. Honestly you should have been in the ER.
I was like 6 or 7 when my grandmas old yorkie bit my hand for trying to take my barbie back after giving it to the dog. I was scared of the little thing until the day it died.
OP´s poor daughter will probably fear dogs for a long time and her own mom isn't exactly helping.
My mom was attacked by a dog when she was younger and her fear was so great that both my brother and I were terrified of dogs growing up. I don’t even remember her talking enough but it was enough to make me feel like every dog wanted to kill me.
My dad was bringing me to school with his bicycle and for some reason a dog charged after us and bit him in the leg. He got cleared but that was a bit terrifying, not to mention that there are a lot of stray dogs where I’m from. I think I’m getting better at seeing that not all dogs want to attack me but idk
Family member was mauled by a golden retriever (no I'm not kidding). He had a ton of damage, multiple surgeries, and so many stitches. He now has a golden. I've never figured out how he wasn't perpetually terrified of them after that.
I have a family member who was attacked by a golden retriever. I knew from the 1st time I saw it as a puppy that something was different with it. Some dogs are just wired wrong.
My aunt has three German shepards. First one has dog PTSD from getting pelted with rocks by school kids as a puppy, she cannot handle kids now. Older kids she'll tolerate and teenagers she'll actively hang out with, but little kids she'll growl and bark at. My mom, as much as she loves her sister, is legitimately afraid of the dog when it comes to young kids. Now that me and my sister are older and Zelda (the dog) is more calm with us, going to me for pets or to be let out and letting my sister sit near her, she's more calm but still wary. The second one, Ganon, is crazy. He was impossible to train so now he runs around all the time trying to get people to play while still not understanding that he is *very* strong. He doesn't hold back with how rough he is, jumping up on people and easily knocking people down because he's using the same strength he'd use with another dog. Because he's an adult he's stronger than the average person.
Not making excuses for him either, he doesn't try to actively attack you he's just untrained and crazy. Though with other animals tbats a different story. He'll actively attack the chickens on the ranch, wheras Zelda doesn't and knows not to do that. However the third dog makes him look like an average well-behaved dog.
The third dog is named Beedle. And i swear that dog is out for blood. He's killed countless chickens on the ranch and if I remember correctly, a few barn cats too. He'll come up to people while they're sitting in the living room and bite them if any part of their body is hanging off the side of the couch / bean bag. I used tk sleep on the bean bag and he'd come up to me and bite my arm if it was dangling off the side. And he'd bite *hard.* so not a playful nip, or a frenchie bite gone wrong. It'd be a *bite* bite.
My mom and aunt would have to yell at him to cut it out and he was rarely allowed near people. If he wasn't in his kennel he was out in the backyard. And that was all as a puppy.
Nowadays he and Ganon have a large pen that they stay in during the day. It's quite big and is about the size of a normal backyard and has toys for them, there's a doghouse for them to hide under if it starts to rain or to sleep in, it's set up more like a doggy play pen than a regular cage basically. If you saw it you'd probably think it was set up because the ranch is so big and has no fencing away from the road and was made so they can play outside and go potty without the risk of them running into the road, or attacking a chicken since they're free-roam.
But NOPE. Its so that they can't attack people or ANY other animal. Because people are always in and out of the two houses on the property, usually to care for the animals because there are SO many. And with the goats, if they have any babies you need to socialize them. Cats basically spawn on the ranch too so looking around to see if some showed up is basically a daily thing. There's a TON of chickens and they lay eggs EVERYWHERE. One of them uses a box of nails as her nest so when it's time to collect the eggs you're out there for a LONG time trying to figure out where they are.
Wild.
We had a golden retriever. Was a great dog. Friendly as hell. Suddenly one day he went after the mail carrier. The same one who had pet him and delivered mail to us for several years. Of course we apologized and I know my parents gave him something but not what. It was chaulked up to very weird circumstances. About a year later he suddenly took off out of the yard, ran across the neighbor’s yard and viciously attacked our neighbor two houses down. She was 70 and in bad health and just came out of her door. The bite wasn’t bad but it was. She was in bad health and so it didn’t heal properly or quickly and limited what little mobility she had. Needless to say, there was no discussion. Dog was put down.
My father's dog bit my face after I pulled her whiskers as a toddler. After getting treated, my parents went to take me to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and I wandered off to pet a stray dog. I still have the scar on my face and adore dogs.
I had a dog go after me when I was around 7 (luckily didn’t do any real damage) who had bitten people before and I think was euthanized later on for a much more serious attack. His name was Gunner.
But the attack didn’t translate to how I felt about any other dog because he wasn’t like any other dog; he was “Gunner the Randomly Violent Asshole” in a category of 1. Although again, it wasn’t severe like your family members’… but possibly he has some kind of similar internal category that considers his attacker to be a non-standard malicious entity?
When I was 1 the neighbors cocker spaniel attacked me in my driveway. Ripped my cheek almost off and just missed my eye. My parents called the owner and she came and looked at me and my parents said she flipped out and went and put the dog to sleep that same day.
My mom was attacked by a Chihuahua mix when she was very young (I'm not sure how old.) My mom and her older sister were playing with it, it was their uncle's dog. They would toss it a ball, and it would roll the ball back to them. One time it didn't roll the ball back. My aunt told my mom to go get it. She did, it was right in front of the dog. She bent down and got it. Looked up at the dog, and it ripped her upper lip almost all the way off. It was only hanging on by a sliver. My mom doesn't remember a lot after that. Her mom holding a few different dishtowels to her face to try to stop the bleeding as they rushed her to the hospital. By the time they got back to her uncle's house, he had already taken the dog to the vet and put it down. He loved that dog, but he wasn't going to have anything that was going to hurt a kid around. To be fair the dog was older, and had snarled at them a few times but there was no warning this time. My mom's now in her 60s, she isn't really afraid of dogs anymore but she won't let one around her face. Her lip has a very visible scar, and you can tell there was a lot of damage there.
NTA OP. You did what was right. Your kid always comes first. If you didn't do what you had to, who knows what would have happened next time. Your daughter could have been hospitalized or worse.
I was attacked by a German shepherd at a softball game once. It was a friend of mine's dog. I literally just walked by and it growled and immediately latched onto my thigh through my jeans. Ripped my favorite jeans. I was in my twenties and I still dont go near German shepherds. And I'm a huge dog lover. I'd be surprised more if you told me you weren't traumatized and scared of Rottweilers
My sister suffered a dog attack at age 5. She nearly lost her ear and had puncture wounds in her neck that could have been life threatening if not for having gotten the dog off her quickly..
I knew a woman who was mauled by a doberman. Lost the use of her right hand. Dog literally ripped the muscles out of her forearm. She was permanently disabled by the attack.
OP did the right thing. The dog attacked his child. Had he not used lethal force, the results might have been fatal. Why would you want to keep a dog that attacked your child anyway?
I worked at a children’s hospital. Do not Google it, but facial degloving is one of those injuries that stays with you. I hate guns. I hate animal injury and death. OP made the right call. I may lift the “do not google” restriction for OP’s wife.
When I was a toddler (1993/94) my parents took me to a family friend's house (a couple) & their dog just had puppies. The wife let me hold a puppy & when no one was looking, I went to put the puppy back. The moment I placed the puppy down - momma dog bit my face. She took a strip of skin from a corner of my face across my nose & lips down to my chin in a perpendicular line. You can't tell now except for a scar on my lip.
Obviously, everyone was upset about the situation & my parents rushed me to the hospital. In Oklahoma you're required by law to say whose dog bit you. My mom told them.
The next day the family friends called to check in & asked if my mom told them whose dog bit me. My mom told them she told them. Suddenly the best friends they knew turned on them.
At the time this couple didn't have children, they do now. & the wife said, "This dog is my baby. If they take her away. Don't leave your daughter outside."
The friendship ended.
Then when I was 8/9 yrs old. I was riding my bike & the local menace dog (golden retriever) that was known to attack & wander the neighborhood - attacked me. My dad who hates violence, couldn't even spank me growing up, came running when he heard me scream & stomped so hard he caved the dogs head in.
Cue the dogs owner who came running & tried to fight my dad for killing their dog. While one of my ankles is lodged in my bike & my other ankle is profusely bleeding from the bite.
As an avid animal lover & caretaker myself, but as a mother - I will put an end to any animal that harms my children.
I am a person that loves my pets more than pretty much the life of any random stranger. I would also personally put down any one of them that viciously attacked a person, UNPROVOKED.
If someone attacked them and made the defend themselves… lets just say no one would find them again.
But the insane aholes that act like their precious baby is given more domain than someone minding their business and defending their own life in LITERALLY insane.
Worked at a plastic surgeons office for 6 months. I lost count of how many children came in the get stitches out, reconstructive surgery, etc. The damage can be horrible. I love dogs but they will always be animals when the conversation is between children or dogs. I can’t imagine how terrifying this dog attack was. A dog attacking a child should be the last thing they do.
Growing up, one of my friend's mom "collected" dogs. She has over a dozen at one point. Definitely an animal hoarder. Most were sweet and just a little nervous from the neglect they faced, but one was a wolfdog hybrid not trained properly at all and it attacked my friend and his siblings on several occasions. The final straw was when it bit one of our mutual friends in the face and destroyed the tear duct on that side. She had a huge scar too, and a lasting fear of big dogs, understandably. She was always a little strange, but a sweet girl, and after that she was never the same. Even as a child I could recognize she had massive emotional trauma well after she healed physically (as much as she could) and when I finally lost touch with the family, she was lashing out in major ways, like criminal level.
I know she likely would have tempted by that path regardless, but I truly believe that attack was the catalyst for her getting there as quickly as she did. My friend's father was a police officer, too, did not share the mother's passion for "collecting" and they ended up getting divorced not long after. He was torn up about what happened to that girl and always said he would have put the dog down had he been there, which his wife did not take kindly to.
Former long time Paramedic. I’ve seen some absolutely *horrendous* dog attacks on children (and adult for that matter) over the years and I’ve encountered two of them were fatal.
I absolutely adore dogs but the minute one attacks a person, particularly a child, I feel it’s got to be put down. Rarely are there not warning signs ahead of time.
Tom Segura the comedian does a good bit about this kind of thing. “Here’s the difference between my love for pets and my love for my children. If that dog were to hurt one of my kids I would IMMEDIATELY and without question would drown that dog.” Yep.
When I was three years old a Rottweiler ripped my ear almost off (it was hanging by the bottom of my earlobe). It was surgically put back on. But I'm afraid of Rottweilers as well.
I was playing with wooden toy cars and pretended the dog was a hill. I wasn't doing anything to the dog. I wasn't being mean to the dog like hitting it or anything. I was just playing with cars around the dog. I remember my mom was baking a cake in the kitchen. And the dog just attacked me. I might have only been 3 years old but I remember it.
I don't remember the surgery or anything. I just remember the attack. I have a scar behind my ear from it.
NTA. The worst thing is what your wife is doing to her daughter....making it seem like it's her fault by staying away. Little girl needs a discussion with her mother AND father about the incident and reassurance that none of it was her fault.
Been doing that everyday. Took some time off of work and requested for work from home for a while.
She is happy around me but will then just out of nowhere ask if mommy hates me, why isn't she home.
I have been trying and it is working but sofar every morning ahe will run into my ro and lool if my wife is back home and look so excited then her smile disappeared
I second this, I was attacked by a family members beloved dog when I was a kid, I got a lot of stitches and some permanent nerve damage. But after the stitches were out and the scars were fading, the family member began changing the story about what happened and making it out that I was hysterical and the dog was such a good boy.
The mass delusion spread from family member to family member and even though you can feel how nubbly and weird the skin on my head is where I got all those stiches ( took 2 hours for the plastic surgeon to sew me up) but as far as they are concerned nothing serious happened.
The family member was allowed to continue bringing the dog into any spaces people were at, around children, and I actually had to leave home as a teen because I could not get away from the dog. It became a power play to try and force me to pet the dog.
I have spent my whole life knowing 100% that I am less important than a dog to my entire nuclear and extended family, and that has not done well for me psychologically.
Keep on putting the kid first no matter what anyone else says and for goodness sakes, share the video, via Zoom share screen, no recording, with select family members. If you dont, the kid will start to second-guess themselves when people say shit like "there's no such thing as a bad dog, only bad people." It was a Bad Dog.
A similar thing happened with my exes family and one of the kids. The dog kept being brought along and the little girl was obviously nervous and sad about it. She still liked my dogs though which was a blessing because that shit dog tried to attack her again and my dog straight up defended her. My dog never showed any aggression to dogs or humans before but she growled a sound she never made before or after and put herself between attack dog and the child. She was less than half the size of that dog but she went wild on it. Thankfully we were all around to break it up quickly (I'd been watching close already because I hated that the dog was still around). Don't fuck with terriers, they were bred to kill and don't fuck around even if they are much smaller. The girl was never far from my dog after that, said she was her hero. That family was fucked and I'm glad to not be involved with them in any way. Shitty dog should have been put down with how aggressive it was.
That's actually affirming to hear a similar story. Thanks.
My guess is it's some kind of physical abuse control scheme, where messed up people who can't get away with beating a kid into submission use the dog as a proxy?
My wife and I were dog sitting a friend’s dog (corgi). The corgi’s a bit of a shit and broke every rule my dog (husky) has. The first thing it did was pee in the house and I know my dog registered it, but let it go. The second and final strike came when the corgi growled at my son, I turned to see my husky coming toward the corgi with his mouth open, he didn’t growl or bark I managed to intercept the husky. We took the corgi back that night, it brought chaos and was not worth doing the favor for her friend. Suffice it to say we’ve never dog sat for that dog again. I believe my husky would’ve killed that corgi if I hadn’t grabbed him. Moral of the story always be alert with your dogs.
I'm so sorry that happened to you and I hope you cut your family out of your life. They don't deserve you. You're valuable and matter to the people who actually love you.
Thank you, kind internet stranger! They are totally non-contact, and I have a wonderful but non-traditional life following not having the support of a nuclear family as an older kid. It is a bit weird building out an education and career without a family as a fallback, but it can be done.
The nice thing about adulting is that you can legally create a new family and have your own home that you can be in charge of. No number of "blood is thicker than water" excuses can get in the way of an established independent adult life, it's quite refreshing.
To the OP,
Also, you should send pictures of the wounds as well. Your wife must have lied to them.
Also, tell them how your daughter thinks your wife is punishing her. She weaponized her family and friends against you. You can do the same back to her. Especially contact all her friends who have kids.
The dog was going to die either way. There is no way the hospital wouldn't have reported the bites and there is no way animal control/police wouldn't have put dog down. It's not even a discussion.
Some people are just like this with dogs, see the footage and still say “well you could have done x y or z instead! Not the dogs fault!!” These are often the worst dog owners that have untrained aggressive dogs that have bitten others, which they excuse.
No. Don’t care. Don’t care who’s fault it is. Dog was lunging at kid after attacking, that must be stopped, period. Kid comes before dog always.
The only reason I don’t say this is because if they go to court and the judge sees this type of video it will look bad on OP and can sway the judge towards the mom which would be really bad in the case. She seems to have the maternal instincts of an eggplant. Totally useless to her daughter right now. Dad has to be on best behavior so he is awarded that full custody which given the circumstances should be really simple
Save the video no matter how hard it is. Also send the video to people if they still against you cut them out.
Your wife is being very callous to your daughter. You may need to divorce just to protect your daughters mental health.
the main problem is that your wife does actually hate her now and does blame her. I'm not sure how you can snap her out of it, but someone needs to seriously shake her before she scars your daughter more than her cursed dog did.
This is breaking my heart. I'm a mom and a fur-mom. This ... it just feels like she is choosing the dog over her daughter. Does she give a damn about the trauma her daughter is suffering BY HER ABSENCE AND ABANDONMENT? Damn her. I witnessed a friend mauled by a dog when I was little. I didn't start to untangle that trauma until decades later ... and my mom was the hero of the story.
>she is choosing the dog over her daughter. Does she give a damn about the trauma her daughter is suffering BY HER ABSENCE AND ABANDONMENT?
When OP divorces her, this will be the primary argument his lawyer uses to get him custody of the daughter. "The mother already abandoned her child. Who is to say she wouldn't do so again in the future? Further, if another dog attacked the child, would the mother choose the dog again, allowing it to kill the child?" I'd find that damned persuasive were I a judge.
Same. If I were the judge, she would be *lucky* to get once a week supervised visits. Her extended family would get *nothing*, except restraining orders.
NTA and I'm pretty sure that any dog that attacks children is put down so I'm sorry for the family pet but there is literally nothing else you could have done and your wife is causing your daughter more trauma it's already bad but this just makes it worse.
100% agree. The mom needs to grow the eff up. The dog could gave easily killed her child. Sure, be upset for your dog, but be fucking thankful and grateful your baby girl is ok, focus on that.
NTA. My dogs are like my children and I love them to bits, but I can absolutely say without a shadow of a doubt that if I saw one of my dogs mauling anyone, let alone my own child, I would shoot it myself. We have many tragedies every year relating to dog maulings with young children, babies, and even adults in the UK and this is not something you stop to think about. You react in the moment, and I believe your reaction was proportionate to the situation.
It's an unfortunate situation, but a dead dog is better than a dead daughter. I hope OP's wife snaps out of it soon, because she could have lost her child that day. It's also upsetting that the poor kid is traumatized and wants her mommy, but she is refusing to give her daughter comfort.
The dog didn't just do it once either, it kept trying to go after her. Once a dog snaps and locks onto a target I highly doubt anything short of lethal force would have stopped it. OP did everything right, and his wife needs to stop throwing a fit and communicate.
I keep coming back to the fact that the child had a bite on her neck. If the dog had latched there again, it could have broken her neck. This is not play aggression.
At least three separate bites that broke skin in different locations isn't play aggression either. The dog was going for the kill. The child was running away from it at the time too, so she wasn't accidentally hurting or threatening it. Maybe it triggered some kind of prey drive, but there's nothing that would count as mitigating.
I had a wolf dog a while back, his teeth were like knives. He could “bite” me and not break the skin, if he ever got too rough, would back off (on his own) and act like he was asking if I was alright.
Dogs know how to be gentle.
Or ripped an artery! Shed be dead in seconds...
He did the only right thing and wife needs to get a grip. And WTF is with the family? Collective brain damage?
Yeah, generally if a dog attacks a person, that dog would have to be euthanized according to most countries' laws.
The dog was going to die anyway. The only question is whether that would have been done after an evaluation and whether or not the kid would still be alive.
Someone needs to give her a slap back to reality. Her daughter just had a traumatic and near death experience. And her reaction and how she is handling this is very unbecoming. The lack of communication, smear campaign towards her husband who in all innocence did what he thought was right at the time to protect his daughter… The husband should just drop her like a bad habit at this point. The fact she got other people involved? Disgusts me. You don’t go out of your way to smear your husbands reputation like that.
Depending on the dog you can choke them until they pass out but if i had been in op's position i wouldnt have risked it, i wouldnt be able to trust the dog again and would have to put it down...
True how do you ever trust that dog around your child ever again after that. How do you know next time you cook dinner with your back turned the dog doesn’t try to kill your child again.
That’s what I was thinking. On top of that the mom isn’t thinking about the kid and whether a child that just got mauled would be comfortable around dogs never mind the one that attacked her.
Even if the dog is not dead, the wife will say the dog won't hurt anyone. One day, OP will see his daughter's body when he gets home. Consider this as lucky. Remove the problem once for all.
He shot the dog when it came charging back. Initially he pulled the fog off and threw it. It was attacking a second time nothing was going to stop it from continuing.
>When i try and explain my side, all i get back is im trying to justify my actions.
You aren’t trying to justify your actions - you don’t have to. Law enforcement officers already did when they came to investigate the firearm discharge & determined your actions were justified.
No one other than you, your wife & daughter were present for what happened. Yet your family members seem to be under the false impression that they have the power the deem your actions justifiable or not & that their judgement creates fact. (Otherwise they wouldn’t accuse you of trying to justify your actions when you explain what happened.) No family member’s opinion, regardless of how self important they believe themselves to be, changes facts in evidence.
You’ve been trying to explain WHY you were justified to people who weren’t even there - but seem unable &/or unwilling to believe &/or understand the reality of what happened. Their inability &/or unwillingness to AGREE with the FACT that you were justified doesn’t make it less true. Facts are facts.
>If you are interested it was 21 seconds from the dog attacking to me shooting.
That’s A LONG ASS TIME for a dog to be mauling anyone - much less a 6 year old. I cannot even imagine the terror for everyone who even witnessed it - much less your little girl.
21 seconds is more than enough time for a dog of any real size to kill a 6 year old. One puncture wound in the right place would have been all it took.
ANY - especially a supposed family member - who says you weren’t justified needs to be shown the video of the attack. Or better yet, do what I’ve seen several judges do in court - set a stopwatch for 21 seconds, tell them to close their eyes & try to imagine beating mauled by a dog & not to stop until the timer goes off. Many times that’s more impactful than even video evidence since the video playing while the 21 seconds is happening occupies the mind which makes it seem like less time than it is. Maybe after they imagine being mauled by a dog for 21 seconds, reset the stopwatch & tell them to close their eyes & try to imagine watching their 6 year old child being mauled by a dog & not to stop until the timer goes off.
If anyone - especially a family member to this child who should love & value the child’s life - can do that & still claim you weren’t justified, they need a psychiatric evaluation to determine if they’re even of sound mind. And they certainly don’t need to have anything other than supervised visitation with this (or really any) child.
NTA
NTA I WOULD SHOOT and animal that attacked my kid . Yea your wife she choosing the dog after her own daughter . Get full custody I wouldn't trust her with a kid.
I honestly wouldn’t even think twice. I would not have the mental juggling of what to do. You subdue the animal. And if they die as a result, welp. Would I be sad afterward? Oh absolutely. But I would definitely not regret it. OP didn’t think. OP didn’t have time to think. OP’s instinct kicked in and he saved his daughter in a very natural way (not the lead, I mean more primal). OP did great. NTA.
As someone who received 352 stitches from a dog attack, I wish you were around for me. Your daughter was not only saved from physical damage but major mental trauma as well.
My daughter had hundreds of stitches from a vicious dog attack too. We were in the hospital for three days and one of her eyes is permanently deformed. I’m so sorry for you and I hope that you are okay!
This was back in 1984. I was going for a walk down a back road when a dog came out of the woods and attacked me. I was trying to hold it off when I realized he had friends. The other dogs attacked me from behind. Honestly, I don't remember a whole lot except just trying to fight them off.
A farmer and his 2 sons were driving by and saved my life. I'm not sure of the events, but I know they ran over one of the dogs with his truck and ran the others off.
One of his sons ran to the closest house to call for help... no cell phones back then. ...and called for the emt's. I remember waking up on the hospital after a session of them putting me back together and they let my long time gf, now my wife, bless her, come in to see me and after a few minutes she started throwing up. I thought, ok, we are over, but she toughed it out and has been with me for 41 years.
A lot of stitches and skin grafts have done a remarkable job. I still swim with a shirt on, though, because I do get tired of people staring and the questions the more ballsy people ask.
That is my story. And no, I don't need to be part of any anti dog groups that have been messaged to me. We got a puppy for my kids when they were little, and also for me to help heal mentally. I loved that dog.
Dammmn dude. I'm glad you survived!!! And I'm sure that was a very rough recovery! But you had your now-wife by your side supporting you, that's very sweet.
And very lovely for your kids to get them a puppy. I'm sure it was hard in the beginning, but we find we can do hard things for our kids 🥲 I'm sure they were a very good dog.
Holy ship! my uncle and aunt had an illegal wolf, husky mix. It snapped at me one fine morning and ripped my lip in two and inbedded its tooth in my chin I only had 7 stitches..damn I hope you're okay. THAT animal went on to bite my little cousin in the skull fracturing her skull, we couldn't even trauma bond because it was more hellish for her. WHEN Rocky the wolf half breed jumped the new eight foot fence, they used to have a 12 foot cinderblock wall to hide all my uncles big boy toys, at 15 years old and attacked the mailman, who took years to recover, they put it down the next day. MANdatory reporting could have saved the five of us before the mailman..anyway I'm glad ur still around after that many stitches
OP needs to send the video to everyone calling him out for shooting the dog. The daughter is “OK” in hindsight, but they didn’t know at the moment if the dog had bitten anything vital. Was he supposed to spend precious moments subduing and securing a dog that had injured his daughter’s calf, shoulder and NECK?
NTA, as someone who cries when Bambi's mother dies. "when i asked her what was wrong she went off on me for shooting the dog. She asked how can i take away something that she loved."
Ask her if she'd rather her beloved dog take your daughter away from her? Dog versus child, dog wins. You did what you had to do to protect her as best you could, and she is still mentally traumatized.
This.
I'm a Mom and I'm a massive dog lover and dog owner.
If a dog attacked my children - even our beloved pet dog -- I would without question shoot the dog if I had a fire arm on me.
The dog went for your child's neck. That says everything. Had it hit her jugular... the consequences would have been catastrophic. NTA.
For anyone saying nasty things to you, send them a photo of your daughter's neck. The dog meant business. You NEVER mess with that.
As a long time dog owner and dog lover (especially of big dogs) - The going for the neck and coming back again with no retreat is what clenched it for me. The dog was dangerous.
OP is NTA for taking the actions he did.
Wife needs to do as asked and seek therapy herself and with the family if she wants a chance at being a family unit still instead of only speaking to OP through her mother & sending her flying monkeys after OP.
Good luck to OP in whatever follows.
I don't think OP can win here. If he *didn't* shoot the dog and it attacked the daughter again and did *more* damage, everyone would be accusing him of not putting his daughter's life first. But because he *did* shoot the dog everyone's accusing him of overreacting.
I hate guns. I'm in a country that has done the hard work of changing the culture around guns. To the point I've had Americans tell me my country didn't *have* a gun culture. But I've also been attacked by dogs. If I had immediate access to a gun while I or someone else were being attacked? I'd use it. It reduces the risk to everyone.
I was going to say the same thing. OP is in a no win situation right now.
In that situation it's a do or die, you don't have time to think why is the dog doing this, is he just playing, does he have rabies, whatever. You see a dog attacking someone you act.
If *my* dog attacked a child I didn't know? I would shoot the dog.
Anyone who argues to the contrary is either an unhinged lunatic divorced from morality, or they are lying and have something to gain. Do these people seriously believe that OP should have chosen a dog over his daughter, or is it more likely they're picking the 'side' of the person they prefer.
I came here to say this. I have put myself between (and kicked) moving cars for my dogs (I have two that I adore) one of them doesn’t like kids, she barks and tries to herd them - so we don’t have friends with kids over, we go to them. If one of my dogs, knowing that I would put myself at risk for them, went after a child, I would do the same. A kid comes first, always. The pain of losing a pet is extreme, they are family, so the wife’s grief is likely skewing her perspective, but man. The dog went for the kids neck, there’s no question there.
The dog didn't snap and then withdraw growling, it was mauling and trying to kill. There was no other way, not without both people sustaining a lot of bites and tears while trying to subdue the dog.
I had chills when he said the dog went for the little girl's neck. I can get the mom being traumatized by a loved pet being killed, but it was attacking her daughter. How can she not even want to see her own child?
I agree, there’s no doubt that this will be traumatizing to the daughter. But, what she knows is that her dad did save her. That can go along way in feelings of safety.
I suspect that it is easier for the mom, rather than accept that her dog - who she is responsible for - mauled and almost killed her daughter, would rather delude herself into thinking that husband is at fault in some manner. Instead of accepting ownership, since she raised the dog herself.
The thing here is regardless, that dog is being euthanised, it's dangerous and it was going to happen either way.
The downside here is having to shoot a dog in front of your daughter, but I'm sure if someone's going to that extreme they genuinely fear for her life..
I mean, I'm Australian and genuinely don't know how loud a handgun at that distance would be......but I'm assuming it's pretty fucking loud and traumatic, and regardless he just shot her dog in front of her after it mauled / betrayed her.
Gonna be fucked up for anyone.
Sure, but our brains can be pretty particular about trauma. Plus, she already has the trauma of being mauled. Seeing the dog with bullet holes will certainly not help that, but it'd still be far worse for her to see the process of the dog being shot.
Basically, she can't win here and that sucks
From what i know of something like this is reported and the dog absolutely has to be put down court ordered. It might vary state to state but an Akita bit my nephews face and they were forced to put it down after the hospital reported it. This was in California. His grandma was very upset and really didn't want to
The undeniably unacceptable behavior on wife's part is abandoning daughter. I mean, what-the-everloving-fuck?
That indicates a sense of priority that is so misplaced as to warrant losing custody. Your daughter just went through deep trauma and you're holed up somewhere else. Sorry, massive patenting fail.
right? The fact the poor kid is asking if it's her fault, if her mom is mad at her etc. is heartbreaking. That is the *last* thing this girl needs to be concerned/stressed about and adding to the trauma of this incident. It's making a situation into this whole bigger mind fuck that makes a traumatic situation to a young child that much more confusing
Srsly. He says there were teeth marks on her *neck.* I don't fucking care if the dog was "playing," the dog wouldn't stop *whatever* it was doing and that could have easily been a dead kid. An accidental death is still a death. Jeezus.
She was bloody, that’s not playing. My great pyr plays with our little dog( she lays down and little dog play fights with her big block head. 5 yrs and little dog hasn’t gotten a scratch. , not once even though little dog is the one that gets wound up more.
NTA - Your wife left her daughter without her support after a very scary attack. Apparently punishing you is more important to her than being there for your daughter.
She might even blame her own daughter for the dogs death. I know someone who to this day blames her grandmother, because she had to put down her horrible aggressive pit after that mutt ripped out a big chunk out of her grandmother's leg.. and she blamed her grandmother for the dogs death.. some dog lover are fucking idiots.
You could never have trusted that dog again.
I have a family story. When my sister was a toddler she was bitten by a dog. No one saw it happen and although my dad wanted the dog put down my mother talked him out of it. Two weeks later the dog mauled another little girl.
Don't give a dog a second chance.
I was bit when I was 4 or 5 by my uncles dog and my grandfather killed it before I made it to the Dr for stitchs.
The old man had a firm belief that the moment a dog bites someone in the family it will do it again and worse.
When I was a teenager my grandparents had a particularly feisty rooster down in their barn. He would attack anyone, so all his daughters and granddaughters learned to go down to the barnyard with a rake or broom to whack him with.
Well, my Ma was his favorite daughter, but also the slowest. One time she went down there, and missed when trying to bat him away. He got a HUGE chunk out of her leg with his spurs! Ma came back to the house all bloody and upset.
We patched her up, she was fine, mostly. We look around. Papa isn't in his chair? He comes in from the barnyard and sits down, which is odd, but whatever.
That rooster was missing from that moment forward.
Had a similar thing happen to my great grandfather. He had a big blue rooster. The story passed down says it was 2.5 feet tall. Well one day as great grandpa is doing his stuff around the coop the rooster flogged him. That night they had chicken and dumplings, a rare treat for them.
I grew up on a chicken farm. More than once we had a not so nice rooster. My mom refused to have anything in the yard that would try and hurt me. There was a really nice Hispanic family down the road who would be gifted our not so nice roosters as my mom couldn't put them down herself (she has a huge heart and killing things was always difficult for her). They were always grateful for the meat and would send us veggies from their garden as thanks.
I love dogs more than most people, but at the end of the day they are still animals. And some animals are unpredictable.
Once the trust is gone, especially with a family with little kids, there isn't much else to do. Maybe in some situations you could surrender it, but I don't know many rescues interested in that dog either.
I agree, if i didn't shoot the dog and another option was available within the time i had i would have talken it but that dog wouldn't have beem welcome in our house anymore.
This. The dog was dead in the next 72 hours regardless. A dog attacked my kid and the owner BEGGED me not to contact animal control. Of course I contacted fucking animal control, the dog ran out of the woods and jumped for a 3 year old's face snarling.
This, we have gotten to this weird point in society where this even has to be questioned? When I was a child (Gen X) a dog that attacked, was put down, no questions asked. We have gotten to this weird place where people humanize dogs and a persons dog becomes more important than other people.
My hunch is, nowadays people walk around with main character syndrome and everything about them and their life is more important than anyone else's. I have always owned dogs, and I love the one that I have now. She is very special to me, but if she was mauling a stranger, let alone my own kid she would have to be put down.
People, cannot make excuses for a dog with a propensity for viciousness as a pet. It does not work, and it unfairly burdens others with their delusion that their happiness and what they want is more important because of their belief that they are the main character.
It's a total lack of responsibility by a dog owner to do anything else. OP did the right thing, and if it were my wife, I would be taking the fight to her by saying my piece and then going radio silent until I received an apology.
This 100%. Mandatory reporters would have notified animal control and that dog was dead. Your wife has some serious issues and needs professional help.
Even if you HAD somehow separated the dog from your daughter, after reporting the dog attack at the hospital, that dog would be taken in and euthanized by the state or a vet. The dog had a death sentence the moment they attacked your daughter.
NTA. I’m a huge dog lover, and honestly I hope I never experience what you dealt with. Are YOU okay? It was a beloved member of your family I imagine it was also traumatic for you — seeing the dog attack your daughter, and then having to take the dogs life.
Please be kind to yourself too. You sound like a caring father and I know your daughter is the top priority — as she should be — but also keep an eye on yourself too.
You did the best you could with very little time to make a decision. If you had done nothing, your dog could have permanantly disfigured or even killed your daughter. I don't think your wife understands that.
yep, my gpa had a farm with chickens, pigs, a few peacocks etc.
he had 4 dogs that watched the farm and my gma got some shit stain of a dog breed to be an inside dog.. it was crazy and my gpa finally said its gatta stay outside.
it started out with it chasing the cats, then the piglets, then the baby chickens... then i killed a few adult chickens and my grandpas rule is to just kill the dog that kills chickens..gma talked him out of it.
dog attacked an adult pig, then attacked a horse. then it attacked my brother then my gpa shot it and my gma acted like he was an asshole for it
Adult pigs will chew through a penned pregnant goats stomach to EAT it's baby. Adult pigs EAT other animals and will eat eachother. Adult pigs are vicious creatures that are too heavy to care about what you want.
That dog must have been fucking INSANE to attack an adult pig and not be merked instantly and turned into lunch!?!? 😬😬😬😬 jfc, that dog's a menace! 😬😬😬😬
I was attacked by a chow when I was 5-6 that come to find out had attacked 2 kids before me and 2 more kids after me. The owners were friends of my parents. The husband wanted to do just what OP did, but the wife hid her "baby" so he couldn't be killed. She had no choice in the matter after the 5th kid was attacked by him.
NTA, my dad single handedly fought a dog off with a leash, wrapped around his fist with the metal clip part out to protect my sister and me, plus 4 other neighborhood kids who were targeted by a neighbor's dog that was known to be aggressive but they refused to do anything. I still remember all the blood on my friend and he had to have a total of 55 stitches, 23 of which were in his hand alone. The only reason Dad didn't shoot the dog was because he couldn't get inside to his handgun. After my friend was attacked, dad distracted the dog, yanked the leash from the owner when she refused to do anything and proceeded to hit it every time it lunged to attack him. He kept drawing its attention because any time one of us moved, the dog started toward us.
She did, sadly. She was walking the aggressive dog and his mom at the same time. Both of which prior to that had never been outside of their fence but a handful of times. She just kept screaming "Coal!" (Dogs name) Over and over again. It was like a fever dream; the dogs also had zero training.
That’s absolutely insane wow, good on your dad for stopping it. I saved an old lady and her dog from an attack and the owners had apparently just let their dog go roam the streets like a cat. 🙄 the idiocy of some people
It blows my mind sometimes how clueless people are. My dad would've done everything in his power to keep us safe during that. It was a wild experience.
No, but they were required to have more secure fencing. The dog got old and fat and kept escaping but was super slow. Our dog growing up hated Coal and would run him out of our yard. 😂 They moved Coal to a family member's house for several years before bringing him back. They did have to pay for the bills for the child that was attacked, though.
You either saved your daughters life or saved her from unimaginable physical pain. Furthermore, the mental damage alone is enough to fuck anyone up. A beloved pet suddenly turning and attacking is terrifying, and little kids can't process the situation correctly, so ultimately, your kid will wonder what *she* did to cause the attack.
If your daughter doesn't have **100%** support that she did nothing wrong, she will eventually blame herself. Especially with your nutjub wife mad at you for saving said daughter. And nutjob wife gets nutjob family to side with violent dog. Jfc
Absolutely NTA. Save your daughter and yourself.
I absolutely cannot understand OP’s wife AT ALL. My sister had a beloved cat for about 7 years, but when my nephew was born the cat wouldn’t play nice with him. Sister tried to safely acclimate the cat to the new home environment, but in the end had to rehome him. My nephew came as top priority, not even a question.
OP is NTA, and I know he made an edit to say his wife was concerned about their daughter, but it really seems like she’s making it known that she loved the dog more. She’s GHOSTING a CHILD over this. The mental anguish the girl gets from that on top of everything else is monstrous. I hope OP does sue for full custody. And I’m glad he has plans for therapy. Poor girl needs it. And OP needs better people around him if anyone is harassing him about protecting his daughter.
She’s probably ghosting her own daughter because she doesn’t want to see the bite marks and bruises. That will validate the reason OP shot the damn dog! In a few weeks when the marks are gone, she’ll want custody of her child.
Similar situation when my oldest brother was born. Mom and dad had a terrier that was very close to my mom. The dog did not like my brother and nipped at him a couple times. And that was that, the dog was gone. Mom loved that dog but when it came to my brothers safety it was no contest
“She asked how can I take away something that she loved”. Wow. Imagine if the dog took away HER CHILDS LIFE. Go to court. Protect your daughter. The mother seems incredibly unstable to value a dog over her own kid. What happened to your daughter and the dog is very sad. But the dog turned on her. You did what you had to do
I wrote this above, but it seems more relevant to your comment.
The only thing I can do to explain the wife’s reaction is that she blames herself for the dog’s attack and the threat to her daughter, that she is so overwhelmed with guilt and absolute fear, that she is lashing out at the husband and blaming him for killing the dog, to detach from her own horrific guilt and pain.
It does NOT make it okay that she is doing this to her husband or her daughter. One argument that got heated because of this self-protection? Fine. A week plus, and family jumping on board… unacceptable.
NTA. When I was a child my uncles dog went at me for some reason and my grandfather killed it before anyone could even think so do anything else. He always said the moment a dog acts aggressive to its family/owners it needs to be gotten rid of.
And he was an animal lover but he was also a realist. Animals are not people.
Everyone gets upset when I say "we put down aggressive dogs to weed out the aggressive genes" but its fucking true. If you kill anything that bites you, the only thing left to breed will be stock that's too timid to bite, despite having sharp teeth and the jaw strength to shatter bone.
I'm a firm believer we have dogs as "dumb" and docile as we do because we put down anything that bit or lashed out unexpectedly.
Thank your great great grandparents for doing the shitty work of killing something they loved that snapped so we rarely have to.
But yell at your neighbor because their unfixed untrained asshole dog they let run loose allover the neighborhood is undoing literal generations of work and killing the neighborhood cats.
That asslhole.
I totally agree. She is not a person the little girl deserves to have in her life. It's made clear from her behavior.
The child may not realise it now, but Imagine the kind of mental trauma she will have when she one day realises that her mother gave her father a hard time over killing a dog that was attacking her and refused to talk to her afterwards because she blamed her for the death of the dog. Imagine having to live with her in the same home till she becomes an adult.
OP is fully justified in seeking divorce and not just for himself, but for the sake of the girl.
She… had a bite wound on her neck… that pierced the skin… and they still say YOU are in the wrong? I love my dogs to bits, they’re like kids to me, and as much as it sucks that the dog had to die, you did what you thought was necessary and you were right to do so. Your daughter was in danger and you protected her. You’re NTA, not by a long shot.
NTA. You did the right thing. Your daughter would have felt like she was walking on egg shells before being attacked again. Two bullets are much cheaper than the next hospital bill. I wouldn’t give the dog a second chance with even another family.
>She asked how can i take away something that she loved.
Ask her if next time, she'd rather be burying her child?
The dog is dangerous, once it's attacked once, it will do it again, it's a decision many people would not be able to make, a hard one and you showed your willingness to protect your child goes above everything in life.
See the thing is, I already know her response.
It would be a well she didn't die so that's proof the dog wasn't going to kill her. Really just justifying any way that the daughter would not have died under any circumstances.
Regardless of the incident, I'd be walking based off the sheer stupidity of her justifications. I don't see how you could spend your time around someone so unfathomably dumb.
your wife and anyone on her side are fucking idiots.
i was bitten by the neighbors dog when I was 6. it wasn't even really that bad. but the nice old lady who owned the dog had that thing put down before the end of that same day.
It actually doesn’t make sense that these family and friends are siding against him and that the wife is angry enough go leave her daughter. I wonder how she explained it to them? I wonder if there is something missing in the story?
NTA Thank God you shot that dog! I sincerely hope your daughter will make a full physical and mental recovery. Not really understanding where your wife's coming from. I get that she misses the dog, but the dog was trying to kill her daughter and would have if you had not been there.
People aren't as reasonable in real life. A dog attacked my kid and the owner SCREAMED at me for using pepper spray on it. I told her I would have used a gun instead if I were carrying, and that she and her dog were both being photographed and sent to local PD. She got real quiet and left.
Your wife is a piece of shit. Sorry to say it. A dog that acts like that needs to be put down, its long past training. An owner who blames the person who discovered that abhorrent behavior is just negligent and a total ass hat. This is the biggest NTA I've ever seen.
Yes, that's exactly right. There was a threat to your child, you eliminated that threat in the most efficient way possible. Your child is safe. There's nothing more to be discussed here. If your spouse has animosity towards you and her child after an incident like this, then she needs professional help as she's displaying the tendencies of a sociopath.
NTA. To the people calling you a monster, show them the footage and the blood stains and ask them what they would have done. If they say anything other than "keep my daughter safe," then they aren't people with a good sense of morality.
Your wife and everyone else giving you the silent treatment for protecting your daughter.....you didn't shoot the dog just to shoot it, you were PROTECTING YOUR DAUGHTER!! Fuck those assholes. You should be rethinking your marriage at this point.
NTA. If you had caged the dog, the hospital probably would have reported the attack. Once a police investigation was opened, the dog would have been taken by animal control and euthanized. Either way, that dog had a death sentence.
Your actions protected your daughter. Your wife is probably blaming herself and blaming you.
You also need to find out if you can what triggered the dog. Your wife or daughter may have done something that triggered it.
I don't know if my wife did something as she isn't talking but i didn't even think about really looking into it been focusing on my daughter completely.
Now that you mentioned it might be that she did something and is feeling guilty and hiding.
Pretty sure your wife is blaming herself, but from my experience, people tend to wildly project onto others because they cannot deal with their own guilt.
She probably is feeling a sense of loss and trying to rationalize it because she probably feels like loving her daughter and loving the dog needs to be two separate things because of what happened .. but that shit should’ve only lasted a day or so.. it’s so weird that she’s not home. Something is up.
From reading your story I think that the trigger was your daughter running. Dogs are predators by nature. This triggered the chase instinct. BTW I think you are definitely NTA. I'm proud of you for protecting your daughter. I'm sorry the wife is being so ridiculous. I hope you and your daughter are doing well, all things considered.
I wonder if anything has happened before and she hasn't said anything and it hasn't been quite enough of a think for your daughter to mention.
(Don't tell daddy, just say you fell down)
Gently find out ( ask a therapist how) if she's ever been told to keep a secret that the dog but or snapped at her before now.
Dogs can for sure just trigger and snap.
And running can do it. But I'm sure she's been running for years.
It often has happened before - but less seriously.
The child was running. If the dog was already upset by hearing other dogs aggressively barking or being worked up for something, that combined with running could have caused the dog to attack. Just running could have done that too.
Normal dogs DO NOT attack kids for running, no matter what happened before.
I'm glad OP was there to put it down fast, whether brick, stick, strangle, or gun.
So your wife left her own child behind because you shot the dog who was attacking that same child?
NTA. Maybe you should seek sole custody of your daughter!
NTA and you, sir, are a real life **HERO**
I’m 63 years old and was attacked by a neighbor’s dog when I was little. I had nightmares about it for DECADES! (Until the movie Cujo, but that’s another story)
Over 50 years and my leg still bears the scars.
There is something tragically, monstrously wrong with your wife.
The US will tell you to put it down if authorities don't get called to take custody of the animal (cats or dogs) and if they take it into custody they usually get forcefully put down as well
NTA
Regardless of the edit, your wife still fucking chooses to be pissed at you for removing the threat to *your CHILD*. WTF is wrong with her? Beloved pet or not, if my kid were screaming and crying and being held by the mouth of an animal? That animal is going done no matter the method until I know my kid is safe.
When she gets her head out of her ass, she can explain to your daughter why should would rather spend days away from her after one of the most frightening experiences of her life rather than focus on her child’s well being.
She’s spinning a different story to garner support in her ditching you and your daughter after this incident and that is not okay. Your actions were justified and necessary in that moment. Hers? Absolutely not.
A dog that attacks like this (because that’s what it was, a fucking attack) on a child? There will not be a second chance before it becomes deadly. No matter the breed, aggression in a family pet that goes unchecked will only get worse. That’s dangerous to your child, you, and your community.
Good luck to you and hopefully your daughter is doing okay after this, but don’t let your wife or anyone else question your actions as a father.
Realistically the dog was going to be put down either way you look at it, either from you shooting it or the vet office/pound. I'm not sure how it is where you are in particular but I know some places have it set up that when an animal attacks a child it's usually automatically put down, especially if it's of certain breeds (Like Pitt Bulls).
NTA at all. I love dog to pieces, but if one of them attacked my child that would be it. I had a dog from when I was in my 20's that I absolutely loved, but as he got older (He was like 12 when I gave him up) he became a lot more aggressive and touchy, and already was known to be food aggressive, and I ended up giving him to my Mother before a situation occurred because I already knew there was high chance a situation with him trying to steal food from my daughter was going to end up happening and she would get hurt.
It sounds like your daughter is already traumatized from the dog, and your wife is absolutely not helping the situation by basically making the daughter think it's her fault.
No i haven't.
My daughter is 6 years old and already scared that she will have ugly marks (scars) on her body. She is scared that her friends at school will make fun of her.
Don't really know where she heard the term ugly marks but again she is 6
My wife has the pictures and can share if she want, i don't want to share. Why should the extent of the injurie suddenly bring people over to my side a dog attacked my daughter is all that is supposed to be required.
I have a scar on my neck(back right side) from being attacked by a Rottweiler. I was 5, I remember the dog coming after me, and then I remember laying on my grandma's couch with a compress on my neck. Don't know why I wasn't taken to the hospital and don't know what happened to that dog. I am terrified of Rottweilers to this day. I do not blame you for shooting the dog.
It would have been a miracle if you *werent* scared of rotties after an attack like that. Honestly you should have been in the ER. I was like 6 or 7 when my grandmas old yorkie bit my hand for trying to take my barbie back after giving it to the dog. I was scared of the little thing until the day it died. OP´s poor daughter will probably fear dogs for a long time and her own mom isn't exactly helping.
My mom was attacked by a dog when she was younger and her fear was so great that both my brother and I were terrified of dogs growing up. I don’t even remember her talking enough but it was enough to make me feel like every dog wanted to kill me.
My dad was bringing me to school with his bicycle and for some reason a dog charged after us and bit him in the leg. He got cleared but that was a bit terrifying, not to mention that there are a lot of stray dogs where I’m from. I think I’m getting better at seeing that not all dogs want to attack me but idk
Family member was mauled by a golden retriever (no I'm not kidding). He had a ton of damage, multiple surgeries, and so many stitches. He now has a golden. I've never figured out how he wasn't perpetually terrified of them after that.
I have a family member who was attacked by a golden retriever. I knew from the 1st time I saw it as a puppy that something was different with it. Some dogs are just wired wrong.
Some dogs are poorly bred/bred for looks and not temperament.
Well to be fair to them niether was I....
My aunt has three German shepards. First one has dog PTSD from getting pelted with rocks by school kids as a puppy, she cannot handle kids now. Older kids she'll tolerate and teenagers she'll actively hang out with, but little kids she'll growl and bark at. My mom, as much as she loves her sister, is legitimately afraid of the dog when it comes to young kids. Now that me and my sister are older and Zelda (the dog) is more calm with us, going to me for pets or to be let out and letting my sister sit near her, she's more calm but still wary. The second one, Ganon, is crazy. He was impossible to train so now he runs around all the time trying to get people to play while still not understanding that he is *very* strong. He doesn't hold back with how rough he is, jumping up on people and easily knocking people down because he's using the same strength he'd use with another dog. Because he's an adult he's stronger than the average person. Not making excuses for him either, he doesn't try to actively attack you he's just untrained and crazy. Though with other animals tbats a different story. He'll actively attack the chickens on the ranch, wheras Zelda doesn't and knows not to do that. However the third dog makes him look like an average well-behaved dog. The third dog is named Beedle. And i swear that dog is out for blood. He's killed countless chickens on the ranch and if I remember correctly, a few barn cats too. He'll come up to people while they're sitting in the living room and bite them if any part of their body is hanging off the side of the couch / bean bag. I used tk sleep on the bean bag and he'd come up to me and bite my arm if it was dangling off the side. And he'd bite *hard.* so not a playful nip, or a frenchie bite gone wrong. It'd be a *bite* bite. My mom and aunt would have to yell at him to cut it out and he was rarely allowed near people. If he wasn't in his kennel he was out in the backyard. And that was all as a puppy. Nowadays he and Ganon have a large pen that they stay in during the day. It's quite big and is about the size of a normal backyard and has toys for them, there's a doghouse for them to hide under if it starts to rain or to sleep in, it's set up more like a doggy play pen than a regular cage basically. If you saw it you'd probably think it was set up because the ranch is so big and has no fencing away from the road and was made so they can play outside and go potty without the risk of them running into the road, or attacking a chicken since they're free-roam. But NOPE. Its so that they can't attack people or ANY other animal. Because people are always in and out of the two houses on the property, usually to care for the animals because there are SO many. And with the goats, if they have any babies you need to socialize them. Cats basically spawn on the ranch too so looking around to see if some showed up is basically a daily thing. There's a TON of chickens and they lay eggs EVERYWHERE. One of them uses a box of nails as her nest so when it's time to collect the eggs you're out there for a LONG time trying to figure out where they are. Wild.
The legend of Zelda names are great but those dogs suck.
Yea 😭 she had a dog named Link but he was hit by a truck one day. He was a really good dog, very sweet and calm for a puppy.
We had a golden retriever. Was a great dog. Friendly as hell. Suddenly one day he went after the mail carrier. The same one who had pet him and delivered mail to us for several years. Of course we apologized and I know my parents gave him something but not what. It was chaulked up to very weird circumstances. About a year later he suddenly took off out of the yard, ran across the neighbor’s yard and viciously attacked our neighbor two houses down. She was 70 and in bad health and just came out of her door. The bite wasn’t bad but it was. She was in bad health and so it didn’t heal properly or quickly and limited what little mobility she had. Needless to say, there was no discussion. Dog was put down.
My father's dog bit my face after I pulled her whiskers as a toddler. After getting treated, my parents went to take me to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and I wandered off to pet a stray dog. I still have the scar on my face and adore dogs.
I had a dog go after me when I was around 7 (luckily didn’t do any real damage) who had bitten people before and I think was euthanized later on for a much more serious attack. His name was Gunner. But the attack didn’t translate to how I felt about any other dog because he wasn’t like any other dog; he was “Gunner the Randomly Violent Asshole” in a category of 1. Although again, it wasn’t severe like your family members’… but possibly he has some kind of similar internal category that considers his attacker to be a non-standard malicious entity?
When I was 1 the neighbors cocker spaniel attacked me in my driveway. Ripped my cheek almost off and just missed my eye. My parents called the owner and she came and looked at me and my parents said she flipped out and went and put the dog to sleep that same day.
My mom was attacked by a Chihuahua mix when she was very young (I'm not sure how old.) My mom and her older sister were playing with it, it was their uncle's dog. They would toss it a ball, and it would roll the ball back to them. One time it didn't roll the ball back. My aunt told my mom to go get it. She did, it was right in front of the dog. She bent down and got it. Looked up at the dog, and it ripped her upper lip almost all the way off. It was only hanging on by a sliver. My mom doesn't remember a lot after that. Her mom holding a few different dishtowels to her face to try to stop the bleeding as they rushed her to the hospital. By the time they got back to her uncle's house, he had already taken the dog to the vet and put it down. He loved that dog, but he wasn't going to have anything that was going to hurt a kid around. To be fair the dog was older, and had snarled at them a few times but there was no warning this time. My mom's now in her 60s, she isn't really afraid of dogs anymore but she won't let one around her face. Her lip has a very visible scar, and you can tell there was a lot of damage there. NTA OP. You did what was right. Your kid always comes first. If you didn't do what you had to, who knows what would have happened next time. Your daughter could have been hospitalized or worse.
I was attacked by a German shepherd at a softball game once. It was a friend of mine's dog. I literally just walked by and it growled and immediately latched onto my thigh through my jeans. Ripped my favorite jeans. I was in my twenties and I still dont go near German shepherds. And I'm a huge dog lover. I'd be surprised more if you told me you weren't traumatized and scared of Rottweilers
My sister suffered a dog attack at age 5. She nearly lost her ear and had puncture wounds in her neck that could have been life threatening if not for having gotten the dog off her quickly.. I knew a woman who was mauled by a doberman. Lost the use of her right hand. Dog literally ripped the muscles out of her forearm. She was permanently disabled by the attack. OP did the right thing. The dog attacked his child. Had he not used lethal force, the results might have been fatal. Why would you want to keep a dog that attacked your child anyway?
I worked at a children’s hospital. Do not Google it, but facial degloving is one of those injuries that stays with you. I hate guns. I hate animal injury and death. OP made the right call. I may lift the “do not google” restriction for OP’s wife.
When I was a toddler (1993/94) my parents took me to a family friend's house (a couple) & their dog just had puppies. The wife let me hold a puppy & when no one was looking, I went to put the puppy back. The moment I placed the puppy down - momma dog bit my face. She took a strip of skin from a corner of my face across my nose & lips down to my chin in a perpendicular line. You can't tell now except for a scar on my lip. Obviously, everyone was upset about the situation & my parents rushed me to the hospital. In Oklahoma you're required by law to say whose dog bit you. My mom told them. The next day the family friends called to check in & asked if my mom told them whose dog bit me. My mom told them she told them. Suddenly the best friends they knew turned on them. At the time this couple didn't have children, they do now. & the wife said, "This dog is my baby. If they take her away. Don't leave your daughter outside." The friendship ended. Then when I was 8/9 yrs old. I was riding my bike & the local menace dog (golden retriever) that was known to attack & wander the neighborhood - attacked me. My dad who hates violence, couldn't even spank me growing up, came running when he heard me scream & stomped so hard he caved the dogs head in. Cue the dogs owner who came running & tried to fight my dad for killing their dog. While one of my ankles is lodged in my bike & my other ankle is profusely bleeding from the bite. As an avid animal lover & caretaker myself, but as a mother - I will put an end to any animal that harms my children.
Who lets a mother dog anywhere near people who are handling her pups?!
I am a person that loves my pets more than pretty much the life of any random stranger. I would also personally put down any one of them that viciously attacked a person, UNPROVOKED. If someone attacked them and made the defend themselves… lets just say no one would find them again. But the insane aholes that act like their precious baby is given more domain than someone minding their business and defending their own life in LITERALLY insane.
Worked at a plastic surgeons office for 6 months. I lost count of how many children came in the get stitches out, reconstructive surgery, etc. The damage can be horrible. I love dogs but they will always be animals when the conversation is between children or dogs. I can’t imagine how terrifying this dog attack was. A dog attacking a child should be the last thing they do.
Growing up, one of my friend's mom "collected" dogs. She has over a dozen at one point. Definitely an animal hoarder. Most were sweet and just a little nervous from the neglect they faced, but one was a wolfdog hybrid not trained properly at all and it attacked my friend and his siblings on several occasions. The final straw was when it bit one of our mutual friends in the face and destroyed the tear duct on that side. She had a huge scar too, and a lasting fear of big dogs, understandably. She was always a little strange, but a sweet girl, and after that she was never the same. Even as a child I could recognize she had massive emotional trauma well after she healed physically (as much as she could) and when I finally lost touch with the family, she was lashing out in major ways, like criminal level. I know she likely would have tempted by that path regardless, but I truly believe that attack was the catalyst for her getting there as quickly as she did. My friend's father was a police officer, too, did not share the mother's passion for "collecting" and they ended up getting divorced not long after. He was torn up about what happened to that girl and always said he would have put the dog down had he been there, which his wife did not take kindly to.
Wow that is a sad situation.
Former long time Paramedic. I’ve seen some absolutely *horrendous* dog attacks on children (and adult for that matter) over the years and I’ve encountered two of them were fatal. I absolutely adore dogs but the minute one attacks a person, particularly a child, I feel it’s got to be put down. Rarely are there not warning signs ahead of time.
First responders see the worst of the worst. Thank you for your service 🫶🏼.
For me it was my aunt and uncle’s Siberian Husky and the scar is under my chin.
Tom Segura the comedian does a good bit about this kind of thing. “Here’s the difference between my love for pets and my love for my children. If that dog were to hurt one of my kids I would IMMEDIATELY and without question would drown that dog.” Yep.
When I was three years old a Rottweiler ripped my ear almost off (it was hanging by the bottom of my earlobe). It was surgically put back on. But I'm afraid of Rottweilers as well. I was playing with wooden toy cars and pretended the dog was a hill. I wasn't doing anything to the dog. I wasn't being mean to the dog like hitting it or anything. I was just playing with cars around the dog. I remember my mom was baking a cake in the kitchen. And the dog just attacked me. I might have only been 3 years old but I remember it. I don't remember the surgery or anything. I just remember the attack. I have a scar behind my ear from it.
NTA. The worst thing is what your wife is doing to her daughter....making it seem like it's her fault by staying away. Little girl needs a discussion with her mother AND father about the incident and reassurance that none of it was her fault.
Been doing that everyday. Took some time off of work and requested for work from home for a while. She is happy around me but will then just out of nowhere ask if mommy hates me, why isn't she home. I have been trying and it is working but sofar every morning ahe will run into my ro and lool if my wife is back home and look so excited then her smile disappeared
Send the video footage of the attack to everyone who is criticizing you - maybe seeing what actually happened will change their minds!
I second this, I was attacked by a family members beloved dog when I was a kid, I got a lot of stitches and some permanent nerve damage. But after the stitches were out and the scars were fading, the family member began changing the story about what happened and making it out that I was hysterical and the dog was such a good boy. The mass delusion spread from family member to family member and even though you can feel how nubbly and weird the skin on my head is where I got all those stiches ( took 2 hours for the plastic surgeon to sew me up) but as far as they are concerned nothing serious happened. The family member was allowed to continue bringing the dog into any spaces people were at, around children, and I actually had to leave home as a teen because I could not get away from the dog. It became a power play to try and force me to pet the dog. I have spent my whole life knowing 100% that I am less important than a dog to my entire nuclear and extended family, and that has not done well for me psychologically. Keep on putting the kid first no matter what anyone else says and for goodness sakes, share the video, via Zoom share screen, no recording, with select family members. If you dont, the kid will start to second-guess themselves when people say shit like "there's no such thing as a bad dog, only bad people." It was a Bad Dog.
That’s so fucked uo, I hope you are doing alrights
A similar thing happened with my exes family and one of the kids. The dog kept being brought along and the little girl was obviously nervous and sad about it. She still liked my dogs though which was a blessing because that shit dog tried to attack her again and my dog straight up defended her. My dog never showed any aggression to dogs or humans before but she growled a sound she never made before or after and put herself between attack dog and the child. She was less than half the size of that dog but she went wild on it. Thankfully we were all around to break it up quickly (I'd been watching close already because I hated that the dog was still around). Don't fuck with terriers, they were bred to kill and don't fuck around even if they are much smaller. The girl was never far from my dog after that, said she was her hero. That family was fucked and I'm glad to not be involved with them in any way. Shitty dog should have been put down with how aggressive it was.
That's actually affirming to hear a similar story. Thanks. My guess is it's some kind of physical abuse control scheme, where messed up people who can't get away with beating a kid into submission use the dog as a proxy?
My wife and I were dog sitting a friend’s dog (corgi). The corgi’s a bit of a shit and broke every rule my dog (husky) has. The first thing it did was pee in the house and I know my dog registered it, but let it go. The second and final strike came when the corgi growled at my son, I turned to see my husky coming toward the corgi with his mouth open, he didn’t growl or bark I managed to intercept the husky. We took the corgi back that night, it brought chaos and was not worth doing the favor for her friend. Suffice it to say we’ve never dog sat for that dog again. I believe my husky would’ve killed that corgi if I hadn’t grabbed him. Moral of the story always be alert with your dogs.
I'm so sorry that happened to you and I hope you cut your family out of your life. They don't deserve you. You're valuable and matter to the people who actually love you.
Thank you, kind internet stranger! They are totally non-contact, and I have a wonderful but non-traditional life following not having the support of a nuclear family as an older kid. It is a bit weird building out an education and career without a family as a fallback, but it can be done. The nice thing about adulting is that you can legally create a new family and have your own home that you can be in charge of. No number of "blood is thicker than water" excuses can get in the way of an established independent adult life, it's quite refreshing.
To the OP, Also, you should send pictures of the wounds as well. Your wife must have lied to them. Also, tell them how your daughter thinks your wife is punishing her. She weaponized her family and friends against you. You can do the same back to her. Especially contact all her friends who have kids. The dog was going to die either way. There is no way the hospital wouldn't have reported the bites and there is no way animal control/police wouldn't have put dog down. It's not even a discussion.
Some people are just like this with dogs, see the footage and still say “well you could have done x y or z instead! Not the dogs fault!!” These are often the worst dog owners that have untrained aggressive dogs that have bitten others, which they excuse. No. Don’t care. Don’t care who’s fault it is. Dog was lunging at kid after attacking, that must be stopped, period. Kid comes before dog always.
I would send the video of the poor little girl asking why mommy hates her to everybody too. Let them see how evil the mother is.
The only reason I don’t say this is because if they go to court and the judge sees this type of video it will look bad on OP and can sway the judge towards the mom which would be really bad in the case. She seems to have the maternal instincts of an eggplant. Totally useless to her daughter right now. Dad has to be on best behavior so he is awarded that full custody which given the circumstances should be really simple
Save the video no matter how hard it is. Also send the video to people if they still against you cut them out. Your wife is being very callous to your daughter. You may need to divorce just to protect your daughters mental health.
the main problem is that your wife does actually hate her now and does blame her. I'm not sure how you can snap her out of it, but someone needs to seriously shake her before she scars your daughter more than her cursed dog did.
This is breaking my heart. I'm a mom and a fur-mom. This ... it just feels like she is choosing the dog over her daughter. Does she give a damn about the trauma her daughter is suffering BY HER ABSENCE AND ABANDONMENT? Damn her. I witnessed a friend mauled by a dog when I was little. I didn't start to untangle that trauma until decades later ... and my mom was the hero of the story.
>she is choosing the dog over her daughter. Does she give a damn about the trauma her daughter is suffering BY HER ABSENCE AND ABANDONMENT? When OP divorces her, this will be the primary argument his lawyer uses to get him custody of the daughter. "The mother already abandoned her child. Who is to say she wouldn't do so again in the future? Further, if another dog attacked the child, would the mother choose the dog again, allowing it to kill the child?" I'd find that damned persuasive were I a judge.
Same. If I were the judge, she would be *lucky* to get once a week supervised visits. Her extended family would get *nothing*, except restraining orders.
You are NTA A child's safety is more important than a dog.
NTA and I'm pretty sure that any dog that attacks children is put down so I'm sorry for the family pet but there is literally nothing else you could have done and your wife is causing your daughter more trauma it's already bad but this just makes it worse.
Well, I'm glad you are there for her! Sending her a grandmotherly hug.
100% agree. The mom needs to grow the eff up. The dog could gave easily killed her child. Sure, be upset for your dog, but be fucking thankful and grateful your baby girl is ok, focus on that.
NTA. My dogs are like my children and I love them to bits, but I can absolutely say without a shadow of a doubt that if I saw one of my dogs mauling anyone, let alone my own child, I would shoot it myself. We have many tragedies every year relating to dog maulings with young children, babies, and even adults in the UK and this is not something you stop to think about. You react in the moment, and I believe your reaction was proportionate to the situation.
It's an unfortunate situation, but a dead dog is better than a dead daughter. I hope OP's wife snaps out of it soon, because she could have lost her child that day. It's also upsetting that the poor kid is traumatized and wants her mommy, but she is refusing to give her daughter comfort. The dog didn't just do it once either, it kept trying to go after her. Once a dog snaps and locks onto a target I highly doubt anything short of lethal force would have stopped it. OP did everything right, and his wife needs to stop throwing a fit and communicate.
I keep coming back to the fact that the child had a bite on her neck. If the dog had latched there again, it could have broken her neck. This is not play aggression.
At least three separate bites that broke skin in different locations isn't play aggression either. The dog was going for the kill. The child was running away from it at the time too, so she wasn't accidentally hurting or threatening it. Maybe it triggered some kind of prey drive, but there's nothing that would count as mitigating.
I had a wolf dog a while back, his teeth were like knives. He could “bite” me and not break the skin, if he ever got too rough, would back off (on his own) and act like he was asking if I was alright. Dogs know how to be gentle.
Dog make mistakes too, but they understand bleading, etc. They understand hurt. The situation was clear to the dog, I am very sure.
Or ripped an artery! Shed be dead in seconds... He did the only right thing and wife needs to get a grip. And WTF is with the family? Collective brain damage?
I'd be sending the video to anyone who was judging OP and asking what they would have done if it was their child in that situation?
Wouldn’t the authorities have made them put the dog down anyway? I’ve seen that happen here.
Yeah, generally if a dog attacks a person, that dog would have to be euthanized according to most countries' laws. The dog was going to die anyway. The only question is whether that would have been done after an evaluation and whether or not the kid would still be alive.
Someone needs to give her a slap back to reality. Her daughter just had a traumatic and near death experience. And her reaction and how she is handling this is very unbecoming. The lack of communication, smear campaign towards her husband who in all innocence did what he thought was right at the time to protect his daughter… The husband should just drop her like a bad habit at this point. The fact she got other people involved? Disgusts me. You don’t go out of your way to smear your husbands reputation like that.
Particularly when he saved your daughter from serious injury or death.
@itsnotford88 exactly! She’s the absolute AH in this scenerio
Yeah - I don't blame the guy for shooting the dog. There's a pretty good argument to be made that he'd be a bad father if he *didn't* shoot the dog.
Wife is being a completely awful mother, and wife.
Depending on the dog you can choke them until they pass out but if i had been in op's position i wouldnt have risked it, i wouldnt be able to trust the dog again and would have to put it down...
True how do you ever trust that dog around your child ever again after that. How do you know next time you cook dinner with your back turned the dog doesn’t try to kill your child again.
That’s what I was thinking. On top of that the mom isn’t thinking about the kid and whether a child that just got mauled would be comfortable around dogs never mind the one that attacked her.
You don’t but on top of that the dog broke skin on a human being- that dog would have been euthanized later if OP hadn’t shot it.
Came here to point out that in my state a dog that attacks a child is required to be euthanized
Even if the dog is not dead, the wife will say the dog won't hurt anyone. One day, OP will see his daughter's body when he gets home. Consider this as lucky. Remove the problem once for all.
He shot the dog when it came charging back. Initially he pulled the fog off and threw it. It was attacking a second time nothing was going to stop it from continuing.
That's nasty. We get bad weather here in Scotland, but at least it doesn't actively attack anyone!
😂
Must be that meth-infused Florida fog.
That might work if you're being attacked just by yourself, but he had his hands full protecting the child.
It was on death row anyway, if it had been knocked out instead of taken out, they would have likely euthanised it.
She has already lost her daughter. Children understand much more than they are given credit.
>When i try and explain my side, all i get back is im trying to justify my actions. You aren’t trying to justify your actions - you don’t have to. Law enforcement officers already did when they came to investigate the firearm discharge & determined your actions were justified. No one other than you, your wife & daughter were present for what happened. Yet your family members seem to be under the false impression that they have the power the deem your actions justifiable or not & that their judgement creates fact. (Otherwise they wouldn’t accuse you of trying to justify your actions when you explain what happened.) No family member’s opinion, regardless of how self important they believe themselves to be, changes facts in evidence. You’ve been trying to explain WHY you were justified to people who weren’t even there - but seem unable &/or unwilling to believe &/or understand the reality of what happened. Their inability &/or unwillingness to AGREE with the FACT that you were justified doesn’t make it less true. Facts are facts. >If you are interested it was 21 seconds from the dog attacking to me shooting. That’s A LONG ASS TIME for a dog to be mauling anyone - much less a 6 year old. I cannot even imagine the terror for everyone who even witnessed it - much less your little girl. 21 seconds is more than enough time for a dog of any real size to kill a 6 year old. One puncture wound in the right place would have been all it took. ANY - especially a supposed family member - who says you weren’t justified needs to be shown the video of the attack. Or better yet, do what I’ve seen several judges do in court - set a stopwatch for 21 seconds, tell them to close their eyes & try to imagine beating mauled by a dog & not to stop until the timer goes off. Many times that’s more impactful than even video evidence since the video playing while the 21 seconds is happening occupies the mind which makes it seem like less time than it is. Maybe after they imagine being mauled by a dog for 21 seconds, reset the stopwatch & tell them to close their eyes & try to imagine watching their 6 year old child being mauled by a dog & not to stop until the timer goes off. If anyone - especially a family member to this child who should love & value the child’s life - can do that & still claim you weren’t justified, they need a psychiatric evaluation to determine if they’re even of sound mind. And they certainly don’t need to have anything other than supervised visitation with this (or really any) child. NTA
These relatives should try getting mauled for 21 seconds and see how they feel about it
Yup and in the UK the dog would most probably be destroyed for attacking and causing harm to someone. So it'd be dead anyway after the fact.
NTA I WOULD SHOOT and animal that attacked my kid . Yea your wife she choosing the dog after her own daughter . Get full custody I wouldn't trust her with a kid.
Just animal? I would shoot a human being if he/she continued to go after my kid after getting thrown away from the kid.
I honestly wouldn’t even think twice. I would not have the mental juggling of what to do. You subdue the animal. And if they die as a result, welp. Would I be sad afterward? Oh absolutely. But I would definitely not regret it. OP didn’t think. OP didn’t have time to think. OP’s instinct kicked in and he saved his daughter in a very natural way (not the lead, I mean more primal). OP did great. NTA.
As someone who received 352 stitches from a dog attack, I wish you were around for me. Your daughter was not only saved from physical damage but major mental trauma as well.
My daughter had hundreds of stitches from a vicious dog attack too. We were in the hospital for three days and one of her eyes is permanently deformed. I’m so sorry for you and I hope that you are okay!
Oh my fucking god! *352?!?!* what the *fuck* happened???
This was back in 1984. I was going for a walk down a back road when a dog came out of the woods and attacked me. I was trying to hold it off when I realized he had friends. The other dogs attacked me from behind. Honestly, I don't remember a whole lot except just trying to fight them off. A farmer and his 2 sons were driving by and saved my life. I'm not sure of the events, but I know they ran over one of the dogs with his truck and ran the others off. One of his sons ran to the closest house to call for help... no cell phones back then. ...and called for the emt's. I remember waking up on the hospital after a session of them putting me back together and they let my long time gf, now my wife, bless her, come in to see me and after a few minutes she started throwing up. I thought, ok, we are over, but she toughed it out and has been with me for 41 years. A lot of stitches and skin grafts have done a remarkable job. I still swim with a shirt on, though, because I do get tired of people staring and the questions the more ballsy people ask. That is my story. And no, I don't need to be part of any anti dog groups that have been messaged to me. We got a puppy for my kids when they were little, and also for me to help heal mentally. I loved that dog.
Dammmn dude. I'm glad you survived!!! And I'm sure that was a very rough recovery! But you had your now-wife by your side supporting you, that's very sweet. And very lovely for your kids to get them a puppy. I'm sure it was hard in the beginning, but we find we can do hard things for our kids 🥲 I'm sure they were a very good dog.
Holy ship! my uncle and aunt had an illegal wolf, husky mix. It snapped at me one fine morning and ripped my lip in two and inbedded its tooth in my chin I only had 7 stitches..damn I hope you're okay. THAT animal went on to bite my little cousin in the skull fracturing her skull, we couldn't even trauma bond because it was more hellish for her. WHEN Rocky the wolf half breed jumped the new eight foot fence, they used to have a 12 foot cinderblock wall to hide all my uncles big boy toys, at 15 years old and attacked the mailman, who took years to recover, they put it down the next day. MANdatory reporting could have saved the five of us before the mailman..anyway I'm glad ur still around after that many stitches
OP needs to send the video to everyone calling him out for shooting the dog. The daughter is “OK” in hindsight, but they didn’t know at the moment if the dog had bitten anything vital. Was he supposed to spend precious moments subduing and securing a dog that had injured his daughter’s calf, shoulder and NECK?
NTA, as someone who cries when Bambi's mother dies. "when i asked her what was wrong she went off on me for shooting the dog. She asked how can i take away something that she loved." Ask her if she'd rather her beloved dog take your daughter away from her? Dog versus child, dog wins. You did what you had to do to protect her as best you could, and she is still mentally traumatized.
This. I'm a Mom and I'm a massive dog lover and dog owner. If a dog attacked my children - even our beloved pet dog -- I would without question shoot the dog if I had a fire arm on me. The dog went for your child's neck. That says everything. Had it hit her jugular... the consequences would have been catastrophic. NTA. For anyone saying nasty things to you, send them a photo of your daughter's neck. The dog meant business. You NEVER mess with that.
As a long time dog owner and dog lover (especially of big dogs) - The going for the neck and coming back again with no retreat is what clenched it for me. The dog was dangerous. OP is NTA for taking the actions he did. Wife needs to do as asked and seek therapy herself and with the family if she wants a chance at being a family unit still instead of only speaking to OP through her mother & sending her flying monkeys after OP. Good luck to OP in whatever follows.
I don't think OP can win here. If he *didn't* shoot the dog and it attacked the daughter again and did *more* damage, everyone would be accusing him of not putting his daughter's life first. But because he *did* shoot the dog everyone's accusing him of overreacting. I hate guns. I'm in a country that has done the hard work of changing the culture around guns. To the point I've had Americans tell me my country didn't *have* a gun culture. But I've also been attacked by dogs. If I had immediate access to a gun while I or someone else were being attacked? I'd use it. It reduces the risk to everyone.
I was going to say the same thing. OP is in a no win situation right now. In that situation it's a do or die, you don't have time to think why is the dog doing this, is he just playing, does he have rabies, whatever. You see a dog attacking someone you act.
If *my* dog attacked a child I didn't know? I would shoot the dog. Anyone who argues to the contrary is either an unhinged lunatic divorced from morality, or they are lying and have something to gain. Do these people seriously believe that OP should have chosen a dog over his daughter, or is it more likely they're picking the 'side' of the person they prefer.
I came here to say this. I have put myself between (and kicked) moving cars for my dogs (I have two that I adore) one of them doesn’t like kids, she barks and tries to herd them - so we don’t have friends with kids over, we go to them. If one of my dogs, knowing that I would put myself at risk for them, went after a child, I would do the same. A kid comes first, always. The pain of losing a pet is extreme, they are family, so the wife’s grief is likely skewing her perspective, but man. The dog went for the kids neck, there’s no question there.
I mean had the dog gotten her thigh it could've killed her as well. Thats also a pretty big artery. For a small child a bleed out would be very fast.
The dog didn't snap and then withdraw growling, it was mauling and trying to kill. There was no other way, not without both people sustaining a lot of bites and tears while trying to subdue the dog. I had chills when he said the dog went for the little girl's neck. I can get the mom being traumatized by a loved pet being killed, but it was attacking her daughter. How can she not even want to see her own child?
I agree, there’s no doubt that this will be traumatizing to the daughter. But, what she knows is that her dad did save her. That can go along way in feelings of safety.
And mom disappeared on her
I suspect that it is easier for the mom, rather than accept that her dog - who she is responsible for - mauled and almost killed her daughter, would rather delude herself into thinking that husband is at fault in some manner. Instead of accepting ownership, since she raised the dog herself.
Yeah. I think mom is dealing with more trauma than just the dog being killed. She probably has a lot of guilt since it was her dog.
Kinda shows how much she loves her husband, too
Deep thought here OP, think about HashMaps comment. Seems like he may be onto something here…
The thing here is regardless, that dog is being euthanised, it's dangerous and it was going to happen either way. The downside here is having to shoot a dog in front of your daughter, but I'm sure if someone's going to that extreme they genuinely fear for her life..
He pushed her face into his chest before dispatching the dog, so she didn't see it.
I mean, I'm Australian and genuinely don't know how loud a handgun at that distance would be......but I'm assuming it's pretty fucking loud and traumatic, and regardless he just shot her dog in front of her after it mauled / betrayed her. Gonna be fucked up for anyone.
Sure, but our brains can be pretty particular about trauma. Plus, she already has the trauma of being mauled. Seeing the dog with bullet holes will certainly not help that, but it'd still be far worse for her to see the process of the dog being shot. Basically, she can't win here and that sucks
If wife had it her way i doubt it would be euthanized even tho it attacked her own daughter (from the way shes acting now)
From what i know of something like this is reported and the dog absolutely has to be put down court ordered. It might vary state to state but an Akita bit my nephews face and they were forced to put it down after the hospital reported it. This was in California. His grandma was very upset and really didn't want to
The undeniably unacceptable behavior on wife's part is abandoning daughter. I mean, what-the-everloving-fuck? That indicates a sense of priority that is so misplaced as to warrant losing custody. Your daughter just went through deep trauma and you're holed up somewhere else. Sorry, massive patenting fail.
She can be as mad as she wants at him but she’s really doubling down on the trauma for her kid.
right? The fact the poor kid is asking if it's her fault, if her mom is mad at her etc. is heartbreaking. That is the *last* thing this girl needs to be concerned/stressed about and adding to the trauma of this incident. It's making a situation into this whole bigger mind fuck that makes a traumatic situation to a young child that much more confusing
Srsly. He says there were teeth marks on her *neck.* I don't fucking care if the dog was "playing," the dog wouldn't stop *whatever* it was doing and that could have easily been a dead kid. An accidental death is still a death. Jeezus.
She was bloody, that’s not playing. My great pyr plays with our little dog( she lays down and little dog play fights with her big block head. 5 yrs and little dog hasn’t gotten a scratch. , not once even though little dog is the one that gets wound up more.
The second it was going for the neck, it had to die.
NTA - Your wife left her daughter without her support after a very scary attack. Apparently punishing you is more important to her than being there for your daughter.
Seriously. I can’t get past the fact that she hasn’t called her traumatized daughter. This woman has some f’ed up priorities.
She likely blames her daughter...
He should just take pictures of the bites and send it to the people harassing him with no comment
She might even blame her own daughter for the dogs death. I know someone who to this day blames her grandmother, because she had to put down her horrible aggressive pit after that mutt ripped out a big chunk out of her grandmother's leg.. and she blamed her grandmother for the dogs death.. some dog lover are fucking idiots.
You could never have trusted that dog again. I have a family story. When my sister was a toddler she was bitten by a dog. No one saw it happen and although my dad wanted the dog put down my mother talked him out of it. Two weeks later the dog mauled another little girl. Don't give a dog a second chance.
I was bit when I was 4 or 5 by my uncles dog and my grandfather killed it before I made it to the Dr for stitchs. The old man had a firm belief that the moment a dog bites someone in the family it will do it again and worse.
When I was a teenager my grandparents had a particularly feisty rooster down in their barn. He would attack anyone, so all his daughters and granddaughters learned to go down to the barnyard with a rake or broom to whack him with. Well, my Ma was his favorite daughter, but also the slowest. One time she went down there, and missed when trying to bat him away. He got a HUGE chunk out of her leg with his spurs! Ma came back to the house all bloody and upset. We patched her up, she was fine, mostly. We look around. Papa isn't in his chair? He comes in from the barnyard and sits down, which is odd, but whatever. That rooster was missing from that moment forward.
Had a similar thing happen to my great grandfather. He had a big blue rooster. The story passed down says it was 2.5 feet tall. Well one day as great grandpa is doing his stuff around the coop the rooster flogged him. That night they had chicken and dumplings, a rare treat for them.
I grew up on a chicken farm. More than once we had a not so nice rooster. My mom refused to have anything in the yard that would try and hurt me. There was a really nice Hispanic family down the road who would be gifted our not so nice roosters as my mom couldn't put them down herself (she has a huge heart and killing things was always difficult for her). They were always grateful for the meat and would send us veggies from their garden as thanks.
My dad threw a shovel at our rooster when it started attacking my twin sister. We were maybe 5. Fireball the rooster was no more after that day.
This 100 percent!
I love dogs more than most people, but at the end of the day they are still animals. And some animals are unpredictable. Once the trust is gone, especially with a family with little kids, there isn't much else to do. Maybe in some situations you could surrender it, but I don't know many rescues interested in that dog either.
I agree, if i didn't shoot the dog and another option was available within the time i had i would have talken it but that dog wouldn't have beem welcome in our house anymore.
You put the dog down or the vet/state does. Those are really the only two options available for a dog that mauls a child.
This. The dog was dead in the next 72 hours regardless. A dog attacked my kid and the owner BEGGED me not to contact animal control. Of course I contacted fucking animal control, the dog ran out of the woods and jumped for a 3 year old's face snarling.
This, we have gotten to this weird point in society where this even has to be questioned? When I was a child (Gen X) a dog that attacked, was put down, no questions asked. We have gotten to this weird place where people humanize dogs and a persons dog becomes more important than other people. My hunch is, nowadays people walk around with main character syndrome and everything about them and their life is more important than anyone else's. I have always owned dogs, and I love the one that I have now. She is very special to me, but if she was mauling a stranger, let alone my own kid she would have to be put down. People, cannot make excuses for a dog with a propensity for viciousness as a pet. It does not work, and it unfairly burdens others with their delusion that their happiness and what they want is more important because of their belief that they are the main character. It's a total lack of responsibility by a dog owner to do anything else. OP did the right thing, and if it were my wife, I would be taking the fight to her by saying my piece and then going radio silent until I received an apology.
This 100%. Mandatory reporters would have notified animal control and that dog was dead. Your wife has some serious issues and needs professional help.
Even if you HAD somehow separated the dog from your daughter, after reporting the dog attack at the hospital, that dog would be taken in and euthanized by the state or a vet. The dog had a death sentence the moment they attacked your daughter. NTA. I’m a huge dog lover, and honestly I hope I never experience what you dealt with. Are YOU okay? It was a beloved member of your family I imagine it was also traumatic for you — seeing the dog attack your daughter, and then having to take the dogs life. Please be kind to yourself too. You sound like a caring father and I know your daughter is the top priority — as she should be — but also keep an eye on yourself too.
No, if the dog mauls a person it needs to be put down. Especially if it attacked while compeletely unprovoked.
You did the best you could with very little time to make a decision. If you had done nothing, your dog could have permanantly disfigured or even killed your daughter. I don't think your wife understands that.
yep, my gpa had a farm with chickens, pigs, a few peacocks etc. he had 4 dogs that watched the farm and my gma got some shit stain of a dog breed to be an inside dog.. it was crazy and my gpa finally said its gatta stay outside. it started out with it chasing the cats, then the piglets, then the baby chickens... then i killed a few adult chickens and my grandpas rule is to just kill the dog that kills chickens..gma talked him out of it. dog attacked an adult pig, then attacked a horse. then it attacked my brother then my gpa shot it and my gma acted like he was an asshole for it
Adult pigs will chew through a penned pregnant goats stomach to EAT it's baby. Adult pigs EAT other animals and will eat eachother. Adult pigs are vicious creatures that are too heavy to care about what you want. That dog must have been fucking INSANE to attack an adult pig and not be merked instantly and turned into lunch!?!? 😬😬😬😬 jfc, that dog's a menace! 😬😬😬😬
I was attacked by a chow when I was 5-6 that come to find out had attacked 2 kids before me and 2 more kids after me. The owners were friends of my parents. The husband wanted to do just what OP did, but the wife hid her "baby" so he couldn't be killed. She had no choice in the matter after the 5th kid was attacked by him.
Chows, cockers, and chis have really bad bite records. The owner's wife should have been put in jail for reckless endangerment IMHO.
NTA, my dad single handedly fought a dog off with a leash, wrapped around his fist with the metal clip part out to protect my sister and me, plus 4 other neighborhood kids who were targeted by a neighbor's dog that was known to be aggressive but they refused to do anything. I still remember all the blood on my friend and he had to have a total of 55 stitches, 23 of which were in his hand alone. The only reason Dad didn't shoot the dog was because he couldn't get inside to his handgun. After my friend was attacked, dad distracted the dog, yanked the leash from the owner when she refused to do anything and proceeded to hit it every time it lunged to attack him. He kept drawing its attention because any time one of us moved, the dog started toward us.
No way the owner just sat there as her dog attacked children?
She did, sadly. She was walking the aggressive dog and his mom at the same time. Both of which prior to that had never been outside of their fence but a handful of times. She just kept screaming "Coal!" (Dogs name) Over and over again. It was like a fever dream; the dogs also had zero training.
That’s absolutely insane wow, good on your dad for stopping it. I saved an old lady and her dog from an attack and the owners had apparently just let their dog go roam the streets like a cat. 🙄 the idiocy of some people
It blows my mind sometimes how clueless people are. My dad would've done everything in his power to keep us safe during that. It was a wild experience.
I've seen someone just laugh when their dog latched on my coworker.
Some people are the absolute worst.
Omg that is terrifying! Did they put that dog down? I hope the owner was punished somehow for endangering the lives of all those kids.
No, but they were required to have more secure fencing. The dog got old and fat and kept escaping but was super slow. Our dog growing up hated Coal and would run him out of our yard. 😂 They moved Coal to a family member's house for several years before bringing him back. They did have to pay for the bills for the child that was attacked, though.
You either saved your daughters life or saved her from unimaginable physical pain. Furthermore, the mental damage alone is enough to fuck anyone up. A beloved pet suddenly turning and attacking is terrifying, and little kids can't process the situation correctly, so ultimately, your kid will wonder what *she* did to cause the attack. If your daughter doesn't have **100%** support that she did nothing wrong, she will eventually blame herself. Especially with your nutjub wife mad at you for saving said daughter. And nutjob wife gets nutjob family to side with violent dog. Jfc Absolutely NTA. Save your daughter and yourself.
Yes, the wife is setting the poor kid for lots of trauma if she continues.
I absolutely cannot understand OP’s wife AT ALL. My sister had a beloved cat for about 7 years, but when my nephew was born the cat wouldn’t play nice with him. Sister tried to safely acclimate the cat to the new home environment, but in the end had to rehome him. My nephew came as top priority, not even a question. OP is NTA, and I know he made an edit to say his wife was concerned about their daughter, but it really seems like she’s making it known that she loved the dog more. She’s GHOSTING a CHILD over this. The mental anguish the girl gets from that on top of everything else is monstrous. I hope OP does sue for full custody. And I’m glad he has plans for therapy. Poor girl needs it. And OP needs better people around him if anyone is harassing him about protecting his daughter.
She’s probably ghosting her own daughter because she doesn’t want to see the bite marks and bruises. That will validate the reason OP shot the damn dog! In a few weeks when the marks are gone, she’ll want custody of her child.
Similar situation when my oldest brother was born. Mom and dad had a terrier that was very close to my mom. The dog did not like my brother and nipped at him a couple times. And that was that, the dog was gone. Mom loved that dog but when it came to my brothers safety it was no contest
“She asked how can I take away something that she loved”. Wow. Imagine if the dog took away HER CHILDS LIFE. Go to court. Protect your daughter. The mother seems incredibly unstable to value a dog over her own kid. What happened to your daughter and the dog is very sad. But the dog turned on her. You did what you had to do
I wrote this above, but it seems more relevant to your comment. The only thing I can do to explain the wife’s reaction is that she blames herself for the dog’s attack and the threat to her daughter, that she is so overwhelmed with guilt and absolute fear, that she is lashing out at the husband and blaming him for killing the dog, to detach from her own horrific guilt and pain. It does NOT make it okay that she is doing this to her husband or her daughter. One argument that got heated because of this self-protection? Fine. A week plus, and family jumping on board… unacceptable.
NTA. When I was a child my uncles dog went at me for some reason and my grandfather killed it before anyone could even think so do anything else. He always said the moment a dog acts aggressive to its family/owners it needs to be gotten rid of. And he was an animal lover but he was also a realist. Animals are not people.
That’s the type of old school mentality that I actually appreciate
Everyone gets upset when I say "we put down aggressive dogs to weed out the aggressive genes" but its fucking true. If you kill anything that bites you, the only thing left to breed will be stock that's too timid to bite, despite having sharp teeth and the jaw strength to shatter bone. I'm a firm believer we have dogs as "dumb" and docile as we do because we put down anything that bit or lashed out unexpectedly. Thank your great great grandparents for doing the shitty work of killing something they loved that snapped so we rarely have to. But yell at your neighbor because their unfixed untrained asshole dog they let run loose allover the neighborhood is undoing literal generations of work and killing the neighborhood cats. That asslhole.
“Thank God I was there. If the dog attacked her when it was just you, our daughter would be dead. You’ll have the divorce papers next week.”
This is what OP needs to think about, once you have a kid they are supposed to take priority over even your own life much less a dog
I totally agree. She is not a person the little girl deserves to have in her life. It's made clear from her behavior. The child may not realise it now, but Imagine the kind of mental trauma she will have when she one day realises that her mother gave her father a hard time over killing a dog that was attacking her and refused to talk to her afterwards because she blamed her for the death of the dog. Imagine having to live with her in the same home till she becomes an adult. OP is fully justified in seeking divorce and not just for himself, but for the sake of the girl.
She… had a bite wound on her neck… that pierced the skin… and they still say YOU are in the wrong? I love my dogs to bits, they’re like kids to me, and as much as it sucks that the dog had to die, you did what you thought was necessary and you were right to do so. Your daughter was in danger and you protected her. You’re NTA, not by a long shot.
NTA. You did the right thing. Your daughter would have felt like she was walking on egg shells before being attacked again. Two bullets are much cheaper than the next hospital bill. I wouldn’t give the dog a second chance with even another family.
>She asked how can i take away something that she loved. Ask her if next time, she'd rather be burying her child? The dog is dangerous, once it's attacked once, it will do it again, it's a decision many people would not be able to make, a hard one and you showed your willingness to protect your child goes above everything in life.
See the thing is, I already know her response. It would be a well she didn't die so that's proof the dog wasn't going to kill her. Really just justifying any way that the daughter would not have died under any circumstances. Regardless of the incident, I'd be walking based off the sheer stupidity of her justifications. I don't see how you could spend your time around someone so unfathomably dumb.
Even if you did not kill the dog your wife could not have kept it. If she says she would have she is crazy.
NTA. Go ahead and file for divorce and custody. Always protect the children.
your wife and anyone on her side are fucking idiots. i was bitten by the neighbors dog when I was 6. it wasn't even really that bad. but the nice old lady who owned the dog had that thing put down before the end of that same day.
It actually doesn’t make sense that these family and friends are siding against him and that the wife is angry enough go leave her daughter. I wonder how she explained it to them? I wonder if there is something missing in the story?
NTA Thank God you shot that dog! I sincerely hope your daughter will make a full physical and mental recovery. Not really understanding where your wife's coming from. I get that she misses the dog, but the dog was trying to kill her daughter and would have if you had not been there.
I came here expecting some good rage inducing comments, but everyone is on the same page and reasonable. Not the first time Reddit disappointed me.
People aren't as reasonable in real life. A dog attacked my kid and the owner SCREAMED at me for using pepper spray on it. I told her I would have used a gun instead if I were carrying, and that she and her dog were both being photographed and sent to local PD. She got real quiet and left.
NTA a thousand times over. You saved your daughter's life. In my books, you are a hero.
Your wife is a piece of shit. Sorry to say it. A dog that acts like that needs to be put down, its long past training. An owner who blames the person who discovered that abhorrent behavior is just negligent and a total ass hat. This is the biggest NTA I've ever seen.
Yes, that's exactly right. There was a threat to your child, you eliminated that threat in the most efficient way possible. Your child is safe. There's nothing more to be discussed here. If your spouse has animosity towards you and her child after an incident like this, then she needs professional help as she's displaying the tendencies of a sociopath. NTA. To the people calling you a monster, show them the footage and the blood stains and ask them what they would have done. If they say anything other than "keep my daughter safe," then they aren't people with a good sense of morality.
Your wife and everyone else giving you the silent treatment for protecting your daughter.....you didn't shoot the dog just to shoot it, you were PROTECTING YOUR DAUGHTER!! Fuck those assholes. You should be rethinking your marriage at this point.
NTA. If you had caged the dog, the hospital probably would have reported the attack. Once a police investigation was opened, the dog would have been taken by animal control and euthanized. Either way, that dog had a death sentence. Your actions protected your daughter. Your wife is probably blaming herself and blaming you. You also need to find out if you can what triggered the dog. Your wife or daughter may have done something that triggered it.
I don't know if my wife did something as she isn't talking but i didn't even think about really looking into it been focusing on my daughter completely. Now that you mentioned it might be that she did something and is feeling guilty and hiding.
Pretty sure your wife is blaming herself, but from my experience, people tend to wildly project onto others because they cannot deal with their own guilt. She probably is feeling a sense of loss and trying to rationalize it because she probably feels like loving her daughter and loving the dog needs to be two separate things because of what happened .. but that shit should’ve only lasted a day or so.. it’s so weird that she’s not home. Something is up.
From reading your story I think that the trigger was your daughter running. Dogs are predators by nature. This triggered the chase instinct. BTW I think you are definitely NTA. I'm proud of you for protecting your daughter. I'm sorry the wife is being so ridiculous. I hope you and your daughter are doing well, all things considered.
Check your cameras.
Only have camaras on the outside and nothing but will double check.
I wonder if anything has happened before and she hasn't said anything and it hasn't been quite enough of a think for your daughter to mention. (Don't tell daddy, just say you fell down) Gently find out ( ask a therapist how) if she's ever been told to keep a secret that the dog but or snapped at her before now. Dogs can for sure just trigger and snap. And running can do it. But I'm sure she's been running for years. It often has happened before - but less seriously.
The child was running. If the dog was already upset by hearing other dogs aggressively barking or being worked up for something, that combined with running could have caused the dog to attack. Just running could have done that too. Normal dogs DO NOT attack kids for running, no matter what happened before. I'm glad OP was there to put it down fast, whether brick, stick, strangle, or gun.
So your wife left her own child behind because you shot the dog who was attacking that same child? NTA. Maybe you should seek sole custody of your daughter!
NTA and you, sir, are a real life **HERO** I’m 63 years old and was attacked by a neighbor’s dog when I was little. I had nightmares about it for DECADES! (Until the movie Cujo, but that’s another story) Over 50 years and my leg still bears the scars. There is something tragically, monstrously wrong with your wife.
In the UK the dog would be PTS forcibly
The US will tell you to put it down if authorities don't get called to take custody of the animal (cats or dogs) and if they take it into custody they usually get forcefully put down as well
NTA Regardless of the edit, your wife still fucking chooses to be pissed at you for removing the threat to *your CHILD*. WTF is wrong with her? Beloved pet or not, if my kid were screaming and crying and being held by the mouth of an animal? That animal is going done no matter the method until I know my kid is safe. When she gets her head out of her ass, she can explain to your daughter why should would rather spend days away from her after one of the most frightening experiences of her life rather than focus on her child’s well being. She’s spinning a different story to garner support in her ditching you and your daughter after this incident and that is not okay. Your actions were justified and necessary in that moment. Hers? Absolutely not. A dog that attacks like this (because that’s what it was, a fucking attack) on a child? There will not be a second chance before it becomes deadly. No matter the breed, aggression in a family pet that goes unchecked will only get worse. That’s dangerous to your child, you, and your community. Good luck to you and hopefully your daughter is doing okay after this, but don’t let your wife or anyone else question your actions as a father.
NTA. Dog attacks my kid, the dog is dead. “Your options are dead dog or dead child. Which would you have chosen, *wife*?”
Realistically the dog was going to be put down either way you look at it, either from you shooting it or the vet office/pound. I'm not sure how it is where you are in particular but I know some places have it set up that when an animal attacks a child it's usually automatically put down, especially if it's of certain breeds (Like Pitt Bulls). NTA at all. I love dog to pieces, but if one of them attacked my child that would be it. I had a dog from when I was in my 20's that I absolutely loved, but as he got older (He was like 12 when I gave him up) he became a lot more aggressive and touchy, and already was known to be food aggressive, and I ended up giving him to my Mother before a situation occurred because I already knew there was high chance a situation with him trying to steal food from my daughter was going to end up happening and she would get hurt. It sounds like your daughter is already traumatized from the dog, and your wife is absolutely not helping the situation by basically making the daughter think it's her fault.
Info: Have the people calling you a dog murderer seen pictures of your daughter’s injuries?
No i haven't. My daughter is 6 years old and already scared that she will have ugly marks (scars) on her body. She is scared that her friends at school will make fun of her. Don't really know where she heard the term ugly marks but again she is 6 My wife has the pictures and can share if she want, i don't want to share. Why should the extent of the injurie suddenly bring people over to my side a dog attacked my daughter is all that is supposed to be required.