Dog bite attorneys warn families with young children that they should be extremely cautious around dangerous dogs. A recent dog attack in El Paso, Texas, demonstrates the importance of keeping small children out of harm’s way.
As KTSM is reporting, a 4-year-old was recently mauled by three Shar Pei / Pit Bull mixes at his uncle’s home. The boy’s father, Frank Romero, brought his son along to feed the dogs while his brother was out of town. Romero did this for his brother numerous times before, and although the dogs were a dangerous breed, he trusted that they knew him and were used to his being there. As the father and son walked back to their truck, one dog escaped from the caged area and leaped onto the 4-year-old.
The dog threw the child to the ground, and by the time Romero got to his son, the other two had already escaped and started attacking. It was Romero versus three large, incredibly strong Shar Pei Pit Bulls. By the time he could get one dog off his son, the other two were already back on top of him. Romero’s nephew, who was waiting in the car, ran to the scene and helped Romero pull his son to safety.
Romero was able to secure the dogs in their cage before rushing to the hospital with his son and nephew. On the way, Romero thought his son’s face had been ripped off because his features were completely masked by blood. The dogs bit a significant amount of skin off the boy’s scalp, revealing the bone underneath. Doctors were able to recover one piece of scalp, although it was too mauled to reattach. The Romero family is now forced to undergo years of corrective surgeries. The boy’s mother says that today, she is more frightened of dogs than her son is. The young boy is showing impressive improvement after a series of surgeries that reconstructed the skin on his scalp.
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Such devastating dog attacks are, unfortunately not uncommon in the United States. Small children and toddlers especially are often victims of face, scalp and neck bites because of their smaller stature and unfamiliarity with dog behavior. When adults are attacked, the most severe wounds are usually contained to the lower part of the body or on the hands and arms. Children do not have enough canine experience to discern between which dogs are dangerous and which are safe. They consider all dogs lovable and often approach strange dogs with a hug or other intrusive acts. Some dogs, especially those with dangerous breed lineage, consider these acts threatening, and go into defense or attack mode when approached.
Although many bites of this nature are considered defensive bites, meant as a warning to the child to back off, more often than not the injuries are severe. Attack bites, however, , always result in serious injuries, whether to a child or an adult. Dogs react by instinct, as they would in a pack, and sometimes consider a situation threatening even when it is not.
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According to a report by the U.S. Postal Service, El Paso is among the top 25 cities with the highest occurrence of mail carrier dog attacks. The Postal Service makes consistent efforts to shed light on dog bites, which are the nation’s most commonly reported public health issue. Numerous canine organizations rank the most frequent victims of dog bites to be: small children, the elderly, and Postal Service carriers.
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Dog bite attorneys encourage anyone who has been the victim of a bite or attack to contact a lawyer as soon as possible. Almost all dog bite settlements are covered by the dog owner’s insurance company, not the owner’s personal assets. Attorneys can assist you in receiving maximum compensation for the injuries and suffering caused by aggressive dogs.
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