HurtandConfused,

Welcome to PC! This thread hits home. My daughter, now 18, was severely mauled by a dog in my in-laws yard when she was six years old. She had well over a hundred stitches to her face and head. The dog actually gouged her skull. The dog did not belong to my in-laws. My husband, father in law, brother in law and their next door neighbor were all first responders and worked for fire and rescue, but her injuries were so severe that they actually waited for the professional ambulance to come from a town 30 miles over to transport her to the first hospital to stabilize her then off to the second for surgery. As I said none of this was their fault but they were all right there for this tragic experience.

Fast forward 3 years later; Christmas dinner. My sister-in-law had brought her very old, blind decrepit black lab home for the holidays. My brother in law was over with his four small children. The youngest, 3, walked by the dog laying in the corner in the living room and the dog caught him right in the corner of the eye and ripped his face half way down to his chin. The kids and I walked into the house right after the dog bit my nephew. It may have been our arrival that prompted the attack as the older kids were excited by our arrival with a fresh load of presents. My husband had not arrived.

My first question of course was “what are you going to do with the dog?” I got a list of excuses a mile long, the dog is old and actually belongs to her roommate etc. It was a difficult conversation because I happen to adore this sister in law. I warned her that when my husband shows up, there isn’t an excuse in the world that will prevent him from bringing the dog out in the back woods and putting him down. Her roommate was quite disgusted and left (they live in lower Michigan, so the trip home was about 8 hours). Sure enough, my husband comes a few hours later, sees the baby with stitches in his face. He walked over to the gun cabinet and grabbed a gun and shells and asked where the hell the dog was.

Here’s the rub, hubby’s parents were sticking up for the dog, it was old, maybe the baby stepped on his paw or some such nonsense. I just couldn’t believe it! Our lawyer wanted us to sue their insurance company when our daughter was attacked because she was attacked on their property and the woman that actually owned the dog had no property in her name. And here was another animal attack on their property!

I may be unpopular now, but it is and has been my belief children need to learn how to handle pets, but I don’t care WHAT the child does, an animal should not bite. Period! Growing up we had every breed of dog imaginable and married we’ve had Rotts, mutts, Boston’s, yorkies, poodles and none of them have ever even snapped. Had they, we would have put them down.

On a different note, I don’t know how long you and you’re husband have been together. But my husband and I had these arguments for the first several years that we were married. It actually took his parents blowing off our kids for a number of years before he opened his eyes. I certainly don’t think you’re over reacting, but then again, I was where you are now.

I would lay it out in no uncertain terms. I would recommend marriage counseling. Both of you can lay it all out on the line and a third party can sort it out. Good luck and I hope that your child is healing well. My daughter still has pain in the winter where they sewed her ear back together. I’m sorry for the long post as well.