Dog bites finger (courtesy jokeroo.com)

I’m not a violent person. Sure, I kicked ass on the ice rink back in the day. But that day was thirty-six years and two wives ago. And ice hockey is to countering a violent attack what Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders are to the Tennessee Golden Girls Senior Softball Team. I’m not saying the Golden Girls couldn’t kick my ass or a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader for that matter (assuming no pre-nup), but . . . what was I saying? Oh yeah, I don’t know if I could do this. Could you? “The boy reached to pet the dog, who was in its cage, through the slots in the cage door,” dailymail.co.uk reports. “The dog bit the boy’s left hand, completely severing the pinky and possibly breaking his forearm. The boy’s father then shot the dog multiple times, killing it – then he ‘retrieved the severed finger from the dog’s stomach,’ according to the sheriff’s office.”

67 COMMENTS

  1. Could I shoot your dog dead or my dog dead that bit off a child’s finger and then gut the dog open to retrieve the finger so the surgeons could hopefully re-attach it? Uh, let me think about this real deep: YES.

      • Shotguns are still widespread in ownership, especially when compared with center fire rifles and pistols. That’s my guess, as ownership restrictions are much less stringent for shotguns, seen as having sporting purpose.

  2. Though not caged, I face that problem with my girlfreinds Pomeranian on a regular basis. So yes, I probably would do that

    • My girlfriend has a Pomeranian as well that thinks its an attack dog. It’s not big enough to swallow a pinky but I’m not above bunting it over the fence.

      • Mine thinks the same thing. My brand new $60 sneakers were victim to it on our first date. That thing had a set of teeth, thats for sure

        • You were out of your shoes and preocuppied on a first date long enough for a rat dog to mangle your sneaks?

          High five and chest bump, In Memphis.

        • If your dog mangled a woman’s shoes she would expect or demand you reimburse her. We must have equality so I hope she paid you $60. It’s only fair.

      • My wife has one of those and I can’t stand the thing. It is noisy, constantly in the way, and will piss on the floor without even asking to go outside.

    • I love dogs, but make an exception for yappers like Pomeranians. To me, they were an automatic “red flag.” Any leashed dog that turns into a kite on a windy day is no bueno. Ditto with anything that actually leaves the ground whilst barking. The thing that I like best about coyotes is that they reacquaint little rat dogs with their proper place in the food chain. Which, incidentally, is at least one step below a coyote.

    • That teeny dog with the Doberman colors isn’t hurting anyone. His teeth are ticklers not weapons. Not the best lead in to this story?

  3. For my two year old, I’d cap our puppy and perform a surgery to retrieve affected limb. Dogs should never, ever, bite a a family member. The only reason I don’t say anyone is because biting an intruder in the home maybe wouldn’t be the worst thing. But even then I would rather them just bark and let me know there’s a problem. Then I’ll be the one doing the “biting”.

  4. Poking ones’ extremities into a dog cage is a big no-no. Luckily, it wasn’t a more valuable member than a pinky.

    It seems that they shot him through a CAGE. Talk about “unforeseen results”!

  5. Uh… You are a father, right?
    I’m not, and I’m telling you, Yes, I’d kill that mut, gut it, and retrieve my child’s finger.

  6. I’m going to go against the obvious tide here, and say that missing pinky finger is a small price to pay for an 11 year old who doesn’t know not to reach in to cages.

    I bet he knows now, btw.

      • Nope. You gotta be tough to be dumb. Some people have to learn simple lessons the hard way.

        • Doesn’t seem like an important enough life lesson to warrant permanently losing a pinky. getting your finger bitten off by a dog would certainly serve to toughen you up and teach a lesson. A dog should never bite a kid. It’s just a rule.

    • Second, this wasnt that dogs first rodeo with tearin up limbs and that 11 year old was probably as sharp as a hammer. Lesson learned.

  7. Causing the demise and performing a necropsy on a wayward pet is not something I would have a problem with.

  8. I’ve killed and gutted animals of different types, from doves to cows. I’ve killed a dog when I felt threatened by a pack in the woods. Yes, a .22 will drop a good sized dog. Add the motivation of having an injured child or grandchild and I doubt I would hesitate in the least.

  9. Could I? I am not a parent, but Hell Yes! There isn’t any question in my mind.

    Humans trump dogs. Each time. Every time.

    I don’t care if the dog has been my faithful companion through thick and thin, who has stood by my side in the pouring rain. Who has attacked would-be burglars. My kids will come first before ANY animal, on four legs or two.

    • “Humans trump dogs. Each time. Every time.”

      Except, of course, for those cases where dog trumps human. Like if/when my GSD is chowing down on an intruder. The human might get shot. My pup gets a cookie.

      • I’d rather spend time with my dog than anybody’s kid. . .

        Here’s the thing: The dog was in a cage for a reason; Good ol’ Daddy knew what kind of a dog he had, else it wouldn’t have been CAGED. Therefore, good ol’ Daddy set up the kid to lose the finger–by which, considering the scenario as a whole and given the genetic likelihood that Junior was as bright as good ol’ Daddy, sticking his hand into a dog CAGE simply reduced his nose-picking/booger-eating ability by a mere 10%.

        I’m sure good ol’ Daddy feels very self-righteous right about now, how he saved he chillen’s finger an’ all from that bad ol’ dog. Me, I figger it’d been better to put a few bullets into good ol’ Daddy for being stupid and to prevent him from breeding any MORE Juniors who stick their fingers into dog CAGES.

  10. How does a dog break your forearm from biting your hand? I assume it was the kids reaction to being bitten that could “possibly” break the forearm?

    • A good sideways yank with the mid-arm against the bars. Probably contributed to the severed finger as well.

  11. I shared this with my 12 year old daughter just now.
    “But daddy how can you kill an animal that you love? Can’t you just take him to the vet to get an operation without having to put him down?”
    “You see baby, there’s this thing called gastric acid that just doesn’t wait for you to get to the vet’s office”
    SO Yup………

  12. If it was YOUR finger, what would you do? I’d be getting that finger back one way or another.

  13. Ahh, I see this took place in FL. I was all kinds of confused thinking this happened in the U.K., where words like “gun” don’t exist.

      • The one bit of truth that everyone should have learned from “Loveline” back in the Carolla days – it’s either Germany or Florida.

        • Florida? Excuse me for defending us, but people in other states do stupid things around dogs also.
          Some examples from this article:
          http://azstarnet.com/news/local/dog-bites-man—a-lot/article_6deea92e-8990-5cdd-98a5-f347371f14eb.html/

          Hospital admissions for dog bites at University of Arizona Medical Center:

          2008: 170

          2009: 206

          2010: 270

          2011: 290

          2012: 328

          Some people like Trudy Jacobson have been bitten after approaching a stranger’s dog. Jacobson, 59, lost the bottom part of her lip last June when she tried to kiss a Doberman at the Reid Park dog park. The dog was old, deaf and blind.

          Tucson caregiver Nancie Roahrig learned her lesson about interfering in a dogfight the hard way. She still isn’t sure what caused her father’s Maltese, Ozzie to attack her son’s larger mixed-breed dog, Jade, on Dec. 15.
          (snip)
          Though her finger was crushed, she managed to twist Jade’s collar until the dog dropped Ozzie. She ended up in the emergency room because Jade had bitten through the joint. She now has a pin in her finger and a fused bone. Her top knuckle does not bend.

          So until the rest of you never see another news item on dog bites, lay off FL. 😀

  14. Yeah – likely. I think this might be where the hunter’s familiarity with death and dead things gives him (or her) a leg up. I’m not a medic anything but I’ve certainly been covered in blood – fish, bear, bird, etc…. If a dog did something like that – I don’t think I’d hesitate. Tough to say for sure that I’d have the clear head to choose the right course of action. But the idea of shooting and gutting a dog doesn’t phase me.

  15. Huh, times have changed. When I was maybe 5 or 6 I dangled my hand over a fence and the neighbors German Shepard tore it up pretty good. I got a visit to the ER,some surgery later, a thorough ass-whipping and my mom completely tramuatized the poor E1 or E2 Air Police who attempted to come impound said animal. Learned my lesson though.

  16. I’d like to know if the Doctors were able to reattach it.
    Between the acid and time constraints it would have
    been close.

  17. What kind of man wouldn’t shoot a dog that just bit anyone’s finger off? I’d shoot a dog that just bit off the finger of an enemy. People come before dogs, and any self-respecting human being should understand that.

    • Weelll… an enemy?

      If my house were invaded, I’d be alright with my dog shredding the belligerent(s).

    • This isn’t a simple comparison of value of finger and value of dog, though personally I think I would value a good personal guard dog more than I value a good pinky.

      If man opens a child’s cage (if children were caged) and lets his dog in, and dog bites off finger, finger comes before dog. If dog and child run to each other on public property, and dog bites of finger, finger may come before dog.
      However, this is presumably a dog properly confined by a responsible man, and an irresponsible child/father combination who entered the other man’s property. If a child is not mature/smart enough to know where to not walk, climb, or stick his fingers, he is not old enough to walk without physical containment. I was told as a child to be very cautious, not pet dogs without owner’s permission, not walk on others’ property or touch their possessions without permission, not put my hand in unknown things, and to be kind to, yet cautious of, strangers.

      Despite a decrease in quality of life, people can live without that finger, and I have known a couple. If the child’s life was truly in danger, the father should have run as fast as possible to seek medical help, rather than perform a finger extraction, to POSSIBLY reattach the finger, after firing a gun in a probably populated area. Guns (outside of hunting) are to shoot someone who is trying to kill you, so that you may live.

      Parents who carefully watch their children are seen as overbearing or over protective. Then when something happens to the child of a more relaxed parent, it’s time to shoot a dog, sue someone, push for health regulations, safety regulations, gun control, etc. It is easier to join the crowd and expect more state protection, and blend in when it doesn’t work, than to appear paranoid and obsessive, be safe, and not fit in socially.

      In this situation, there were two acts of trespassing, and neither was by the dog owner.

  18. Wait… what? I thought the leaders in the UK in their infinite wisdom removed all the guns from everybody? You know, to make things safer for kids and old people…..

    Sorry, my bad… the DailyMail is reporting on an incident here in my lovely state of Flori-duh. I do have to wonder, however, why they used pictures of pitbulls when it wasn’t a pitbull in the cage?

      • Which is why CNN got piers morgan. He couldn’t hack it as a real journalist so he came to the U.S. to pretend like the rest of our MSM.

        • That, and he doctored photos to make it appear that British troops were committing war crimes. . . . And now he’s here.

  19. Well, if you had SWAT training, you’d shoot the dog if it was sleeping and the kid was running around the yard playing Cat’s Cradle with all his digits.

    • Hey, sometimes shooting a dog is actually the right thing to do. For what it’s worth, I have a CHP friend who tased an aggressive pitbul instead of shooting it.

  20. When I was fifteen, a largish Heinz from three houses, a corner and some professional buildings away rushed the front door and clamped its jaws on the right foreleg of my much smaller Lab.

    Eight seconds later, I introduced Dogzilla’s muzzle to a 20 ounce Estwing ripping hammer.

    In a word, yes. One does what one has to do.

    I suspect that most of your readership shares this trait.

  21. Absolutely! I’ve dissected dogs, and I could retrieve the finger, no problem.

    I’m not sure about the wisdom of reattaching it. The reattached pinky is unlikely to ever develop sense of touch or be functional. My first concern would be to prevent bacterial infection in the patient.

    Charlie

  22. If a dog bit a child’s pinky off you bet your sweet you know what I would put that dog down and gut it for the finger. Humans > Dogs all day every day.

  23. Besides the fact that any “pet” that would feel it’s OK to remove a finger should have it’s right to life terminated, I would not administer the cure as described. I would take it outside first. Less mess to clean up.

  24. My friend brought his 7 month old Caucasian Ovcharka over this weekend. 7 months old, 110#s. I don’t know if I carry enough ammo to put one of those mothers down.

    On a serious note. Yes, I could do that. I love my dog, he’s a member of my family. He is not an equal member of my family. If he ever bit one of us, barring EXTREMELY extenuating circumstances, that dog is gone (which is more generous than I was taught). If he ever bit a child’s finger off simply because he stuck his finger in his cage, I’d shoot him on the spot.

  25. I love dogs but if one of those little things went after one of my kids like that. I wouldn’t need a gun to kill it and probably wouldn’t need a knife to retrieve the finger… Just saying…

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