Now hold on just a minute...the man should have known you don't let small children around dogs when they are strangers, and you don't let them around when they are eating...

Tony

THE father of an eight-year-old girl savaged by a rottweiler has lashed out at the dog's "stupid" owner, and says the dog should be destroyed.

Jessie, 8, was helping her dad and uncle clean out cages and feed more than 20 rottweilers at a breeding farm at Snake Valley, near Ballarat, when she was attacked.

Police said they would take no action over the attack, because Jessie touched the dog's food while it was eating.

But her father Craig this morning told heraldsun.com.au his daughter was not touching the animal's food and criticised the dog's owner.

"I believe the owner is very very stupid, she doesn't have collars on any of the dogs which makes it very hard to control the dog when it has it's mind set on something,'' Craig, who refused to reveal his last name, said.

He said he had to belt the dog with a very large plank of wood to beat it off his daughter and the animal should be destroyed today.

"I am waiting for confirmation the dog has been destroyed.

"The dog had no reason to do what it did, it already had its food in front of it.

“It circled the food trolley twice and then attacked Jessie. There was no reason for it,'' he said.

Jessie is expected to be discharged from hospital today after enduring three hours of surgery for puncture wounds on her legs.

“It looks like there is no permanent damage, she will just have scars which will fade,’’ Craig said.

Mum Sue McGillivray said Jessie was in a feeding pen with her uncle when the dog turned and ran at her.

"She'd been there all day feeding, then one of the dogs just attacked. It went straight for her, jumped on her and latched on to her leg," she said.

Jessie said she couldn't prise the dog's jaws open.

"As soon as he got out of his kennel, he went straight for my leg," she said.

"He got on to that one and he ripped my pants and then got his teeth straight in.

"Then (uncle) Ian got it off this leg and it went straight for this leg and bit me everywhere."

Jessie's uncle used a plank of wood to prise the dog's jaws open but he couldn't hold the animal back.

You're right...could it possibly be that he was teasing the dogs himself, and the kid got in the way?

Beth

Sure looks like somebody is trying a cover-up here!
I find this rather strange.......

quote Jessie is expected to be discharged from hospital today after enduring three hours of surgery for puncture wounds on her legs unquote

puncture wounds do NOT require surgery!

hexie

You know how people are....tease, tease, tease, and look who pays the price

Michelle

I am not sure what to make of this because of the relationships, where does the uncle come into it with the kennel owner? And why was a young girl 'deployed' to feed the dogs or even clean the kennels?
I don't know what a food trolley is in dog terms but I guess that the dishes were on some form of transport and taken from kennel to kennel. That, of course, does not explain why the girl was bitten OUTside the kennels.
Neither does it say whether the girl was used to those dogs! If she wasn't, then what was she doing there?

Caro

Seems to me that somebody has been very careless and didn't supervise that child!
Rotties are very powerful dogs and to allow a child not used to handling them properly is a recipe for disaster.
I agree that puncture wounds do not need surgical operations, so that's another discrepancy in that story!
Lottie

Oh OH! There is something iffy here! But why did the father of the young girl allow her to go to that kennel - she is not a kennel maid and shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near those dogs, especially at feeding time. And if the owner does not put collars on the dogs, then she is negligent! My Rotties always wore collars and they were as soft as a plush toy!
Also, I agree with above comments re 'surgery'.......... puncture wounds are just that and only need a clean-up and a bit of dressing. So someone is either not telling facts or is exagerating!

Tom