This is a bit of a read, it is a story of what happened in my life today.

Around 3pm this afternoon I get a call from the receptionist at the front desk while at work, she says I have an emergency call. I try to contact home and get no answer. Finally the receptionist says that the one who is calling me is still on hold and that she will patch me through and she proceeds to do so.

I answer the call and my girlfriend is histarical crying on the phone telling me that I have to come home ASAP. My 2 year old neice had just been bitten in the face by the family dog.

I rush home to find the house empty other than my girlfriend and daughter, my sister and neice have already been brought to the hospital. I was told that the dog took a chunk out of the side of her face and bit her left eye as well.

This was all due to my neice enjoying it when she antagonizes the dog, a 10 year old Labradore/Rotweiler mix who has always been very friendly and loving. She was hitting him in the face with sticks today and yanking on his tail, she aggrevated him to his boiling point. She later on walked out the back door, approached the dog and he immediately pounced at her.

What I had been told was that her left eye looked crushed in when they were first able to see it, although it was gushing blood. We feared the worst, not to mention of course that she still had a severe wound to the side of her face around a half inch deep and over an inch wide and 3-4 inches in height.

When I arrived at the hospital it was upsetting seeing my neice, who calls me "Junky Justin" doped up on morphine and her face covered in gauze, but she was in great spirits, probably because of the morphine. She was still giving her "Junky" high-fives and smiling, which the doctors said was good because she appeared to not have any nerve damage.

Then came the time when they had to check her eye.

They removed the gauze and her top left eyelid was sliced all the way across and her bottom eyelid partially severed. They then proceeded to try to open the eye to take a look and it was hard listening to her scream, not even the morphine helped her there.

It was opened up and inside I saw a perfectly in tact, undamaged eye. A huge sigh of relief came across me as I hugged my sister who broke down at that point because she was overcome with absolute joy. She thought her daughter lost her eye that day.

By the time I left to go home I found that she will take around 3-6 months to fully recover and should look fine after all the plastic surgery and such is complete but she will probably end up with what is called "Droopy Eyelid" for the top portion of her left eye and they are still uncertain about her vision.

Why did I decide to write all of this?

They aren't putting the dog down.

Then you should.

Edit: And I don't mean shoot it. I mean report it. I think by law, they must destroy it. If a dog attacked my niece, I would make sure that dog was never around her again, regardless of who owned it.

Justin forgot to mention, our daughter also lives in the household with this dangerous dog...shes only 9 3/4months old so pretty soon she will be antagonizing him as well...VERY SCARY.

I think he should be put down stat.

I'm wondering if the police could possibly force his parents to put the dog down since it was reported? Anybody know about the law in nys? I can't seem to find it online..

wait, whose property is this dog?

justins parents. we live with them.

I think they are absolutely insane.

I understand that what the dog did wasn't entirely his fault. Dogs have a bite threshold and his was incredibly high. Getting hit with sticks and getting his tail yanked all the time was sure to aggrevate him beyond his threshold.

Of course still, even though I love this dog to death, I know what should be done, but seeing as how the dog is not mine I don't know in what position I'm at currently. My sister is an animal lover and loves him to death, she has for 10 years now, as does my Mother and Father.

I am the lone voice in a crowd of opposers. Going ahead and getting this done on my own is sure to have big repercussion when it comes to my family.

It is a situation most uncomfortable.

That's horrible.

It's tragic for everyone involved, including the dog - but when the dog bites a kid in the face, you can't let them stay around.

A quick search I found this site:

http://www.albanyny.org/Government/Departments/Police/SpecialOperations/AnimalControl.aspx

Not your city, but they should know the state laws. I would give them a call tomorrow.

Yes.

I was reading up afterwards on what makes dogs tick and what gets them to ultimately bite. It is of course stressors.

Unfortunately in his old age it seems as though his stressor became children.

For a while now he has shown dislike for children, but nothing to the point where you thought he would attack.

In his younger years he used to be an absolute mush with kids.

This is a very sad day.