dog shredded my fence

And most shelters will not return a dog intact. He'll most likely get neutered or they won't give him back until they have a contract with the owners to do so.

(read with a lot of sarcasm)Well, I can see you're dealing with some wonderful  people there.
 
Hopefully all this gets straightened out soon, and the dog gets fixed and contained in his own yard.

You may not like what I'm going to say, but I think you should just take care of the fence yourself.  NOT because your neighbor isn't an idiot, which she is, but because you have a WIRE fence.  Any fence separating a toddler from an intact male dog should not be a see-through fence, IMO.  You can still try to recover some cost, but if it were me, I'd want a sturdier fence anyway to keep both child and dogs safe.

Anne, I agree with you, BUT, she shouldn't HAVE to invest in different fencing because of someone elses irresponsibility.  That's just wrong.

Personally, I would have called 911 the instant I entered the house and told them the neighbors dog attacked my child.

You got lucky.  That dog may have been playing but with the other dogs present it could very easily have turned bloody with your child in the middle.

Those people need a serious wake-up call and nothing short of the threat of a lawsuit is going to stop them.

That sounds terrible! Has your neighbor made any payment arrangements yet?
 
Maybe you could try sprinkling one of those "animal away"  type of products around the outside of your fence. I have no idea if they work or not, but it would not hurt to try one out. There are several kinds in the petsmart catalog.

there is another current thread in  this section about a woman's  neighbor with a 3 year old calling police because of her dogs and a hole in the fence...
 
is it possible that the two of you are writing about each other here?

All I can say is WOW you are so lucky! I see two people at fault here, no Doubt the dog owner and the parent who has a 3 year old outside by himself.

 oinest,  Have you read the other thread? The dogs of the woman in the other thread have not gone into the neighbor's yard or caused any problems whatsoever. The neighbor who threatened to call the police is the one who is really at fault and could legally be charged with harassement.

Whoa, I think we need to keep the two threads completely separate.
 
In this case, the child was outside alone ONLY while Mom hung the phone up.  She was standing at the door watching her child play and turned around only long enough to hang up the phone.  And, personally I see nothing wrong with allowing your child to play in your SAFE AND FENCED back yard for a few minutes unattended.  That's why we make our yards safe...so that the kiddo's CAN play while we run to the bathroom without having to make THEM go in as well.
 
In the OTHER, unrelated thread we've gotten an ever changing story of first an old and ricketey fence, and then it's only 3 years old with minor damage.....but regardless, that OP leaves LARGE dogs outside alone and unattended while she is away and her neighbor is worried about his child.  I don't call that harrasement, I call it a concerned parent.  Dogs do NOT belong outside unattended.  Especially if the fence is questionable and their are little ones next door.

I am so sorry about your son and the dog.  He may not have been hurt physically but he should not have to go through such a thing.  I had a dog who was very much like your neighbors.  I tried everything to keep him in the yard and I think he was the master of escape.  He even chewed his collar off.  The vet said I did not put it on correctly so he put it on and the dog still chewed it off.  My dog also chased people down the street for fun.  He would never bite them but he was big and it can be scary.  No one complained but I knew I could not have such a dog so I gave him to a rancher I know and he is so happy chasing deer and never catching them. 
If I were you I would not talk to the neigbor anymore about the dog.  If the dog does anything like he did with your son again call 911 first and file assault charges.  If you can take the dog for a ride to another town where there is a shelter.  Good luck.

This neighbor lady did finally call back today, not to apologize or talk about payment for the fence but only to tell me that she knows her dog and he couldn't have done this and to tell me that she was putting up a fence using cattle pannels, and would be more than happy to let me have any scraps of that that I would like to fix my fence.  and yes, she is seriously thinking that I would be ok with patching my 4' fence with pieces of 6' cattle pannel -not in a million!
I have a meeting with my lawyer on Tuesday.  I'll keep you all updated on the happenings. 
 
At least she is putting up a fence...I just hope she pays the money to put it up correctly, otherwise it will do no good and he'll be out again. 
 
Meg