buster the show dog
Posted : 7/12/2007 4:00:30 PM
ORIGINAL: janet_rose
is it physically possible for a dog to "tie" with a human?
A "tie" normally occurs when the male dog penetrates the female and then the bulbo-urethral glands along the penis swell up. Separating the male and the female before the glands go down can cause severe damage to the female.
If the humans pulled the boy away from the dog before the glands went down, then their ignorance may be responsible for the damage to the boy.
This was my thought too. I know that in bizarre cases of sexual abuse, it often turns out that a family member or step-parent is very often the actual perpetrator. But, I tend to think this story is essentially accurate, especially since it has apparently been corroborated by witnesses outside the family. It could still turn out to be that the abuse was actually inflicted by a human, but for now, my money is on the dog having done it. I suspect that there really was a tie, and that people who don't know about the mechanics of dog reproduction understandably panicked and made the situation worse by trying to force a separation. It was a horrible incident, probably made worse by the reaction of witnesses, but I can't say that I blame people for not knowing what to do and not do in a situation like this.
I do think it is very unfortunate that this is being labeled as sexual "assault" though. I know that in the case of humans, sexual abuse really is about violence and acts of aggression, rather than sex
per se, but really, if this occured as described, I don't think that what the dog did was an aggressive act. The dog was acting on an instinctive urge, and horrific as it was, I don't see it as being an "assault" or an attack or an aggressive act. Of course, from the child's point of view, the dog's motives don't matter one bit. But from the point of view of whether this dog is inherently dangerous, I don't think that is necessarily so. I have very little tolerance for companion animals that are truly aggressive toward humans unless severely provoked. But I think that this dog could probably be quite safe with just a bit of minor surgery and ownership by an average dog owner who had an average amount of common sense.
Although I do think that there is often a "blame the victim" mentality amongst dog-people when a dog attack occurs, I don't think that the discussion in this thread falls into that category. People are discussing the plausibility of whether a dog can actually have a tie with a human. While people have repeated the mantra that dogs and toddlers shouldn't be left alone for even brief periods, no one is coming close to blaming the victim here.