Thread: odd wound from a "dog bite"

so, one co-worker brings his +5 y/o daughter to the shop occasionally, and leaves her in the office part of the building where some rooms have doors and others are just open cubicles. she hangs out in one of the cubicles. most times she is left unsupervised but no one ever minded it.

the other co-worker brings his cocker spaniel dog every day. on cold days like today, he brings the pooch to the office of one of the managers, rather than next to him in a small area where he works in the vast warehouse. he keeps the dog safely confined by setting up a 2 foot tall barrier in the open doorway, which makes the dog easily accesible to anyone walking by in the hallway who wished to greet him if he so choosed to so. the girl and the dog in days past have played with each other when that manager is around in her office.

both co-workers stay in the warehouse away from their subjects for a long duration of the day.

early yesterday morning after both guys arrived and dropped off their charges in their respective places before heading out into the warehouse, the incident happened in which the girl suffered an apparent bite to her mouth leaving a bloody mess, in the office where the dog is kept. the manager did not arrive til later.

the receptionist whose desk isn't far from the office down the hallway, had passed by earlier and saw the dog asleep on a chair in the corner far from the doorway. he was at reception desk for only a short moment when he heard the blood-curdling scream. his initial reaction was that the dog had bitten her.

the girl was taken to the ER and received 12 stitches to the lip. then, today I was shown a few photos that were taken at the ER of the girl's wound. looking at the wound before she got stitched up, I noticed no other puncture marks that would be commonly consistent with a dog-bite. there was just a clean deep cut from the side of her nose and down and out through her upper lip.

my thoughts are that there was no dog bite. the dog might have gotten excited as he awoke to her sneaking over the barrier and into the office to quietly greet him. he could have raised his fore leg to paw at the girl's face, his claw somehow having gotten caught and ripped down her lip, splitting it open.

or maybe she fell akwardly and bumped face-first into the corner of the desk in the office.

now, other than blaming both co-workers for leaving their charges wholly unsupervised, although one of them more safely confined than the other, what are your thoughts on this particular wound?

thank you in advance. I just need to get this off my chest as it was an horrible situation which should not have happened in the first place. there has been way too much speculations swirling around amongst the workforce in the building.

Obvious questions:Why is the 5 year old not in school or is this after school hours? What is your companies policy about dogs in the work place?

Another scenario I could see that might have seen the child get injured would be the child was playing too roughly with the dog and it clawed her face. Not just scared the dog while it was sleeping, but doing something like pulling it's tail/ears, hugging it too tight, or trying to pick it up. I don't think that would be out of the ordinary for a child that age not being able to pick up on the signals that they are being too rough with the dog. The most well-behaved, well-trained pet is going to attack at some point if scared, feels threatened, or someone is being rough with it.

As a pet owner, I would feel horrible at the idea of my pet attacking a child, but on the other hand, it doesn't look like a bite and no one saw it happen or what might have provoked the attack, if it was the dog. If I were the parent I would feel worse. Why are you bringing your child to work, especially a smaller child with less capacity to keep itself entertained safely without supervision? A 10 or 12 year old can play on the computer, play listen to their ipod, read, do homework to keep themselves entertained. A 5 year old with very little supervision is going to get themselves in trouble. Any building with divided office and warehouse space seems rather large and potentially dangerous, even if there weren't dogs, to leave a small child with limited supervision.

If I had to say one side was more at blame than the other, I'd say it's Dad who left the kid unsupervised. It might not be appropriate to bring your dog to work, although it sounds like your work didn't have problems with it, but it's more inappropriate to leave a small child with limited or no supervision.

I will say getting an honest answer out of the child without leading them on will be extremely difficult if the child has any inkling to themselves that this might be their fault. Not to say a child was guilty, but if they feel like there is the possibility that they did something wrong the truth typically goes out the window.

Situation is bad I agree. For what it's worth I grew up not going to preschool but running around my dads autobody shop. By 5 I was sweeping floors, sanding cars and sorting invoices in the office. My closest brothers and sisters in age were 14 months each way from me and they were doing the same. I'm sure child and protective services/OSHA would have **** a brick had they seen us playing in the paint thinner bins and whatnot but for us it was an awesome childhood. We also had dogs at the shop and they ran around free. Worst that ever happened to us though was my brother was bitten pretty good by a rat, and there were some close calls with sheet metal and fingers.

Sadly now that this has happened and with todays climate I'd say everyone else is going to blame these 2 for giving them this problem rather than trying to take from it what they an and move on.

No winners here. I would think management would ban both the girl and dog from future access to his shop. Sadly the little girl will have a disfiguring life long scar on her face. I understand the little girl being brought in, as you said on occassion- due to lack of a baby sitter. Allowing the employees dog in a workplace is where the fault should be cast.

Is it possible the dog jumped up and smashed her face and cut her open ? My dog has done that not to the point of needing stiches but he has drawn blood.

no matter what really happened the Companies insurance will take the hit here. Why they would put themselves in that situation is beyond me. Dogs DO NOT belong in the workplace unless you work at a Kennel or use a service dog. If you cant find a babysitter no the companies fault figure it out on your own, not the companies responsibility.

This thread is useless without pics.

And when I say that, I mean it's almost impossible to tell what the wound might really be from without seeing it.

Originally Posted by jammer06

Situation is bad I agree. For what it's worth I grew up not going to preschool but running around my dads autobody shop. By 5 I was sweeping floors, sanding cars and sorting invoices in the office. My closest brothers and sisters in age were 14 months each way from me and they were doing the same. I'm sure child and protective services/OSHA would have **** a brick had they seen us playing in the paint thinner bins and whatnot but for us it was an awesome childhood. We also had dogs at the shop and they ran around free. Worst that ever happened to us though was my brother was bitten pretty good by a rat, and there were some close calls with sheet metal and fingers.

My aunt and uncle used to own a liquor store. Periodically my sister and I would spend the night with them and she would us to work the next morning. She had us running the cash register, selling small things (no booze or tobacco) by the time we were six. I would have to stand on a milk crate to reach the keys but I would sell gum, candy and sodas. She'd let us go back in the cooler. A great lesson to teach a kid actually, how to count and make change. Also probably not the safest place to bring a kid.

I do think there is something different regarding kids and safety now then there was 20, 30, 40 years ago. Parents used to buy their kids things like lawn darts to throw at each other. My dad tells stores all the time about leaving the house at 8 am in the summer and not coming home until it got dark, not having to call and check in. Not being able to be reached by a cell phone every second.

Originally Posted by Dana

I do think there is something different regarding kids and safety now then there was 20, 30, 40 years ago. Parents used to buy their kids things like lawn darts to throw at each other. My dad tells stores all the time about leaving the house at 8 am in the summer and not coming home until it got dark, not having to call and check in. Not being able to be reached by a cell phone every second.

how I long for these days.

update: the dog has been banned from the premise. and the girl is almost 10. yup, here come the How Come She Isn't In School? questions.

on a side note, the father would be smart enough to not report the dog bite as the dog owner has the leverage of calling the CPS on him. win-win, anyone?