Rottweilers Kill 4-Year-Old Girl in Latest Deadly Upstate Dog Attack
www.thestate.com
By TERESA KILLIAN
May 4, 2005, SPARTANBURG, SOUTH CAROLINA -- Less than 24 hours after two Rottweilers killed their owners’ 4-year-old daughter, the dogs were euthanized at the family’s request.
The grandmother of Asia Turner said the girl’s parents never again wanted to see the 3-year-old male dogs, Duke and Luke. The dogs were put down just before 1 p.m. Tuesday. “It’s not going to bring Asia back, but it will sure keep the dogs from doing another attack,” Lana Bogan said. “If they do it once ....”
Asia apparently wandered outside her family’s 231 Stone Hill Drive house Monday afternoon without the knowledge of her father, who was inside with her little brother.
Matt Turner found his badly injured daughter about 5 p.m. Monday near the dog, which was tethered to a tree. Their other Rottweiler apparently broke out of a fenced enclosure.
Though the dogs had made neighbors nervous, the Turners never imagined they would hurt their little girl. “I pray people with big dogs that say, ‘That’s the family dog. It’d be all right’ ... I hope they think twice,” Bogan said.
Asia’s death marked the third fatal dog attack on a child in Spartanburg County in less than two years, said Don Arnold, director of Spartanburg County’s Environmental Enforcement Department. All involved large dogs — Rottweilers, pit bulls and Great Danes — that were on chains. Though chaining animals is a common practice to keep dogs on a person’s property and in compliance with the law, it can be dangerous.
Dogs’ instincts and defensiveness can prove deadly for children or elderly people who unknowingly step across the invisible line of a tethered dog’s territory. “I view a chained dog just like a loaded gun,” Arnold said. “... It’s only a matter of time.”
It’s not a dog’s breed that makes it potentially dangerous, but “the bigger dogs, the stronger dogs — like your Rotties, pit bulls, Great Danes — when they bite, something bad happens just because of their very size,” Arnold said.
Asia’s grandmother said the Turners’ Rottweilers originally belonged to other family members, and Asia’s father, Matt Turner, continued caring for them when the others were not able to. Duke and Luke went with the Turner family when they moved about a month ago to Stone Hill Drive. Asia seemed comfortable with them, and the family has pictures of them together. She loved animals — from cats to her new puppy, Hershey.
But Arnold said sometimes a child squealing or fast movements can trigger a dog’s instincts to chase or bark. Often children have not learned how to react safely — not to run and to avoid eye contact — to a dog’s bristled up hair and low growls.
“A child can’t read that dog telling them, ‘Stay away, you’re in my territory,’” Arnold said.
In 2004, a pit bull-Labrador mix chained in a side yard in Greer killed a 19-month old boy.
In 2003, a 2-year-old in Roebuck was found fatally injured near a neighbor’s chained Great Danes.
Investigators don’t know what triggered the attack on Asia. Arnold wondered whether the dog that was loose fought with the chained dog and Asia tried to stop them. Or maybe she wandered into the area where the dog was chained, perhaps to retrieve her puppy.
“Everyone will have an opinion, but all the evidence tells us is there was an attack,” Arnold said. “There is a deceased victim. Both dogs participated.”
Meanwhile, Asia’s family is grieving for the little girl who was anything but shy and withdrawn. Neighbors said she often wandered over to their houses. Bogan said Asia eagerly gave hugs and said, “I love you.”
The family isn’t sure how they are going to pay for the funeral after just buying the house. Bogan was hoping her granddaughter could be buried next to her mother’s father, so she wouldn’t be alone. Her mother wants to dress her like a princess, because she enjoyed princesses.
No charges have been filed in the case. Sheriff’s investigators will meet with the 7th Circuit Solicitor’s Office to review the information to determine whether any further action will be taken.
Arnold could explore issuing citations against the dog’s owners, such as failure to display rabies tags, but he does not expect to. “They’ve been through enough,” Arnold said.
