Nintendogs Blamed for Enticing Real Dog to Attack Child

[VanityGirl]

This sounds like a problem of dog training. My gosh, what if she'd be watching All Dogs Go to Heaven or something? If a dog attacks at the sound of a dog bark, then there's a HUGE problem. Regardless of whether or not the game got the dogs attention, the fact is this shouldn't have happened.

 

[Spongebobdickpants]

thats why im a cat person .

Isnt it weird that it seems that cats get away with biting and scratching a human where as dogs are not? lol

well a cat wont bite my lip off will it?

But it may scratch your eye out.

Theoretically it could but in real world terms there are very few cases were they have,but an extrodinary amount of cases of violent dogs.Cats are much safer than dogs,fact.Also cats are cooler (ofc thats my opinion)

 

[One of Many]

Ok imma get this done quickly

1 Game barks *ding*
2 Dog mistakes barks for rival dog *ding*
3 Dog cannot find source and goes to nearest probable source *ding*
4 Girl happened to be in the crossfire (so to speak)*ding*

Preventative steps:
1 Train dog *ding*
2 drop game if it is source of provoking sound *ding* (idc that its new f***** drop it)
3 and make sure that this does not happen again *ding*

There ya go video games had nothing to do with it just an overly aggresive/poorly trained dog mistook something for something else

Ah nevermind what ive said

Wait! You forgot the part where the kid kicked the dog for coming over to investigate the barking.

 

[Deleted]

It doesn't sound like the game's fault, since there is no reason to expect such an event could happen. This would not hold up in court but ti will hold up in the average moron's mind.

 

[emeraldrafael]

It's a bull mastiff. Why was it inside with a nine year old child in the first place?

Can we look beyond the fact of what this dog is? Everyone LOVES dalmations, but those things are so fucking inbred and insane they're actaully sold with a warning about living iwth one with kids. besides, what about this dog:

These things get big, and yet they're said to be some of the nicest dogs ever. I've seen what happens when you get into a tussel with those things, and its just not pretty. for anybody. (though, side note, yellow/white labs look epically cool when they have a splash of blood on their fur. and no, i'm not involved in dog fighting, I just live near a few semi bad neighborhoods).

anyway, obviously the dog was just acting on instinct. it heard another dog bark and it felt the need to react. Poor training and social dog skills are to blame in this.

 

[Tom Goldman]

While this might at first seem like the unjust blaming of videogames by a publication known somewhat for doing so (the Daily Mail), this attack actually could be the result of an unfortunate coincidence this time.

In this case, above others, it actually seems plausible that a videogame was partially and coincidentally responsible for a terrible event, though I wouldn't exactly blame Shigeru Miyamoto for a coincidence.

Coincidence means the exact opposite of what you think it means. Just so you know.

It was a coincidence that a game set the violent dog off. It could have been any number of other things, if a dog is as touchy as this. Get it now? Thanks for being a smart-ass though, always appreciated.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Owner's fault for failing to train dog correctly.

Potentially kid's fault for attempted self-defense causing escalation in the attack.

Dog breed's fault for being violent.

 

[DarthFennec]

This is fucking ridiculous. Even if the dog was responding to the barking, it's the dog's fault for going after her. Why would any sane person blame a video game for doing this, just because it was making barking sounds? It's supposed to do that, it's Nintendogs, if the dogs didn't bark it wouldn't make any sense. That would be like blaming a radiator for a hit and run, what the fuck? And blaming the game because she happened to be playing it at the time really puts all the blame on the kid, doesn't it? We already killed the damn dog for what it did, why do we need another scapegoat? I am so god damned tired of hearing this shit about people blaming games for every single fucking thing that goes wrong. Games are just toys, they never did anything to anyone ...

 

[Snotnarok]

It's only the games fault because video games are bad and make bad things happen. Remember kids this was the case for TV, Movies, and music, not anymore because that's silly blaming a popular medium completely for events. But games aren't mainstream enough so it's totally the games fault.

 

[Kittenmauler]

The girl "may have kicked the dog" = the girl kicked the dog. Just the grandmother trying to blame the game and throwing out some bullshit ambiguous statement to cover her ass in case the girl later admits that she provoked it.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

My knee-jerk reaction to this is to go "There they go, unjustly blaming video games for things." But when I think about it, I do think that the video game had something to do with it. Of course that's not the only thing that caused the event. Why the parents let a dog that big and that prone to attack stay unattended near a small child is beyond me. And although the video game was involved with it, replace the video game with a TV show with a barking dog and I imagine something similar would have happened. And did it say that the girl might have kicked the dog? Yeah, that's never a good idea...

In the end I think that the parents and maybe the kid are "to blame" (if there is any blame to be layed about). All and all I just think this was a tragic accident where several things came together that played out horribly.

 

[Spectre4802]

Hmm. Who to blame, who to blame. Tough desicion.

But you know what's going to be tougher? Selling Nintendogs again. Since it has this hanging over it's head, I bet it's sales are going to go down (even if it's just a little).

And the game is going to get partial blame at the very least. Games always do, regardless of the circumstances.

EDIT
Reading it again, it sounds like this girl was left alone with this dog sleeping in the other room. Where was said friend, I wonder? Where was said friends parents? It seems everybody (especially the newspapers and the family) is trying to push these other questions out of the way for the 'is the game to blame?' question that we all know and love.

I suppose I shouldn't really be surprised. This stuff gets more coverage, more readers and more people who play games going "oh for the love of god". And that equals coverage, readers, ect ect ect.

 

[CrazyMedic]

I think after all the stupid crap that does get put against games we are kinda touchy anytime a video could have done anything(if it is logical) it is the media against us, we have just gotten too touchy like that thing with the Chilean miners not getting video games we just automatically assume every time videos games are mentioned in the mainstream media we are being attacked, this happened to my cousin she was playing nintendogs and when my dog heard it bark it started barking back, and I believe a dog as aggressive as a bull mastiff and if she was new to the dog I belive 100% she COULD have brought the attack on or it could be the dog just went bonkers either way it was retarded to have a bull mastif around a kid.

 

[klaynexas3]

you can't blame the game entirely. if there was a dog on tv and it barked, same thing would've happened to the people watching tv. and if she kicked the dog, then i'm glad it bit her. feel bad that it's getting put down if that's the case. but you can't blame a video game for doing something like that. if that dog was that angry over the sound of another dog, maybe she should've been warned about that dog being so violent, and what pisses it off. and if she was, then stupidity should be the cause of her getting attacked, not the game.

 

[Quaidis]

thats why im a cat person .

Isnt it weird that it seems that cats get away with biting and scratching a human where as dogs are not? lol

well a cat wont bite my lip off will it?

But it may scratch your eye out.

Theoretically it could but in real world terms there are very few cases were they have,but an extrodinary amount of cases of violent dogs.Cats are much safer than dogs,fact.Also cats are cooler (ofc thats my opinion)

You would be terribly surprised how much more dangerous a cat bite is than, say, a dog of relative size. Cats come with hoards more bacteria due to their diet and licking habits. Some people who get bitten by cats they just adopt, stray cats, feral cats, and even the family's house cat can end up with a serious infection that could very easily threaten a body part, such as a few fingers.

Similarly, I was bitten by a cat. He got me right through the center of the wrist, straight into the muscle walls, and then again on the finger. I had to go to the hospital for shots and antibiotics, then my hand and arm swelled up something fierce for two weeks. My finger got a huge blister on the side. The cat had to get tested for rabies... Not fun.

... He was rabies free, btw.


Then again. Screw all that. Getting bitten by a dog sucks. I can at least forgive the cat.

And I own four cats.

 

[lacktheknack]

Yeah. I hate dogs, they can all go die, and this story has just reaffirmed that hate.

It wasn't the games fault though, of course. It's just stupid barbaric dog nature. She could have been watching a tv show about dogs. The only reason it went for her is because it was on her lap where the bark came from.

Actually, something went very wrong, because Bull Mastiffs don't do this.

Ever. Until now.

Bull Mastiffs are friendlier then people. So your little hatred spouting served no purpose except make me (a dog lover) sad.

 

[justnotcricket]

I *suppose* the sound of dogs barking could have set Saracen off, but (and I don't really know much about dogs), when Saracen came into the room, wouldn't he have been more puzzled at the lack of the dog he heard barking on his turf? Why attack a human he knows? But then, if Saracen was naturally unbalanced, it is the owner's fault for having him unrestrained around children (or anyone, really).

If the little girl did kick the dog, she pretty much had what was coming to her. It's terrible that she might have to get plastic surgery but I mean, come on, if you kick a dog...it's gonna get you back. This is a basic life learning experience if you haven't already registered that kicking people/animals is asking for trouble. And if it's a super kind, placid dog that just takes the kicking, then that makes the kicker even more nasty.

 

[IpunchFaces]

I find it very unlikely that a dog would just fly in and attack a human just because it heard an unfamiliar dog's bark that came from a handheld. And the possibility that the girl may have kicked the dog made it even harder to put the blame solely on the game.

But who knows? Maybe that bark was the at the right depth and pitch to be translated into a very vulgar curseword in dog-speak.