kovah

I'm from the UK, I don't quite understand how stuff like parks can be closed, like we have visitors centers and stuff in national parks here in the UK which do close from time to time but the park itself is still open for camping/walking.

So are the parks closed completely like no one in or out for camping and walking and such or is it just visitors centers and stuff.

Many of those kind of stories often note 'The dog just snapped' But in most of the cases the dog was probably giving the clearest signs it could that it was uncomfortable. Subtle things like looking away, seeing the whites of the eyes, tensing up, moving away, micro-licking of lips are all stress signals but most people aren't paying enough attention to the dog to even see them. The first things they see/hear are the growl or see the teeth. Which is the last warning before the bite - which is not always aggressive outright but a communication of 'leave me alone' unfortunately depending on the size of dog and the size of the child can result in a very serious bite.

If the dog has issues on top of that - lack of training/socialisation whatever, possibly prey drive there can be a fatality especially on young children.

Some dogs may put up with children for years, the ear/tail tugging ect. But the dog gets an ear infection one week - the child tugs on the ear as it has always been allowed to do and hurts the dog. Boom. Dog bite and 'the dog just snapped'

Also in a lot of cases the guardian doesn't see the 'attack' happen, you can have the most well behaved dog but if a toddler falls and lands on the sleeping dog it will likely snap out of shock. Bite the kid, kid screeches and panics, the dog panics and may bite more out of fear and then its considered a mauling.

People don't like to believe their dog can be capable of hurting their child, but it is a dog and the only way to prevent this kind of thing is to keep them separated unless under direct supervision.