COMMENTARY | According to Good Morning America, a Denver NBC affiliate news anchor, Kyle Dyer, is recovering well after having been bit by a dog. The bite occurred on live television on February 8 as Dyer was covering a story about the dog being rescued from a frozen reservoir.
Dyer recently said that the bite was a fluke, and that she had inadvertently made the dog feel threatened when she bent down to kiss its nose during the broadcast. Indeed, I agree that it was not the best thing for her to have done, particularly with an animal who had so recently been through a traumatizing event and was traumatized further from all the attention he was receiving from strangers. It always amazes me how often people forget that animals are just that: animals. They don't understand things like media attention. They don't have the minds to appreciate such things.
That said, though, I fear that this won't be the last time that Max the dog bites someone. It has been my experience -- both personally and in witnessing other people's run-ins with biting dogs -- that if they do it once, they'll do it again.
I was also bit in the face by a dog. I was also told, at the age of 10, that I should not have gotten so close to the dog's face. I was the third person that the dog had bitten, and the only one of the three who had required medical treatment. Like Dyer, I recovered from the bite. Fortunately, my eyes were not injured and I was able to turn and avoid multiple bites. Had I been smaller or had the bite occurred in a different part of my face, I might not have been so lucky. From the experience, I learned not to approach dogs who don't know me very well and I have taught my children not to put their face close to an animal's face.
I think it is wise to teach children (and adults) to be cautious with animals. Yes, the animal is responding only by instinct and instinct is sometimes defensive whether it needs to be or not. However, I also think that the dog in Dyer's case has now shown itself to be vicious and that it should have been put down rather than simply being returned to its family. Dyer required 70 stitches from her run in with this animal. The next person it bites could be injured far worse.
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