Sad News Out of Massachusetts

[centrop67]

According to several news outlets, a teenage boy volunteering to care for a person's property in Massachusetts was mauled to death by dogs.

I saw a post on one of the Facebook Groups around noon yesterday that stated that "8 Dutch Shepherds had mauled a little boy to death." The post was deleted shortly after, so I started looking for more news on the subject.

Despite some inconsistencies in the numbers and breed across the stories, it looks like there were 3 Dutch Shepherds and 1 Belgian Malinois loose on the property and 7 other dogs in cages. There were several mentions that the owner of the property had a background in training up to he trained dogs for the police. All 11 dogs are in the custody of animal control. The boy was 14 years old, and had volunteered to do chores on the property while the owner was away.

My heart goes out to the family of this young teenager.

Up until now there's no more detail about what happened, and except for finding out whether the dogs are euthanized, I doubt we'll ever have all the answers.

Based on some other information that I've seen, though not a totally reliable source, the owner was in fact a very experienced dog trainer.

I don't expect this event to be very positive for the Dutch Shepherd breed, but I hope it's a cautionary tale for those that one one based on looks.

[Jay knowles]

Very sad news, I realise even with my dog I have to keep a very careful eye on her so as she behaves the way I want her to. Jay

[cocoman280]

From what I heard on the news it was 3 Belgian malinois and 1 Dutch Shepherd, such a tragic event either way.

[centrop67]

The latest news on this subject --> Story Link

Town officials: Dogs who mauled boy may not face dangerousness hearing

"This leads us to believe that a dangerousness hearing may not occur, but we're still waiting for word from investigators," (Mallory) Aronstein (Town Administrator) said. "We're waiting for some more information for us to make a better-educated determination about what to do to go forward."