Television anchor, Kyle Dyer, was bitten in the face by a 85-pound Argentine mastiff named Gladiator Maximus during an interview this week. The dog was the scene of a heroic rescue in icy waters after falling into the water while chasing a coyote. Firefighter Tyler Sugaski who rescued the dog is shown here with the owner 39-year-old Michael Robinson. The video is below.
Robinson’s potential liability raises some interesting questions. He was cited with failure to have his dog on a leash, allowing a dog to bite and failure to have a vaccinated dog. The dog ran into the lake because he was not on a leash in the first place and Robinson allowed him to chase the coyote.
Under the common law, Robinson is protected by the “one free bite rule.” The rule is a bit of a misnomer, as reaffirmed recently in Georgia. It does not take one bite to put a pet owner on notice to attach strict liability. It is sufficient if a person knew or had reason to know the vicious propensity of the animals. If there were prior incidents or complaints, the case could resemble the case of lawyers Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel who were both sued civilly and convicted criminally in a horrific dog attack case.
There may be suggestions about a vicious propensity in the breed, though I have never seen such presumptions with mastiffs as opposed to breeds like pit bulls.
Chasing a coyote is not necessary evidence of a vicious propensity since most dogs chase animals. However, there may be other prior evidence of the propensity. If not, a case would be handled in negligence. Yet, there could be a plaintiffs’ conduct question in how the television lights and set would affect an animal and the failure of the studio to have better animal control precautions.
Source: Herald
Good news. Caesar, the Dog Whisperer, has spent some training time with the anchor so she won’t repeat her error.
What the hell was Dyer trying to do? French kiss the dog?
The reporter was wrong, she was invading his space and he defended himself as any dog would. I have 2 American Bulldogs and the boy
“Jr” looks just like Gladiator, my dog has felt threaten by stranger who were bothering him and has snapped at these people in self defense. Its the reporters fault wanting to kiss a strange dog. My dog gets respect where ever he goes you have to learn to respect such powerful animals. I feel very secure with my dogs they are great. I also have a chihuahua and they get along.
You can’t lower your face and make eye contact with a dog! That’s a very threatening motion to a dog. She essentially ‘squared’ up to it face to face. Dumb move on her part! What dumb idiot puts there face within inches of an animal? She needs cited for stupidity!
http://btownerrant.com/2012/02/10/dogs-are-not-people-theyre-smarter-and-more-communicative/
Animal owners and human responses to other creatures…
One among many examples of narcissism. We often think of this as simply just a kind of “me first” attitude, and it is to some degree, but more so, and this is where the genetic stupidity might come in, it is simply an inability to be outside the self at all–Narcissus is not captured by his own beauty, that is, he doesn’t “love” himself for any qualities–he is captured by ONLY having self-reflection in his mind. This is, to my thinking, the basis of all human ignorance, stupidity, boorishness, and lack of empathy.
If this “comes naturally” to dogs, as all of these commenters suggest, then maybe that is a problem? Why do we want a bunch of vicious dogs running around ready to bite every sleazy anchor gal that gets too close? Maybe we should come up with a “Final Solution” to this whole dog problem?
All these dog losers sound just like gun-owners, in their denial of how dangerous all these pit bull typed dogs really are, and how many lives would be saved if we banned them. Not that I think this anchor-gal’s life deserves to be lived.
I hope that what they have learned here is you don’t take an animal who has so recently been traumatized and put them in another traumatizing situation.
This owener should not be charged with anything, and the worst part of this whole situation is now they have a traumatized dog in quarentine for 10 days. They should put Kyle Dyer in quarentine for 10 days and let the poor dog go home. I wish Gladiator Maximum and his owner all the best.
I love how all these dog apologist losers are blaming the victim. Last time I was banging some ska.nk, I felt exactly the same way; I can’t believe she would drag her nasty tuna in front of my face when I was so horny, she deserved all eleven inches that I gave her.
Michael Vick would never have stood for that.
If that Commoner above lived near my dog pack we would be pooping in his yard on a nightly basis. And, be getting his newspaper in the morning.
The headlines should read: Anchorwoman molests dog and gets whats coming on live T.V.◄Ditto THAT
Commoner- please think before you type
Wow – I am amazed – and appalled, that any fault is found with the dog or the owner. The owner was doing a very good job of keeping the dog calm in a stressful environment. The dog was constantly under his control – and was never out of the owner’s hands. The dog never moved – not an inch – to bite Dyer – the interviewer. The owner could not predict Dyer’s actions – he is not a mind reader. Dyer was COMPLETELY at fault – she directly entered the dogs personal space – so closely that the dog only had to turn slightly and snap at her to bite her! This is NOT the owner’s fault, it is not the dog’s fault. It IS Dyer’s fault – completely. Not contributory – completely. This would be like somebody jumping in front of a moving car and trying to say the driver of the car was at fault. We don’t allow that, and with good reason.
I love dogs but I think all the posters here are full of it. I have seen little bites by a pit bull-their teeth are freaking sharp! My manager was feeding the dog meat and it very inadvertently bit his hand. If the dog bites purposefully put it down. I think the cop or whatever he is should have shot the dog if it didn’t calm down.