The man's Tibetan mastiff bit the neck of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl surnamed Li around 7 p.m. on Thursday near a grocery store in the city's high-tech zone, according to a police officer with the city's public security bureau.
Li's mother, who took her daughter to the store to buy drinking water, and
others used bricks and sticks to get the dog away from the girl. She then took
her daughter to a local hospital, where she died, said the officer.
The dog's owner, a man surnamed Bi, illegally raised the Tibetan mastiff since April 2012. He has been detained for negligent homicide, and police have taken the mastiff to a dog pound.
Also on Thursday, a male mastiff freed itself from its chains and attacked two passersby, a man and a woman, in Beijing's Pinggu District. The attack happened around 9 a.m., when the dog's owner had the mastiff chained up outside so he could clean the doghouse. The woman sustained injuries to her back and leg, and the dog bit the man in his arm and shoulder, according to the district's public security bureau.
On June 15, police in the city of Ningbo, east China's Zhejiang Province, shot dead a Tibetan mastiff as it attacked a 52-year-old man surnamed Wang. Wang's injuries were not life threatening.
According to China Central Television, video surveillance footage from June 3 showed a Tibetan mastiff tackle a little girl playing on the side of the road in Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province. The dog bit her and did not release her until a passerby hit it with a motorcycle and two sticks. After surgery, the girl's thigh injuries were not life threatening.
The Tibetan mastiff is a large dog, which can be as tall as 32 inches and weigh up to 180 pounds.
They can be aggressive. In recent years, because it is quite rare and expensive to buy, Tibetan mastiffs have become a popular pet for many rich Chinese. The dogs have also been smuggled into Hong Kong for wealthy buyers.
Cases of ferocious attacks by large dogs have been frequently reported in China, although raising these sorts of dogs are banned in many cities.
(scmp.com - June 28, 2013)
