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Nintendogs blamed for actual dog attack
eyeswideopen
Member Posts: 2,414
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6280073.html?tag=latestheadlines%3Btitle%3B4
Nintendogs blamed for actual dog attack
By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot
Posted Sep 29, 2010 4:24 pm PT
Parents of mauled British 9-year-old blame game's barking mode for enraging the family mastiff, provoking lip-severing bite.
For years, the mainstream media has blamed violent games for instigating similar behavior. This week, a tabloid report out of the UK blamed one of the least violent games imaginable for a savage attack on a 9-year-old girl…by a dog.
According to the Daily Mail, Megan Walker was peacefully playing a copy of Nintendogs at a friend's house when one of the in-game dogs barked at her. Unfortunately, the bark was in earshot of the friend's bullmastiff, a breed of dog that weighs as much as 130 pounds. The sound reportedly spooked the dog so much that it bit Walker's face, severing a portion of her upper lip.
"I think this game should carry some kind of warning," the girl's grandmother told the Mail. "People should be told not to play it when there are dogs in the room. I blame the game for what happened to Megan. If they hadn't been playing it I don't think the dog would have gone for her."
Luckily, the dog was forced off of Walker by another dog and her friend's relatives, and her lip was successfully reattached in surgery. Less fortunate was the attacking dog, which was put down by a veterinarian shortly after the attack.
US Nintendo reps had not commented on the incident as of press time.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Comments
k gotta say it this is stupid, blaming a game for it. maybe it did trigger it but if so then useing the TV at all when a dog is in the home is a danger too because there are plenty of shows or commercials where a dog barks. dog barking aside a number of other things could spook a dog from a television set not to mention all the real world stuff that could have set the dog off.
just more attempts to blame the worlds problems on video games here...
Only in amurica
Lol! Wtf...what will they think of next?! It was the fault of Dead Rising/"Random Horror Game here" for a zombie outbreak?
I blame the parents for not realizing a 130 pound bull mastif can mess your little kids up.
ermm its not america man it happened in the UK = United Kingdom which is a group of european countries not sure which
It's complete bullshit. With that said I feel for the child but there is nothing anyone could have done.
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They're totally justified. I had a similar problem with my room mate playing Left 4 Dead, the zombie groaning made all the zombies we keep in our backyard go into a killing frenzy. No fatalities but alot of property damage.
Hey, wait.
If someone on the street says "eat me", and I decide to kill and then canabalize them right there, can I not only get out of jail but also sue the victims family because I was unfairly treated for having honored a simple request?
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I think the kid probably annoyed the dog and it bit off his face. Learning to control animals and how kids interact with them is a parental issue and nothing to do with the game company. Sad story though, hope the kid isn't permanently disfigured.
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The problem is the size of the dog not the video game.
The problem is Lawyers!
Everyone wants to sue everyone anytime anything bad happens.
I feel terrible for this little girl, but it's not nintendo's fault...it was a freak accident that set the dog off...
Mark my words, someone will be filing a lawsuit.
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As a father of two little girls, I find this appalling. Most of today's parents are idiot's, they need to stop blaming every problem on video games, books, movies or anything else, the only finger they need to point, is the one pointing at themselves. It's called censorship, if your child can’t tell fiction from reality, then your failing at your job as a parent. As to blaming a dog attack on a game, well hell, if the dog is that easily spooked, it needs to be outside away from the kids.
Dear Freaking GOD.
It's Britain. BRITAIN. Those dudes that burned your white house down. You know, James Bond style.
/facepalm
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I hope they don't try to bring that to court, while the incident is unfortunate it is just laughable to blame the game developer and it would bring terrible ramifications to the everyday use of basically anything as it might make your dog rage and bite you...
"Mr. Bazak, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
He who keeps his cool best wins.
I dont blame the dog one bit. Nintendogs pisses me off too. Your going to play with a damn digital dog, when you have a real attention starved dog right there? It like those losers who play EA sports games when they own a damn football and can just go outside with it and do the real thing. If i could go outside and engage in swordplay without the cops showing up and hauling me off, your damn right i'd be out there having some fun with blades and armour(im not suicidal) but i cant so i have to play the video game version instead. Sports gamers and nintendog players have no such excuse. Same with farmville players, could be out planting a garden in a flower bed, or backyard but instead there on the computer simulating growing crap. I hope a pack of rabid mastiff's maul these people to death while there sitting on the toilet. /end rant (for now).
Haha Canadian fail.
What made it sad it that it was in the FIRST line of the actual story...
A nine year old British girl........
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I find it funny how so many here are quick to jump to a unified defense of video games when attacked by some that are.....let's say less informed about video games, but jump at the chance to blame games themselves. MMO players are notorious for blaming games for all the woes they think are happening to them and this genre, but it would behoove both sides to learn the context of the lesson here.
Video games are what you make of them. Try to remember that the next time you tell someone a video game pissed you off, made you mad or rubbed you the wrong way.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
As someone else stated in a previous post, if barking coming from a DS game could set the dog off, I'm amazed that a TV hadn't set it off earlier.
But I agree. A lot of parents today are too quick to blame others for their lack of parenting ability. I have a 5 year old daughter, and when shes not feeling well she will sometimes lay on my bed and watch TV with me or watch me play games. I will take the time to explain things to her so she will understand that the guy who got hit by a car was a stuntman, etc. It's to the point now that shes kind of a downer to the other kids because they will be talking about something like a vampire movie they watched with mom or dad and she will explain how its not real and all makeup...
Meanwhile my friends wife is the type of person who blames everything bad that happens to her kid on someone else. Over the summer her 9 year old son decided to pull the suction cup end off a nerf dart and replace it with a thumb tack. Apparently after several attempts to get the tack to stay in the dart when fired, he managed to shoot his 3 year old sister. The dart nailed her in the corner of the eye. The whole time mommy was sitting there playing Cafe World, totally oblivious to what was going on.
When my friend called that night to tell me what happened, she was in the background talking to a couple of her friends. At one point my friend yelled to her "You cant sue Nerf for that! What are you going to sue for anyway? Them not making you pay attention to the kids?! They didn't put the thumb tack in the dart, he did... You would maybe have noticed this if you weren't on facebook 24/7..."
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1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
History not your thing? Or you just don't like James Bond?
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Why the hell would you keep a monster in the house in the first place??
That's not fair. Most people have no idea what there spouse will turn into after marriage.
Well, on a more serious note. Its not a monster, its a dog. Dog's are often allowed in homes. As it turns out large dogs are actually pretty good at guarding homes traditionally. Guarding a home from outside is possible, but tends to be less effective when the invader is already inside.
Given the kind of damage i used to cause other kids when i was a youngster, i would have been put down if we applied the same standards. It isnt as though dogs are naturally given to assaulting people, but even they have bad days. It is just a shame to me that they chose to kill the dog over this. Do we expect other dogs to take note? What the hell use does it serve? Im not saying we give animals rights and the same considerations as humans(im not some peta whacko here), but condemning an animal to death for one action which was probably caused by accidental confusion and not knowing its own strength and potential for harm just seems wrong. That would be like putting a 5 yr old to death because it punched another kid. Hell we dont even do that when the kid goes after another kid with a knife. I guess i just have a little more respect for life than to see it as something to toss away casually because its inconvenient, just because it isnt my own.
Wow, they put the dog down to sleep FOR THIS!? What the hell were they thinking, it's the parents' fault that they kept the massive dog near a small girl NOT TO MENTION the fact it apparently has an aggresive nature.
Man I feel pity for that dog, I bet he just wanted to play.......
Maybe someone should ask that games developer where and how they obtained the sound effects?
Dog's sort of speak their own language, much like any other species of animal, different tones and variations of a noise an animal makes can mean different things, such as distress call for instance. If that sound that set the dog off happened to be recorded by some means of force, then that dog may have just picked up on that and went into protect or attack mode.
Bigger breeds are typically more protective too, doesn't sound like that theory could be too far 'fetched' (lol..).