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In reply to the discussion: Child mauled to death by African painted dogs at Pittsburgh Zoo Read more: http://www.post-gazette. [View all]wtmusic
(39,166 posts)The kid could have very likely been curious and completely unaware of the danger. He could have had familiarity with other dogs and wanted to pet them.
As far as "selfishness, opportunism, and greed' well yes - we're all born that way, aren't we? No child of three can be expected to be a model for public standards of behavior and is going through a huge learning curve at that age. That doesn't make them jerks, that makes them normal - and likely just like you were.
Kids are just starting to learn what deceit is at age three, and don't even fully understand the concept until around age 8. Some child psychologists believe that meanness, or deriving pleasure from the pain of others, is a completely learned emotion, although some kids pick it up faster than others. In any case meanness had nothing to do with what was going on here.
If you don't think every parent has situations where sheer luck avoided a potential tragedy, you're not a parent. This parent was negligent and unlucky.