It seems dogs know how to protect children better than the Queenland legal system
Dogs drag toddler from dam
December 13, 2007 - 7:26PM
Two dogs saved a toddler from drowning by pulling the boy out of a dam near Mackay, in central Queensland, today.
An Andergrove property owner heard a noise and found the two-year-old and the dogs on the embankment of her dam about 11am, police said.
The boy was covered in mud, had marks on his upper arms, and there were drag marks from his body in the mud, consistent with the dogs pulling him from the water.
Police said the boy had wandered from his home and his dogs, a rottweiler-cross and a Staffordshire terrier, had followed.
The child was taken to Mackay Base Hospital for a precautionary examination.
Meanwhile, a three-year-old child has drowned south-west of Sydney, taking the number of child drownings in Australia to eleven in a fortnight.
Emergency crews were called to a house in Bargo, in the NSW Southern Highlands, late today.
"Just before 5pm, police and ambulance officers were called to an address Hawthorn Road, in Bargo," a NSW police spokesman said tonight.
"There was a report that a three-year-old child had drowned."
The child died en route to hospital despite resuscitation efforts by emergency workers both at the home and in the ambulance.
Police remained at the house tonight, where their inquiries were continuing.
They were yet to provide details of the incident, and confirm the sex of the child.
The death comes a day after the Royal Life Saving Society labelled child drownings a national tragedy, and called for parents to redouble their water safety efforts.
It revealed 10 children had died across the country in the past two weeks - including three toddlers - after drowning in farms dams, a lake and an inflatable pool.
