A fifth-grade student was found dead on Friday in a vacant lot in Tainan, with police saying yesterday that an autopsy would be needed to confirm whether the girl had died from shortness of breath after running in fright from dogs.
The girl was walking with a classmate to school in Guanmiao District (關廟) for a summer camp when two Formosan mountain dogs began chasing them, police said.
The girls ran in different directions, police said.
Surveillance footage obtained by the police showed one girl being chased for about 10m to the entrance of a lane, at which point the dogs turned around. However, she continued running and fell down about 20m from the lane entrance.
When she did not show up for class, the school reported her absence to her parents, police said.
The parents reported the situation to the police, who later received a report that a girl was found lying face-down in a vacant lot near the school.
The girl was found to have suffocated, police said, adding that she had scratches on her hands, knees and chin, but no fatal injuries.
Police said the video footage showed no vehicles or other people passing the site at the time.
Tainan Municipal An-nan Hospital Cardiovascular Center physician Lee Chun-ming (李聰明) said that it would be difficult to identify the cause of death without knowing the girl’s medical history.
There are three conditions that can cause sudden death in children after intense exercise, including vascular malformation, congenital arrhythmia — an irregular heartbeat or abnormal heart rhythm — or excessive production of adrenaline, causing excessive neural excitation, blood vessel dilatation and reduced blood pressure, Lee said.
Veterinarian Tsai Shao-heng (蔡韶恒) said that dogs have a hunting instinct and will chase animals that are weaker and smaller than they are, so it is common to see stray cats getting chased or even killed by stray dogs.
Sometimes stray dogs will also chase children, Tsai said.
As dogs have a natural instinct to chase, parents should teach their children to stay calm and stand still when dogs approach them, and try to scare them away, Tsai said.
Lawyer Hung Ming-hsien (洪銘憲) said that if the girl’s death is confirmed to be because of the dogs, the owner of the animals could face negligent homicide charges.
However, if the dogs are strays, the government might bear responsibility and state compensation could be possible, Hung said.
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