I tend to agree that responsibility here lies with both the mother and the owner's of the dog's NB: I used the word responsibility not Blame.

However as a mother, I can honestly say I watched my children like a hawk, when I first moved into my then new home, it was unfenced, my son was only 16mths old, Do you think I could leave him to play un-attended? not on your life!!!!

I remember an incident a while back here, people around the corner had a family of four children, the youngest being about 18mths to 2 yrs, they had a gate on their property that could be closed, I happened to notice this little girl wandering fast down the road, not an adult in site, I had to run to catch her, she was way down the road, anything could have happened to her, run-over, snatched.

I grabbed her and took her back, her father never even said Thank you, and said oh the older kids were meant to be looking after her. GEEZ I was so annoyed.
Just the day before I had approached my neighbours , who had set up a paddle pool , left it full of water, on an unfenced property, they were unaware this was against the law, and emptied it, thank goodness , or else this little girl would have been instantly drawn to it, and we can guess the rest.

Neverthless this is indeed a sad and tragic case, and one can only feel empathy for the parents, regardless of the situation.

One more thing , just imagine how that poor dog owner is feeling right now?