A 4 year-old girl left unattended in a camping trailer, was bitten severely in the face as her father was busy checking for air in the tires in preparation for a trip on September 13, 2012 in Las Cruces New Mexico. The dog, and Australian blue healer, apparently was alone in the trailer and sometime after the girl entered the trailer is when the attack happened. It was reported that the girl touched the dog’s head. The girl was airlifted to a hospital and was reported to be in stable condition, and is expected to make a full recovery. The dog was surrendered to animal control and will be euthanized.
One cannot say if this attack was preventable. Further, assuming the dog had no dislike for this child prior to the incident, then it is difficult to understand why the attack happened, The dog may have been provoked in some fashion but this cannot be concluded because details of the circumstances and of the relationship between the girl and dog are not known. This particular dog bite attack is noteworthy because the dog was not a pit bull. This reinforces that not only pit bulls, but any any large to medium-size dog dog, such as a blue healer, potentially can inflict severe injury to a child in the right circumstances. News stories reported about blue healers attacking people are rare. The blue heeler is a type of Australian cattle dog bred for
herding. 
