A 2 year old was recently bitten by a dog at the DFW Centurion Lounge. Details of what exactly happened are a bit hazy, as is usual with this type of report, but the incident happened in the Centurion Lounge in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport (DFW)
(SEE ALSO: American Express Centurion Lounge DFW Review)
Dog bites child at DFW Centurion Lounge
The 2 year old child was traveling with his parents when they stopped into the lounge. This is the old DFW Centurion Lounge from before it was refreshed / moved in 2018. According to the article, the Duffy family “didn’t see what happened next, but they heard it. “We heard screaming and blood went everywhere,” she said.” The picture in the original article looks like quite a severe bite.
Should pets be allowed in airport lounges?
This brings up the question about whether pets should be allowed in airport lounges, something I have written about before
(SEE ALSO: Should pets be allowed in airport lounges like the Centurion Lounge Las Vegas?)
The official pet policy of Centurion Lounges is that “Pets are welcome in Centurion Lounges as long as they remain in their carriers and with their owners at all times.”, though that policy does not seem enforced at all. This family observed that the dog in question was out of its carrier and without a leash. On my very first trip to a Centurion Lounge (in Las Vegas in 2014), I also saw a dog in the lounge just out on its owner’s lap (picture below).
While I do have questions about the behavior of the parents and the 2 year old in question, I also am a believer that humans have more rights than animals and their owners. So I’m wondering where this pet owner was when a 2 year old came up to the dog? I would think that you would want to make sure that your pet was not interacting inappropriately with a 2 year old. It also seems strange to me that a dog that has never bitten
CBS 11 also mentions finding 8 cases of dog bites at DFW in the past 4 years and half of them do not mention calling animal control, which is the airport policy.
Should KIDS be allowed in airport lounges?
Again, I am trying not to judge the parents as I don’t know the exact situations, but I am having a hard time understanding how 2 parents would not have eyes-on a 2 year old child. Especially in as crazy an environment as the DFW Centurion Lounge (and this happened at the OLD lounge before it was replaced, so anyone that traveled through there knows how crowded that was). I could understand a scenario with 1 parent and a 2 year old, or if there were multiple children, but with 2 parents, you would think that they would have a handle on it. I know that when my wife and I have traveled in similar circumstances, one of us would watch the little kids while the other went to the restroom, got food, etc., then we’d switch places.
As you can imagine given that I am a father of 6, I DO believe that kids should be allowed in lounges, but that also comes with responsibility as a parent for knowing where your kid is.
(SEE ALSO: Should kids be banned from hotel lounges? A rebuttal…)
So who’s getting sued?
One of the other strange things about the article is that it mentions that during all of the confusion after the bite, that the dog owner (and the dog) just walked away. So (at least according to the sources I’ve seen), there is no identification of the pet or pet owner. The family is suing the airport (DFW) as well as the owner of the lounge (American Express)
(H/T: View from the Wing)
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
They should also sue Trump and Purina Dog Chow. Also sue Boeing because their upcoming flight was on that. Also sue Airbus because the flight could have used a substitute plane that was an Airbus.
The dog owner must have been a high roller and the lounge cooperated. There are cameras everywhere and a dog in the lounge should have been notable to the reception.
Dan, I only have five children, but I have to disagree with you that the parents were negligent at all. A two year old should be able to safely wander within the vicinity of their parents without fear of being bitten on the face. I also have to seriously doubt that you or your wife ALWAYS had at least one eyeball watching every single move of your toddler at all times when traveling. In fact, the article you linked to and their interview made it sound like they saw the child near the dog, but that they simply didn’t see exactly what provoked the brutal face attack. That is completely reasonable for even a frantic, hovering, never leaving their child alone for a minute parent.
And if the airport wasn’t willing to track down the owner of the dog and the dog itself and follow its own protocol, the airport needs to be held accountable. I’m not one for suing, but I’m glad the parents are at least doing something about it so that procedures are taken seriously and the lounges show more concern for the wellbeing of their guests. Can you imagine what would break loose if another human bit a two year old on the face and then the airport just let them walk out?
Yet, please excuse me, because as a constant traveller with a whole brood of kids, I get a bit irate when my pets or other’s pets are treated with more respect and kindness than my children. Why does my cat get oohs and aahs, but my very well behaved five year old gets eye rolls and avoidance? My cat licks his own bottom hourly and gives most of my relatives major allergies, and the worse thing my son does is eats something that fell on the floor. But, he’s the villain and the one to avoid. So I say, yes!, please make a big fuss about your two years old’s permanent scarring and dangerous encounter so that people agree with your conclusion that even when pets are welcome, they still need to be treated as pets. And lets hope that the outcome of this particular case is that the organizations in question will double and triple check that they are taking better precautions and following more helpful protocol when an accident does happen.
I agree with you. I think that there is a lot that we don’t know and I have questions for the pet owner as well as the parents. It’s a sad situation all around
Pets have no place in airports and/on airplanes.