Tough call on killing the dog :/ really its kind of a heat of the moment decision what do you do. There could have been P.R. problems if they didn't make an "attempt" to save the boy. I could honestly go either way on that.
My parents would put me up on rails and stuff like that so I could see but they were always holding me? I'm not quite sure what happened there that if she was holding him up there how did he fall.