Please donate to support our work

DogsBite.org is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity organization. Learn more »

22 thoughts on “2012 Dog Bite Fatality: 2-Month Old Child Killed by Family Dog

Please review our comment policy.

  1. I kept my 2-mo-old granddaughter for 9 hours yesterday as this news was breaking. I'm also responsible for my son's 2 basset hounds. If I went to the kitchen or to the bathroom, she was with me, even though the fat basset hounds slept all day. The baby never left my arms or my side. This is one incident where I'd like to see DNA done and the father fully investigated…but I doubt it will ever happen. The 2nd picture of the dog on the Daily Mail story where it is standing sideways is an interesting shot.

  2. The ears definitely look Golden, but the face and eyes are nothing like any Golden I have ever seen. I'm sure anyone even passingly familiar with Goldens and their close mixes would agree.

  3. Pit bull mix. Look at that head.

    Did they wonder WHY the previous home wanted to give the dog up? There is so much "rehoming" of vicious dogs and bite cases.

    The aggression and prey drive are dominant in these pit bull mixes, no matter what else is mixed in with them, which is why more responsible shelters are not dealing with the pit mixes either.

    So the underground dog dealers are then foisting them off on families that don't know any better, in part because the pit bull has been dropped from the breed mix description.

    It's consumer fraud.

  4. A lot of baby's are attacked by dogs in those swings. I don't know if it has something to do with the movement or whether it is because parents often put their baby in these swings when they haven't got time to keep an eye on them and they leave them alone in a room with the dog. Another possibility is that the swing is standing low on the floor and is very easy to get to compared to a proper cot or a playpen. Anyway that was the news 15 years ago when these things were introduced.

  5. "A lot of baby's are attacked by dogs in those swings"

    No they aren't except by pit bulls and rottweilers and their mixes.

    There are millions of these swings in operation every day, and millions of dogs.

    If it was the fault of "the swing" there would be daily deaths.

    There aren't.

    The linking factor in these deaths is the breed or breed mix, not "swings and dogs." Genetics wins out.

  6. What about children in swings at parks? Millions every day. No mass dog hysteria there, unless the prey drive of a fighting breed kicks in.

  7. I recently read an article on this website about how dogs that are said to be of a certain breed, actually are not!
    http://smartpet.net
    With the above story, the face of that dog looks nothing like that of a Golden and I would definitely question if there is any Golden in him at all!

  8. If I were these people's lawyer, I'd claim failure to grant my client equal rights under the law to all the pit owners whose children get savaged or whose pit kills someone else's child. The pit owner maybe gets a ticket, the children aren't removed from the home, they just have to live with whatever pits mom and dad still have left after (if) the mauler/murderer is put down. Why should my non-pit owning client be treated differently?

    Ditto denial of equal rights to keep the mauling/killing dog just because it's not a pit.

    I'd also be trying to prove this dog is after all half pit, because then my clients would get both the dog and the children back. After all, when a pit kills a child it's always a freak accident, the pit absolutely must get another chance.

    Our society has become so sick it's almost unbearable…

  9. that is a telling comparison of frequency of bites. Breed doesn't matter?

  10. The more you look at this, the more this appears to be a two-dog killing. While the father may have been asleep in the other room, no dog would stay asleep while "in the adjoining room" a baby was being mauled to death by another dog. It's just not possible, unless that dog was deaf. A two-dog killing would help explain the amputation (though this is not required). It's unclear why both dogs were not immediately euthanized and stomach contents searched. Then again, I guess authorities don't need that evidence to prove parental neglect.

  11. This dog is absolutely a pit bull mix. It is the type of dog that a no kill dump shelter or "rescue" would mislabel a golden mix, conveniently dropping the pit bull from the mix description to push this dog onto a family and get it off their hands.

    The problem with that is that not only is it consumer fraud, the new family does not understand that pit bull mixes don't act like golden retrievers. The ignorant public gets set up for failure, the dog is set up for failure, and serious injury or death is often the byproduct.

    The question still remains- why did the previous family give up this dog? Too often, pit bulls or pit bull mixes that shows signs of aggression or bite are "rehomed" rather than properly euthanized.

    Either the no kill shelter or rescue doesn't tell you about the aggression, or the person who gave up the dog or left it on the streets to become someone else's problem doesn't tell anyone about the aggression. The dog just gets dumped in a new situation to do the same thing. It is a very real "vicious circle."

  12. A couple of selected Adoption mishaps:

    Philadelphia Inquirer – September 10, 2003 – A01 LOCAL
    Shelter: Error put killer dog up for adoption

    The previous owner of a Doberman pinscher that killed a Medford woman Sunday had paid to have the dog destroyed at a North Jersey animal shelter after an attack this year. An attorney for Associated Humane Societies in Newark, where the dog was adopted in late August, confirmed that the previous owner had taken the 95-pound, 3-year-old Doberman to the shelter after it bit her in the head. Authorities did not identify the previous owner, who paid $55 to have the animal euthanized and…

    Associated Humane Societies traffics man killer Doberman

    Panhandle Area Welfare Society closed it's doors after featured "Pet of the Week" killed a 4 year old Nathan Carpenter. The staff probably has other fulfilling jobs in the F-Troop Humane world.

    August 1988 – Ft. Walton Beach, Florida
    Four-year-old Nathan Carpenter killed by a neighbor's recently acquired hybrid that had been featured as "pet of the week" at the shelter from which it was adopted; Panhandle Area Welfare Society (PAWS) paid a $425,000 settlement to the boy's family.

    Pet of the week

  13. I think the dog in the picture could possibly be a pit-chow cross; that wopuld explain the long fur.

    I have been around LOTS of Goldens in my lifetime, and that dog is NOT a Golden…its some sort of mix. The square, blocky head is a dead giveaway.

  14. I do feel so sorry for this family. There were times when my babies had fallen asleep in their swing, or bouncy chair, or playpen, and rather than disturb them to put them in the crib, I'd let them nap there. I imagine that is what happened here. I do not own dogs, though. However, I'm sure they, like so many others, never imagined man's best friend could do such a thing. When I was younger, especially as a child, my feelings toward dogs was naive — I knew not to approach strange dogs, but I would never have considered a friend's dog, or our family dog when I was a child, to be potentially dangerous. I would put my face in their's to get kisses, just like Kyle the newswoman who was recently bitten on a live newscast. But after witnessing my beloved 15 yo cat torn apart by a pack of dogs, and being utterly helpless to stop it, my naivite was replaced by cold hard reality. Any dog can be a killer. This was a group of neighborhood dogs, dogs that would happily trot down the street and join me on my daily walks. We have no leash laws. When I told the owners' what had happened, they were also shocked that their dogs could do such a thing. These dogs were all beloved family pets, definitely not abused or neglected. I admit, my attitude about dogs forever changed that day. Prior to this, I actually enjoyed the loose dogs on my daily walks. I never take a dog's potential to harm for granted anymore. And I carry a big stick when I walk.

    We can only hope that other dog owner's learn from this man's tragic mistake, and realize that dogs are first and foremost dogs, not members of the family. They are not fur babies. And hopefully, the charge of neglect will also open some eyes, and help to end the complacency. But I'm sure tonight, large numbers of parents will let their dog sleep in their child's bed, because their dog is just so sweet and just loves children.

  15. It's very sad all the way around. This family's been through a lot. I hesitated at bringing more attention to them, even here, but I know you are good at updating stories and this one finally has some closure.

    Also, truth is so crucial on this topic of dog attacks. I wonder if you saw the other (old) article that mentions the family's pit bull mix, Reaper: http://abcnews4.com/archive/mcgrew-family-member

    Not going to speculate further… I'll just note that once again a pit bull is close by in a situation that involves poor judgment and pain and death caused by dogs.

Comments are closed.