Olivia Rozek, 3-weeks old, was pulled from her bed and killed by a rescued husky.
Officials Probe Death archived
UPDATE 01/21/09: Police officials continue to investigate the death of a 3-week old baby girl. Bourbonnais Police Chief Joe Beard first described the incident as a mauling. The dog dragged Olivia Rozek, who was a twin born the day after Christmas, by her head through a hallway. The mother told police the twins were lying on the bed while she was in the kitchen cooking dinner. She heard the baby cry and saw the dog walking through the hallway with the baby in its mouth.
The family got the 4-year old male husky from a Chicago rescue group in November 2007, Beard said. The dog was taken into custody by Kankakee County Animal Control. The agency's director, Julie Boudreau, said the dog will most certainly be destroyed. The family also has another husky, a female. The department will be looking into whether that dog will remain in the family's home. Beard has not yet spoken to the infant's mother, who remains too distraught to answer questions.
A 3-week-old baby was dragged from a bed Monday afternoon by her family's Siberian Husky into a hallway of their Bourbonnais home and mauled to death by the dog.
The child, Olivia Rozek, was lying on a bed in the master bedroom of the home on the 1600 block of Sun Ridge Drive, in the Sunridge subdivision in Bourbonnais, when she was taken from the bed by the family dog and dragged into a nearby hallway.
The child's mother, hearing her daughter's cries, discovered the baby in the dog's grip, a release from Bourbonnais police said. Police got a 911 call at 5:45 p.m. reporting the attack, the release said. - Chicago Sun-Times, January 20, 2009
01/20/09: Family Husky Kills Infant
Bourbonnais, IL - A 3-week-old child was mauled to death by the family dog in Bourbonnais. The child died late Monday in Chicago after being transported from a Kankakee hospital. The family's names have not been released. The child's mother called 911 about 5:45 pm. Monday to report that the family's Siberian husky had pulled the infant off of a bed in the master bedroom and dragged the child into a hallway, killing it. The infant suffered multiple bite injuries to the head.
Olivia had been laid in bed along with her twin sister by their mother, who went to do something in the kitchen, Bourbonnais police Chief Joseph Beard said. No one else was in the home at the time, he said.
Police and firefighters received "a very distraught" 911 call from the girls' mother about 5:45 p.m. and were dispatched to the family's home in the 1600 block of Sun Ridge Drive, Beard said. They found Olivia, who was still breathing, with puncture wounds to her head as well as crushing injuries from the dog's jaws, he said.
The girl's twin sister was unharmed, Beard said. - Chicago Breaking News, January 20, 2009
In 2008, husky type dogs killed three young children, two of which were only several days old. Alexis Hennessy, 6-days old, was attacked while lying in her crib by the family dog husky named Shadow in Hopatcong, New Jersey. Kylie Mae Daum, 3-days old, was bitten while lying in a bassinet by the family husky in Warren, Ohio. And Abraham Jonathan Tackett, 2-years old, was killed after wandering next door and being attacked by a chained husky-mix in Fort Yukon, Alaska.
Related articles:
09/25/08: 2008 Fatality: 3-Day Old Infant Killed by Family Dog
09/07/08: 2008 Fatality: Alexis Hennessy, 6-Days Old, Killed By Family Dog
04/30/08: 2008 Fatality: Abraham Jonathan Tackett, Killed by Chained Dog
Huskies also have a high prey drive
They are well known for killing and attacking other pets
When they kill people, they seem to go after the babies more. Not like pit bulls that take on anything and will go through a window to attack someone
But the high prey drive/killing children seems to go hand in hand
Odd…A few weeks ago Karen Delise triumphantly declared that DBRFs dropped 33% in 2008 and were “statistically insignificant”.
Who would have thought 2009 would start off with 5 DBRF’s in less than 3 weeks?!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20090108/bs_prweb/prweb1831554_1
The northern sled dog breeds seem to pick off a few each year.
I just don’t understand the mentality — having a large breed dog around a baby! I don’t understand why these people even take the chance. They are so blinded by their love for the damn dog that they forget that their baby is completely helpless. A friend of mine had a dog that didn’t like children and had to be crated around children, and then she got pregnant. She was a maniac dog lover, and I was not surprised when they didn’t get rid of that dog right away, but they finally came to their senses. No dog is as important as another human being. Never!
This is so deja-vu. I’m sure I’ve read the same story at least three times. Why don’t people do some research into the breed of dog that they expose their children to?
A baby was killed a few years ago by the family husky in R.I. The Boston Globe did an article on the story, quoting an animal behaviorist from Tufts who said that Northern breeds, like huskies, have a very high prey drive, and it was quite expected that an infant would be at risk around one.
So, essentially, there was an increased and breed specific risk to keeping a husky or malamute around a baby. I don’t know why we can’t publicly have these conversations regarding certain breeds of dogs…it could save a child’s life.
Over and over again these huskies get given up, because they are NOT good pets for the average family, and the rescues just place these problem dogs all over again
More info:
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Officials probe death of baby involving dog
Police and state officials are still trying to piece together what happened when a 3-week-old Bourbonnais baby girl was killed by the family's pet Siberian husky on Monday.
On Friday, Bourbonnais Police Lt. Greg Kunce said the department was still waiting to talk to the family.The family has not been in the house in the 1600 block of Sunridge Drive since the incident.
The dog in the attack was still being held by Kankakee County Animal Control, which wants to talk to the family. A second dog was taken to family in southern Illinois.
The Illinois Department of Children & Family Services completed a home survey Thursday and reported they didn't find anything out of the ordinary, Kunce said.
The family dog dragged Olivia Rozek, who was a twin born the day after Christmas, by her head from the bedroom through the hallway.
Police received a 911 call at 5:45 p.m. that a girl had been mauled by the dog.
The mother told police that the twins were lying on the bed while she was in the kitchen preparing supper. She heard her baby cry and then saw the dog walking into the hallway with the baby in its mouth.
http://www.daily-journal.com/archives/dj/display.php?id=434392
Around 2003 a 25 day old baby was killed by two Huskys. One had been with the family for 6 years. However, they were unaltered and had been bred. It has been noted that Huskys have only killed infants and I had heard that a special study was being done. It could be because they are closer to the pack mentality than other breeds. They see the infant as an intruder. This case the mother walked outside with the pest control guy and left the baby inside with the dogs. She had brought the dogs inside, they were “resident” dogs, living outside the family. Needless to say, the dogs were blamed and no charges filed against the mother. It was like the dogs should know better. If the mother had left the baby in a tub of water and it drown, would she not have been charged? Same thing here but the dogs were “humanized” instead. It was determined that one dog did the deed and the husband took the other dog back. Then he went to pick up his wife from the mental ward at the hospital.