At left, the"very loving" family pit bull, at right, the now deceased infant.
Parents Release Photo
UPDATE 10/26/10: Perhaps trying to avoid child neglect charges, the baby's parents released a propaganda photo showing their "loving pit bull," Briggs, near their newborn. The baby's father, Mark Valentin, said the dog attacked the baby on the bed while the mother took a shower. "I don't know what happened," Valentin said. "My wife went to the restroom and the dog got to the baby. We're not neglectful parents." DogsBite.org hopes authorities beg to differ.
Pit bulls and babies do not mix. This baby is dead because his parents are arrogant and willfully opted into irresponsible pit bull propaganda.1
What will the baby's parents say next? That it was a freak or tragic accident, despite the breed's 30-year horrific safety record? Pit bulls were selectively bred for unpredictable and unbridled aggression for the purposes of dogfighting. The public is not shocked -- though they should be outraged -- when another fatal pit bull mauling occurs. Pit bull owners, who know far more about the breed than the public, certainly cannot feign, "not neglectful" after an attack.
10/26/10: Grieving Parent Speaks Out
New information published by News4Jax.com says that the parents had only "left their baby for just a few seconds"2 when the pit bull attacked. The father said that the family "raised the pit bull since it was a puppy" and that the dog "never showed any signs of aggression" towards anyone in their family. The day that police and child protection agencies stop honoring these cliche excuses from pit bull owners, is the day that children will championed instead of buried.3
The baby's father told Channel 4's news director, Maureen Baker, that he and his wife left their baby for just a few seconds to use the bathroom. The father said that is when the dog attacked the baby.
The father said he and his family are grieving over the tremendous loss of their child. The father said the family raised the pit bull since it was a puppy and that the dog never showed any signs of aggression toward anyone in their family. - News 4 Jax, October 25, 2010
10/25/10: Pit Bull Kills Newborn in Home
Jacksonville, FL - In a developing story, WOKV.com reports that a local family is planning a funeral for their newborn child after it was attacked and killed by a pit bull in their home. The child was fatally bitten Sunday night about 10 pm off Dixon Road and University Boulevard. The newborn was rushed to Shands Hospital, but did not survive the injuries it suffered. According to WJXT TV-4, animal control workers euthanized the offending red pit bull.
2"Stepped away" is another commonly used term.
3In a related video, Leona Sheddan, Executive Director of the Jacksonville Human Society, states an incredulous falsehood about 2008 dog bite fatalities. Sheddan said there were only 8 fatalities -- as opposed to the documented 23 -- and that the deaths "primarily" affected the elderly and babies. So, 24-year old Kellie Chapman (killed by her own pit bulls), 34-year old Robert Howard (killed by a stray pit bull), 62-year old Chester Jordan (killed by his daughters pit bulls) and 60-year old Gerald Adelmund (killed by his family's pit bulls) never happened? Sheddan also claimed that one of the victims was killed by a Chihuahua, another falsehood.
Related articles:
04/15/10: 2010 Fatality: Pit Bull Kills 7-Day Old New Port Richey Boy
02/24/10: 2010 Fatality: 5-Day Old Infant Killed by Family Pit Bull
08/18/09: 2009 Fatality: Infant Killed by Pet Pit Bull in Hardy County
Photo: News4jax.com
Apparently your stats are all wrong. Did you know that in 2008 there were only 8 fatal dog attacks and one of them was carried out by a chihuahua? Yes, this is the truth according to Leona Sheddan, Director of the Jacksonville Humane Society.
http://www.news4jax.com/video/25514198/index.html
The infant was transported to Shands after the dog "went after the infant," according to DCF. The department is investigating.
—
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=173321&catid=3
this cnn link has a photo of the dog, just in case anyone wants to question its breed.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/10/26/florida.infant.killed/?hpt=T2
My heart goes out to these parents. I'm sure they believed that the dog was a member of the family, since they had him from puphood. So many pit bull owners love to tell the story of how their pit bull truly does act like a nanny dog with their children, protecting them, sleeping with them, slobbering them with kisses, letting them pull their tails and nip their ears without even so much as a grrr. But then, when something horrendous like this happens, they all blame the parents immediately, saying no dog is is to be trusted around children unsupervised. It is terrible how quickly they will throw fellow pitbull owners under the bus.
And Anonymous,if that is your real name, you should take the time to read through the archives here and read about every fatal dog attack article that is listed here for 2008. It's far more than 8, unfortunately. So unfortunately.
Anon 1:48
In 2008 there were 6 adults and 9 children killed by pit bulls in the United States, that makes 15 pit bull fatalities in one year. Please do not make false statements and think nobody will check your stats.
No one is unaware that pit bulls DO EXACTLY THIS with regularity.
I'm Anon 1:48 and I was being *sarcastic*, people. Of course I know there were more than 8 fatalities in 2008 and of course I know that none of them involved Chihuahuas. I just wanted to post the link to Sheddan's lies.
In the photo, the dog's eyes are back up in its head and/or appear totally ABSENT — So characteristic of a "pit bull." It's disgusting that mankind created this breed. One could never shoot a photo of any other dog breed depicting these eyes!
That's the funny thing about pit-advocates. They don't think anyone will check the facts.
Silly nutters…
Michael Shannon is a neighbor and says he can't imagine what they're going through. "It's sad, really sad." Shannon is a father, too, and also owns a pitbull. He worries this attack will continue to give the breed a bad name. "I have a pitbull. He's the sweetest dog in the world. I have a two-year-old. He plays with it, but it depends on who raises the dog," said Shannon.
I guess fellow pit bull owner (and neighbor) Shannon believes that the father "trained this pit bull to attack!"
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20020791-504083.html
I am a very new dog owner and I am glad I have found some sites like this one that cut through the propaganda we have been fed over and over about the Pit Bull breed type. I see so many of this type of dog everywhere, especially our local dog parks, that it worries me for my 6 month old puppy (and myself). With all the shows on Animal Planet promoting the breed, and dog lover friends who (though not owning the breed themselves) spew the same lines promoting them as pets I was almost buying it, but there were still the news stories like this one with babies and small children being "killed by the loving family pit bull that had never shown aggression". One story a few years ago locally where the dog attacked several family members for no apparent reason. I can just about guarantee that I get more warnings about my very friendly Border Collie mix having a high activity level because of her genetics than pit bull owners get about their dog's genetic disposition to attack. I have been watching the pit bull shows on Animal Planet and even in those you see people being very careful when these dogs interact with other dogs, and careful in how they approach them. But they are still pawned off to the unsuspecting public as great family dogs, just "not for everyone". My little BC tried to herd me to the door to take her for a walk the other day, I didn't teach her that…
Typo…the baby is deceased, not diseased.
Sorry, Anon. I can "read" your sarcasm when I look back, but you gotta admit, you did a great job of sounding like a pit nutter! 🙂
M, thank you for sharing your story. Very eloquently told. I like the way you point out that the pit bull loving shows tout them as just like every other dog, and then treat them with kid gloves. I also appreciate your observation that you were given a lot of warning about the high activity level of your border collie, because of its breed, and contrasted that with the denial from the pit community that their breeding is something to be concerned about.
Excellent point, Truthbird. The neighbor also implies that the pit was not properly trained. Contradiction alert! Either you can train a pit bull to NOT kill infants, or you should never ever ever no natter what leave them alone with infants. Which is it? Their excuses are like jello.
He said the agency will want to know if there were other incidents involving children and that dog. He called the incident a tragedy and extended sympathies to the family. Police are also investigating, said spokeswoman Melissa Bujeda of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
–snip–
The dog, a male named Briggs, was between 1 and 2 years old, said Scott Trebatoski, division director of Jacksonville Animal Care and Protective Services.
http://origin.jacksonville.com/news/crime/2010-10-27/story/investigation-continuing-dog-mauling-death-jacksonville-newborn
Well, which is it, pit nutters? There are hundreds of websites and dog forums where pit bull "experts" will tell you these dogs are "nanny dogs", and are GREAT with children. In fact, I could produce a million testimonials from pit bull owners insisting that pit bulls are SUPERIOR pets with children, more tolerant and patient than any other breed.
So for pit bull owners who "educate" themselves on the internet about the nature of pit bulls, why shouldn't they feel comfortable leaving the baby alone for a few minutes with the dog in the room? These are NANNY DOGS, remember? If its all how you raise them, and you raise your pit bull with love, than why shouldn't you leave the kids alone with him?
Which is it? Why lie to you want to cling too, pit lovers?
Thanks to DBO for providing a place with accurate stories on an American epidemic. Pit bulls are completely out of control.
The only thing I agree with pit bull nutters about is that man is the problem. The difference is that I don't blame all of this on the individual owner, I blame it on the dogmen who created this Canine Frankenstein over thousands and thousands of very selective breedings. Again, pit bulls do things that wolves in the Canadian Rockies don't. Wolves won't fight to the death. Pit bulls will.
Truly amazing what man has created in American Pit Bull Terriers.
A classic comment left at one article:
But according to the midgets
By Underbite | 10/27/10 – 07:58 am
But according to the midgets on Pit Boss, Pit bulls are just misunderstood dogs.
—
http://origin.jacksonville.com/news/crime/2010-10-27/story/investigation-continuing-dog-mauling-death-jacksonville-newborn
The people who say "never leave a child unsupervised with ANY dog" are people who have never had children. As a mother and a dog owner, I can tell you it is realistically impossible in any normal family to make sure a child is NEVER unsupervised with the family dog, unless the dog is kept in a crate in the basement all day. Remember, millions of children grow up with dogs in the home, and are never hurt. I can think of literally a hundred friends, family members, neighbors, and aquaintences who have raised dogs and kids together and never had a problem.
It is delusional to think that you can treat a dog as a member of the family, let it live in the house with you, and never have it alone with children for short periods of time here and there…are you going to take the dog into the toilet with you? What happens if the doorbell rings and you leave the room to answer the door? Do you chain the dog to your belt as you do laundry, cook, clean, and move around your home? People don't live that way in the real world.
Telling people that they can NEVER leave a dog and child unsupervised is a diversionary tactic used by pit bull apologists to deflect blame and excuse the behavior of aggressive pit bulls. The reality is, if you can't trust the dog in your home with your kids, you should NOT have that dog.
"I see so many of this type of dog everywhere, especially our local dog parks, that it worries me for my 6 month old puppy (and myself"
M, please be as overprotective as possible with your pup. The maulings of innocent dogs such as yours are widespread and out of control, and you may well be blamed for an unprovoked attack on your dog, and the offending pit bull returned to owner to kill again.
I believe we live in a world right now where pit bull fanatics have taken away our freedoms. It is not safe any more to go for a walk or go to the park.
I do recommend bombproof fencing, and scheduled play activites with your friends and their dogs rather than submit your pet to whatever pit bull happens by. The owners of pit bulls cannot control them, and pit bulls are even killing other dogs while leashed.
Pit bulls are intentionally bred to attack and kill other pets. This is the "work" they were and are bred for.
Also please contact Marjorie Kaplan of Animal Planet (owned by Discovery) with your concerns
http://corporate.discovery.com/leadership/marjorie-kaplan/
It is inexusable that this woman is using Animal Planet to help dog fighters and pit bull breeders to not only hurt people and pets like yours but pit bulls too, particularly when the KKK has had links to pit bull breeding and fighting for many years in this country.
It could be that the influence of Jane Saul Berkey is clouding Kaplan's judgment.
anon, 1;48, I got your sarcasm about that ridiculous lie by animal control.
If you or anyone else is interested, please send information about fabrications and deceptions like this to my blog. I am collecting the information.
Also any personal experiences.
What a happy family photo! (except for the dead infant)
I don't feel sorry for these parents. They knew the risk with this dog and chose to ignore the facts. I hope they remember for the rest of their lives what their child looked like ripped to shreds. These morons don't deserve children. For individuals who have never seen what a human being looks like after one of these attacks I can tell you they are horrible. It's too bad the general public can't take a look and have pictures of the body posted on pit bull central.
Arrogance killed this child.
Defective Nanny list 2006 to present:
Justin Valentin
4 days old/Arlington FL
October 24, 2010
Family Pit Bull
Jason Walter
7 years old/La Salle IL
August 25, 2010
Mother’s boyfriends Pit Bulls
Jacob Brisbee
2 years old/Concord CA
July 22, 2010
Grandfather’s breeding business
Savannah Gregg
9 years old/ Kokomo IN
June 3, 2010
Family pit bull
Nathan Aguirre
2 years old/San Bernardino CA
May 27, 2010
Family pit bull
Thomas James Carter Jr.
7 days old/Port Richey FL
April 14, 2010
Family pit bull
Jane Doe
5 days old/Conyers GA
February 23, 2010
Family pit bull
Anastasia Bingham
5 years old/Terry MS
February 12, 2010
Neighbor’s pit bull /dog fighting operation
Omar Martinez
3 years old/Apple Valley CA
January 9, 2010
Family pit bull
Destiny Marie Knox
16 months old/Union County MS
November 5, 2009
Baby sitter’s pit bull
Matthew Clayton Hurt
2 years old/Prescott AR
October 28, 2009
Neighbor’s breeding business
Colten Smith
19 months old/Delhi CA
October 23, 2009
Baby sitter’s pit bulls
Jasmine Deane
23 months old/Orange County VA
September 27, 2009
Family pit bull
John Doe
3 days old/Rio WV
August 15, 2009
Family pit bull
Gabrial Mandrell-Sauerhage
3 years old/Johnson City IL
June 27, 2009
Family pit bull during visitation
Justin Clinton
10 years old/Leverett’s Chapel TX
June 15, 2009
Neighbor’s breeding business
Leonard Lovejoy Jr.
11 months old/Eastpointe MI
April 22, 2009
Family dog
Izaiah Gregory Cox
7 months old/San Antonio TX
March 31, 2009
Grandmother’s Pit Bulls
Tyson Miller
18 months old/Luling TX
March 26, 2009
Pregnant female Pit Bull
Cheyenne Peppers
5 years old/Thomasville GA
January 6, 2009
Family breeding operation
Alexander Adams
2 years old/Las Vegas NV
November 26, 2008
Family dog
Lopeka Liptak
2 months old/Waianae HI
October 5, 2008
Family pit bull
Katya Todesco
5 years old/Simi Valley CA
September 26, 2008
Neighbor’s pit bull
Cenedi Kia Carey
4 months old/Las Vegas NV
September 12, 2008
Family pit bull
Isis Krieger
6 years old/Anchorage AK
August 14, 2008
Family pit bull/US Army dependent, Father flown home from Iraq to handle mortuary affairs
Tony Evans Jr.
3 years old/Jackson MS
June 22, 2008
Neighbor’s pit bull
Pablo Lopez(Hernandez)
5 years old/Weslaco TX
June 18, 2008
Family pit bull/DCPS Placement
Joshua Tanner Monk
7 years old/Breckenridge, TX
May 18, 2008
Neighbor’s breeding business
Julian Slack
3 years old/ Camp Lejeune, NC
May 14, 2008
Friend’s pit bull staying in base housing
Holden Jernigan
2 years old/Summerville, SC
December 13, 2007
Grandmother’s pit bull
Seth Lovitt
11 years old/Killeen TX
November 7, 2007
Mother’s pit bull/military dependent, Father flown home from Korea to handle mortuary affairs
Scott Warren
6 years old/Dallas TX
August 31, 2007
Family pit bull
Zachary King JR.
7 years old/ Minneapolis MN
August 16, 2007
Family breeding business
Sabin Jones-Abbott
6 years old/Bath NY
June 27, 2007
Family pit bull
Dandre Fisher
3 years old/Hunter Army Airfield GA
May 26, 2007
Neighbor’s pit bull/base housing
Brian Palmer
1 year old/Charleston SC
April 27, 2007
Family pit bull
Carolina Sotello
2 years old/Combine TX
March 23, 2007
Family breeding business
Robynn Bradley
2 years old/Lithonia GA
February 16, 2007
Family pit bull
Amber Jones
10 years old/San Antonio TX
January 12, 2007
Neighbor’s pit bull
Pedro Rios
4 years old/Pasadena TX
November 21, 2006
Ownership details not available
Allen L. Young
22 months old/Bamberg SC
October 4, 2006
Family pit bull
Mireya Puga Davila
3 years old/Hargill TX
July 25, 2006
Family breeding business
Javelin Anderson
15 months old/Conehatta MS
June 17, 2006
Family pit bull/broke chain
Cody Adair
4 years old/Bartlesville OK
January 3, 2006
Uncle’s pit bull
I so agree with Anon 7:27.
All these warnings that you can't ever have dogs with kids is just a made up rule to serve pit bulls and it's insane when you think about real house pet dogs.
"It is delusional to think that you can treat a dog as a member of the family, let it live in the house with you, and never have it alone with children for short periods of time here and there.."
Yes, yes, yes. I grew up with dogs from birth. I was the oldest and watched my siblings grow up with the dogs too. My mother told me about the danger of the poopy diaper, and no newborn was left alone with a dog. But apart from that, our dogs were our companions.
If you listened to the pit bull propaganda, dogs would never have been allowed in any home
-children can't be left alone because the dog might attack
-dogs must always be supervised because the dog might attack
-you can't have food around a dog because the dog might attack
-if you trip over a dog, it might attack
-if the dog doesn't understand what you're doing, it might attack
-if the dog is exposed to something novel, it might attack
-if the dog becomes overstimulated, it might attack
-if the environment changes the dog might attack
no, no, no. the reason we take dogs into our homes is because they can adapt to human life.
Dogs would never have been allowed into our homes in the first place if the dog's tie to us was so tenuous that we had to walk on eggshells to simply keep from being attacked.
The usual pit nutters are at it again! They are spreading all their overplayed myths about "nanny dogs" and "labs bite more kids per year" on all the Readers' Comments sections of websites that carry this story. These pittards are also very active on FaceBook right now spewing lies. Please help combat the pittards by presenting pitbull bite statistics!
Here's another news story where the pit nutters spammed the Comments section with outrageous lies! A pair of pitmonsters broke into a house trying to attack an infant and killed that family's chihuahua which was defending the kid. http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Chihuahua-Dies-Defending-Newborn-Baby-From-Pit-Bulls-97392849.html
Read the comments. The stuff that pit nutters say are simply disgusting (including the typical blaming the victim lines! It's unbelievable to logical people that anyone can even say such boldfaced b.s.! But then, the pittards do live in a fantasy world, don't they?
I looked again at the picture of the dog. I wonder if the police asked where they got the pup? Who bred this dog? The size of this dog's head makes me wonder how close it was to a fighter. Anyway this information the police should acquire. The vast majority of the time where the dog or pup came from is never known. The breeder (if there are any truly legitimate AmPBT breeders) should be informed of the killing.
I so agree with Anon 8:16. We need to start demanding that owners divulge where the dog came from…was it a "rescue"? Was it a breeder? If there is an investigation as to the possibility of charges against the parents, lets hear where dad got his muscle dog. If dad got his pit bull from a "breeder" at, say, "Chainsaw Kennels", whose website depicts snarling pits with spike collars and obscenity laden rap music…then I would discount his assertion that he had the dog as a "loving family pet". The parents should be charged with manslaughter. If the dad got his pit bull from a rescue that guaranteed that pit bulls are "nanny dogs" who are GREAT around kids, then the rescue group should face charges.
The sourse of the dog MATTERS, and reporters and LEOs should start asking the question.
Remember the fatality in San Bernardino City where the pit nutter had the nutter magazine poster on his front window. Also he got the pit from Muscoy, a well known place for fighting pits. Yet the police in SB City said it was an "accident" and didn't file charges. What are you to do?