Please donate to support our work

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

10 thoughts on “2018 Dog Bite Fatality: Dog Kills 13-Month Old Baby Girl at Babysitter's Home in Missouri

Please review our comment policy.

  1. Power breeds and children do NOT mix. What the hell are they thinking? Pit bulls have NO traits that makes it beneficial to breed them to other dogs either.

  2. I don't think anyone on here is surprised by this. "This" being that the dog had pit in it. I suspect there is no lab in this designer dog. Pit people always claim (blame) lab when they try to lie about their dog being a pit. It is amazing how swiftly the rescue claim dogs are labs that are so obviously pits.

  3. The reason so many crossbred dogs have pit blood is that pit bulls are frequently the only dogs that are reliably intact. In an era when most normal dog owners have accepted spay/neuter, pit owners are once again outliers, with barely a quarter of all pits altered.

    If you are a person who wishes to breed your dog–especially if you are a backyard breeder who's not associated with traditional responsible breeding channels, you can pretty much guarantee that you can find an intact pit at anytime with which to breed your animal.

  4. Unfortunately, some people because of finances or work schedules, have very limited options for child care. Heartbreaking for the parents. Everyone needs to be educated that pitbulls are killing machines, most parents would rather be homeless living in a car with their child, then to to leave their child in the equivalent of lion's den.

  5. What a beautiful baby. That's a terrible story.

    There's a vicious circle involved in so many pit bull attack cases. As packhorse mentioned, pit bulls are unique in that intact, breeding pit bulls are common in every community in every part of the US (do NOT let rescue people tell you otherwise – online, I have seen shelters in Alaska, Wyoming and other farflung US states which are as lopsidedly pit bull as the East Coast, and almost all the southern transport dogs now are pit bulls). They are extremely cheap and easy to acquire. Dogs of any other type are now difficult and expensive to acquire in the US. So poor people who want dogs are acquiring pit bulls. Poverty has a way of making life chaotic and people despairing – when things break and you can't fix them and have to live with them, safe situations can easily turn hazardous and you can't find the energy or caring to make them safe again. When the family puppy grows into an aggressive pet, you can't afford a $90 an hour vet behaviorist or a $65-per-8-foot-section secure fence or a $300 pit-proof metal dog crate. You can afford a Petsmart trainer who recommends neutering, a tie-out that wraps around a tree, and a $45 wire cage from Walmart. And none of it will work. Neutering has a negligible effect on aggression; studies since the 1990s have shown that, repeatedly. The calming effect was vastly overstated in the s/n era to sell sterilizing dogs. It actually increases aggression in female dogs, actually. The tie-out will get you fined if your city has an enlightened anti-chaining coalition, and the crate will disintegrate if the pit really puts some effort into destroying it.

    Don't get me wrong, I don't excuse this woman's role in getting that baby killed horribly. I'm just saying that as in so many issues, well-off people are making decisions to protect their own 'rights' to property and consumer choices and those decisions are hurting poor people's more basic rights to safety.

  6. Pit bulls and other fighting breeds should be legally acknowledged as dangerous breeds. There should be no “free” first bite. If a dog attacked and hurt someone, owner should go to jail for assault. If a dog has killed someone, owner should go to jail for manslaughter, every single time, not just once in a blue moon. Also, owners lie. They know they’ll go to jail if they admit their dog has attacked before, so they all say it never attacked anyone. These people are sick sociopaths who value dogs more that people, they should bear full responsibility for their dogs actions.

  7. Sarah: “They are extremely cheap and easy to acquire. Dogs of any other type are now difficult and expensive to acquire in the US. So poor people who want dogs are acquiring pit bulls.” This is so sadly true. There is an animal shelter in my area that has had “free pitbull” weekends, where they waive the normal adoption fee, for anyone willing to take a pitbull. So who does this attract? Of course, poor people, which are most likely either people with children, or the elderly….and children and elderly are the 2 groups most at danger from a pitbull. The entire situation is sad, and I believe it has come to this, from the pitbull agenda–I think they want to fill family homes with pitbulls, so they won’t look out of place with their own pitbulls that they use in dogfights. Animal shelters *used* to be a great place to go and adopt a nice mutt dog, not anymore. Now animal shelters are full of pitbulls, and I’ve heard at least 3 stories from friends who adopted a biting dog from an animal shelter, and the animal shelter had purposely lied to them about the dog’s previous biting history (fortunately in these cases, the dog was just a biter and not a pitbull!)

  8. There is so much to learn from this awful tragedy especially for people who have heard the nonstop advocacy for pit bulls from humane societies, rescues and owners. The woman who is going to prison said she thought getting the dog neutered had fixed his aggression. Even though the dog attacked her own child she did not learn the lesson. If a pit bull demonstrates a willingness to bite understand that it has the ability to maim and kill no matter how many kisses it’s given in the past. Another lesson here is do not take your child to a babysitter that keeps pit bulls or their mixes no matter how much the owner assures you that the dog is friendly. Pit Bulls are generally friendly and pit bulls kill more people than all other breeds combined. Tragically, those two statements are not mutually exclusive It is a hard to comprehend that a dog that is sweet and cuddly one minute can kill you the next. That is why pit bulls are so dangerous. Their breeding is a recipe for a horror story. Friendly and deadly. This woman who was sentenced to 4 years in jail, separated from her own children, did not learn and that is a tragedy that anyone reading her story can avoid. Don’t risk the safety of your family, friends, neighbors by keeping a pit bull. They are unpredictable and possess the physical and behavioral traits to kill you. Although most pit bulls don’t kill people, they do kill 20-30 people every year in the US and leave hundreds more maimed for life with injuries unheard of with other dogs. Pit bull stock is still coming from the 1/2 billion dollar a year dog fighting industry in the US. Many of the strays with unknown histories that are picked up by shelters come with scars indicative of dog fighting. Those dogs continue to be bred for unpredictable, maximum, explosive aggression. #pitbulljustsayno

Comments are closed.