Sterling Ver Meer, 5-years old, was killed by a family pit bull in Oro Grande, California.
Family Pit Bull Kills Child
Oro Grande, CA - A 5-year old boy is dead after being attacked by a family pit bull, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department officials. The attack occurred just before 3:00 pm in the 15100 block of Portland Street. An adult was watching the child when the attack occurred. The adult witnessed the attack as it was happening and called 911. News footage shows animal control officers leading a dark brown male pit bull from the home and hoisting it into a truck.
News chopper footage shows detectives from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department gathered around a shed in the home's backyard, where the attack occurred. Multiple emergency units responded to the scene, but paramedics were unable to save the boy's life. "Unfortunately, the child did not survive," Sgt. Jeff Allison told NBC Los Angeles. It's unclear which adult relative had been watching the boy. Currently, detectives are at the scene interviewing family members.
Evening Updates
NBC Los Angeles spoke to two family members who said both parents of the boy were at work when the family pit bull "snapped" and fatally attacked the boy. The child lived at the home where the attack occurred, according to a female cousin and an uncle of the boy. Both relatives were babysitting the child at the time. They had left the child alone briefly in a playroom in the backyard when the dog attacked. "I jumped in and tried to help," the cousin said, "but it was too late."
"It was totally the dog's fault. Nobody was arrested. Just the dog was taken in, and I don't know the status of the dog," the cousin said, who spoke on camera, but would not be identified. The family got the pit bull when it was a puppy, the cousin said. She warned the public of their danger. "Don't trust pit bulls," she said. "They can change at any moment." The attacking dog, a male pit bull named "Thor," was reportedly 12 years old. Family members want the dog euthanized.
The same cousin told CBSLA, "All we did was step out for like two seconds just to grab the controller for my cousin to play the game." When the two walked back into the playroom, where the boy was, the pit bull had the child by his neck and "would not let go." She said the dog had never hurt anyone before. "He was a loving dog," she said. "He was not a vicious dog, but how it snapped, we don't understand." The dog's owner surrendered the pit bull to animal control.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department released a statement to the media, "Through the investigation, deputies learned the child was being supervised by an adult relative at the residence. The adult stepped out of the room, leaving the child alone with the pit bull. When he returned, the dog was attacking the child and would not release him. There were no other children present during the attack." The boy died of his injuries before deputies and fire officials arrived.
Additional raw news footage from the scene is also provided by the Victor Valley News Group.
Animal control officers confiscate a family pit after it killed a 5-year old boy in in Oro Grande.
San Bernardino County Sheriff's detectives outside a shed, where the lethal attack occurred.
View the DogsBite.org Google Map: California Fatal Pit Bull Maulings.Related articles:
09/24/19: 2019 Dog Bite Fatality: 13-Month Old Boy Killed by Family Pit Bull in Granite Bay
07/02/19: 2019 Dog Bite Fatality: Pit Bull-Mastiff Mix Kills 2-Year Old Boy in Newman, California
Law enforcement departments across the United States should release consistent "baseline" information to the media and the public after each fatal dog mauling, including these items.
Wow…..
I have a feeling that we will be breaking an all time record in Pitbull mauling / killings for 2020.
It is mind boggling how we still allow these vile , aggressive, unpredictable, murderous mutants into our society.
I’m for one is sick and tired of walking on eggshells everytime I walk my Aussies or check the mail.
SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE….SOON !
The Pixar cartoon short “Kitbull,” in which a pit bull escapes a dogfighting operation, befriends a kitten, and is adopted, was nominated for an Oscar this year.
That, and a million other propaganda pieces, many directed at children and families, is your answer right there.
And where are our Oscar-nominated documentaries? Short films? Anything?
It’s one thing to come to sites like this one and post one’s outrage about the latest death by dogs. But a whole lot more needs to be done.
Sorry to say, but we’re losing badly in the court of public opinion.
We need the women who made “Blackfish” to make pit bulls the topic of a documentary.
And we’ve got Patrick Stewart promoting this vicious breed on Star Trek now. (I don’t watch it.) He’s been a fan of pits for years. What would he have to say about this lovely boy, and all the victims, who have suffered a horrendous death at the jaws of a pit bull. It makes me physically sick. And the beat goes on. Not one U.S. national news outlet will touch this subject.
I see news editorials from time to time about the dangers of pit bulls in local papers but you are right, the only national figure who flaunts her deserved dislike of pit bulls is Judge Judy. She has even caught on to the clever names people think up to avoid calling them pit bulls and every time some loser whose dog has attacked someone is on her show, if they describe their dog as a “terrier mix” or a “lab mix” or some exotic bulldog mix, she asks to see a picture and then tells them not to pretend they don’t own a pit.
Oh I know….but they are so sweet and loyal. And always so gentle…
What is wrong with these people!!? So sad. How many maulings and murders are we going to allow?
The pitbull fell into either one of two classifications: either somebody had seen or known it to be aggressive at least once in the past, or it was always so nice and friendly. In the end, it doesn’t matter, because dogs that are known to have show signs of aggression are still legal to possess, and dogs that have never shown any sign of aggression are known to just suddenly unprovoked attack.
Just some observations… It appears this shed was being used for housing. It has two ventilation units coming out of the roof, locks on the interior and the exterior of the door, a decorative/insulating covering over the inside of the door, privacy fencing the entire way around the little yard for the shed. Very tight quarters for an adult, a child, and a pit. Any other family dog breed would be fine in small quarters and not kill another member of their pack.
This dog’s neck is so massive it suggests designer breeding or that it is often chained with 100 lbs. of chain to drag around and strengthen its neck. I cannot understand why lethal force was not used the moment emergency personnel arrived at the home. This dog poses a real danger to them.
Did this child just get home from school when this happened? It seems there is a trend with indoor, fatal attacks of children under supervision by family pit bulls.
The reporter says nothing appears to be “criminal”. I would submit having a pit bull around a five year old in tight quarters is, by definition, criminal.
Exactly
If all pit bulls killed people, the breed would be gone. However, most don’t. About one person per USA State is being killed by dogs per year. This is likely not enough to affect people’s love for this breed. The same people ignore the mutilation of people and the deaths/mutilation of animals.
As the deaths increase, maybe someone will notice. Maybe not.
It’s very similar to antibiotic-resistant infections. It’s a public safety crisis that nobody ever thinks about until it happens to them.
Just in from CNN: The Denver City Council just voted to end the city’s 30-year ban on pit bulls.
As the deaths increase people do notice. I believe that DogsBite.org has made a huge difference in spreading awareness of this crisis in the US. The people paying attention to the crisis of dog mauling is growing rapidly at this point. DogsBite.org has gone from a whisper to a public address system blasting out the facts of this epidemic of mauling by pit bull type dogs. I believe the tide is changing and public outrage is growing. I see so many more people expressing concern about this issue than just a few years back when Mia DeRouen was killed by the family designer pit bull and I thought where is the outrage. I’m beginning to see it widespread.
I’m so sad that this happened. My prayers go out to the family. I always feel the worst when the victims are children.
I’m at least relived that the family blamed the dog for the attack and want the beast dead. Far too many attacking pits are defended by family members, not wanting to put the monster down.
A 12 year old dog, a 5 year old child. A family that placed their trust in an unhinged beast. My heart goes out to them and everyone else that has lost a family member or friend to a dog. The betrayal is unbelievable.
I do not believe this pit was 12 years old because there is no grey to its muzzle.
Not all dogs get gray.
Most will but we’ve had several that never got a gray hair even at 14 years of age.
Some people get gray in middle-age, others retain dark hair till much older
This dog was a late starter. That’s what dog fighters call dogs that don’t turn on and begin killing until they’re seniors.
Some dogs are COLD which means they won’t fight except to defend itself. Some are stone cold and won’t even fight back when under attack.
Yet even these, according to dog fighters, might produce “good” dog killing puppies.
Thank you for pointing this out; I’ve never seen an old dog without greys.
A cousin of victim
Sterling Vermeer posted on a thread after an article.
I asked her the dog’s age and I’m going to check back soon to see if she answered.
on you tube, google “little strong”. If you can finish that without tearing up, also google DOG ATTACKS and just see and count all the ones that are attacks on people and animals, by pitbulls.
Pit lovers will tell you that labs or retrievers bight more people than pit bulls. They’re correct, but what they WON’T tell you, is that labs and retrievers out number pitbulls in homes by 30 to 1. And even then, there is usually minimal damage from other breeds bites compared to major trauma and death caused by pit bulls. The breed should be eliminated or confined to zoo’s behind bars.
I think there was something on this site that was a recent update from medical data that pits bite the most…..
I did a story on dangerous dogs years ago. It was about 2 Rottweilers who tore apart a beautiful little boy while the children on the school bus watched in horror. At the time, the # 1 biters were cocker spaniels. (Not sure what it is now.) What the pit-nutters leave out, is that pits are the # 1 killers! Most dogs will bite and run away. Pits lock on and fight to the death even with a helpless child. So incredibly sad.
When the bully people talk about bite statistics, they are changing the subject.
We’re not talking about bites, we’re taking about dismemberment and death of pets and people.
Most dogs bite to guard a resource or to make the other leave. They immediately let go so the other can leave.
Good fighting dogs bite to maul, shred, dismember, kill. That’s their man-made job.
Unless rabies is part of the equation, these are two different subjects.
My daughter was bitten in the face by a lovingly raised cocker spaniel when she was 6. The attack was completely unprovoked, from a dog she knew, within arms’ reach of the adults. The dog immediately released when kicked by his owner, and my child had two deep punctures in her jaw and cheek and a gash near her mouth. They left scars but one has to look fairly closely.
But instead of this incident leading me to say “all dogs bite,” I instead am more aware of the problem with pit bulls. Because they DON’T let go.
If people could really see the utter devastation done by pit type dogs, they would not DARE to compare other breeds which may bite to pits. If a pit bull had been my sister’s dog breed of choice, my daughter would possibly have died just like this little boy. Or, if she had survived, her face would have been completely destroyed.
A good comparison:
Saying that all dogs bite is like telling someone camping in Yellowstone not to worry about the bears because they are more likely to be bitten by a squirrel or raccoon.
Excellent comparison Farmer Jayne! That really encapsulates the utter ridiculousness of “all dogs bite.”
A cousin of victim
Sterling Vermeer posted on a thread on an article about his horrific death.
Someone asked her the dog’s age and I’m going to check back soon to see if she answered.