Blake Bettis was killed by a relative's dog while visiting a Frederick County, Maryland home.
Child Killed by Dog
Brunswick, MD - A young boy is dead after being attacked by a relative's dog. Brunswick police and Frederick County responders were dispatched to a home in the 400 block of West B Street at about 5:13 pm Tuesday for a dog attack. Upon arrival, they found a 2-year old boy suffering life-threatening injuries sustained from a dog bite. While treating his injuries, the boy went into cardiac arrest. The boy was airlifted to Frederick Health Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Dog Kills Two-Year-Old Boy
Multiple Attempts Made to Save ChildBRUNSWICK, Md. (April 4, 2023) – At approximately 5:13 p.m., today, the Brunswick Police Department (BPD) and the Frederick County Division of Fire & Rescue Services (DFRS) received a call for service of a child in cardiac arrest at the 400 block of West B Street in Brunswick.
Upon arrival, BPD and DFRS found a two-year-old boy suffering from life-threatening injuries sustained from a dog bite.
While treating the child’s life-threatening injuries, he went into cardiac arrest. After exhausting all life-saving measures, Maryland State Police Trooper 3 transported the child, via medivac, to the Frederick Health Hospital, where medical personnel pronounced him dead shortly after arrival.
The BPD and Frederick County Animal Control are currently conducting a full investigation. BPD made all appropriate next of kin notifications.
The victim and his family are residents of Fauquier County, Virginia. Due to the victim being a child and out of respect for the family, no other identifying information is available.
Per the Frederick County Division of Animal Control, the dog is currently in quarantine. - Frederick County Sheriff's Office
The child and his family, who live in Fauquier County, Virginia, were visiting a relative in Brunswick when the deadly attack occurred, Chief of Brunswick Police Kevin Grunwell said. The child had played with the dog, described as a pit bull-mastiff mix, all day, according to Chief Grunwell. When the boy's family was preparing to leave and say goodbye, the dog attacked the boy inside the home, Grunwell said. The Frederick County Division of Animal Control took custody of the dog.
WUSA reports the dog is now being described as a 145-pound mastiff-pit bull mix. The dog is owned by the boy's grandmother and has played with children in the past, according to family members. The dog has no history of violence. Both police and the family confirmed the boy did not provoke the attack. An investigation is being conducted by Brunswick police and Frederick County Animal Control. The family has started a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral expenses.
WUSA also spoke to the child's grandmother, Kimberly Russell, who witnessed the attack. The dog, a male rescue mastiff-pit bull mix named "Cash," has lived with the family for five years, Russell said. The violent attack came without warning in Russell's bedroom when family members were saying goodbyes and giving hugs to each other. Chief Grunwell said that he had seen Cash being walked in the community repeatedly with no issues over his two years as police chief.
NBC Washington spoke to the child's great-aunt, Tammy Crawford, who said it was unclear why the dog attacked the toddler. "He just attacked him, so. And the dog is very lovable too, so we just don’t know what happened," Crawford said. "It’s very heartbreaking. For him to be gone at such a young age, he was such a joy to be around," Crawford said. He was a "very lovable kid, loved his mother, they were like glue, them two together. The dog [and him], they was friends," she said.
The male dog named "Cash" was a rescue and had been living at the home for five years.
The male dog named "Cash" was 84 pounds in June 2020 and described as a "puppy dog."
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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.
Buh-buh-buh the poor widdle doggie-woggie didn’t want the boy to leave! The doggie wanted to pla-a-ay some more!
Sarcasm off.
A jumbo sized dog w 5x body mass of a toddler. Yikes! One would think the grandmother would have more common sense than to allow her dog to get overly familiar w her grandson.
My heart goes out to the family. Devastating
Notice, once again, no mention on the GoFundMe about HOW this child died. God forbid, any other parent is made aware of how dangerous some dogs are. These people will do anything to cover up the grievous mistake they made. A parent’s sole responsibility is the welfare and protection of their children. Parents and grandparents who own these bloodsport pets fail over and over, rarely using their experience to educate and possibly prevent another child’s death by dog. It just took one deadly bite, and another little life snuffed out.
Grandma has enough money to buy a designer breed, feed a large dog, and pay for its vet care. She should pay for the funeral.
Pit owners are often mind-blowingly stoo pid and deluded.
They are asking for $12,000 for the funeral.
Somebody wants to take a nice vacation, methinks. $12k for a funeral is a bit much.
Too many people are in way over their heads with these large dangerous breeds. In the vet’s office yesterday a petite woman was having a very hard time keeping her 85 lb Rott pup in line and away from other patients in the reception area. Her attitude seemed to be yes he’s unruly, but isn’t he adorable. Dog owners like this are under the misconception that their dogs think and behave like human children. Perhaps this grandmother was one of those owners. She was clearly misguided. A two year old should have not been in the same house with a 145 lb pit bull/mastiff. This child was “playing” with it? How does that even look? So very sad and very preventable.
There must be some kind of brain pathology that causes these dogs to attack for no reason. If that could be identified, people could have their dogs screened for it. Unfortunately there is no diagnosis on any of these dogs. They are good dogs until they aren’t.
Rachel, you will be interested in this article from the NYC CityJournal:
“First, the pit bull is quicker to anger than most dogs, probably due to the breed’s unusually high level of the neurotransmitter L-tyrosine. Second, pit…”
Written by Brian Anderson of CityJournal, “Scared of Pit Bulls? You’d Better Be!”
Includes summary of genetics and biochemistry (L-tyrosine and endorphins)
from The Economist.
https://www.city-journal.org/html/scared-pit-bulls-you%e2%80%99d-better-be-11995.html?wallit_nosession=1
I suspect this mix was a cross of a pit bull with a pit bull.
Looks like your standard XL Bully, American Bulldog, Mega Mauler to me.
For some reason this morning while I was browsing the anti-pit reddit sub, I thought to myself, “We’re about due to lose another kid.” Shit!
if i had to guess trying to ‘hug ‘ the dog goodbye , they don’t understand. when you love bomb a dog ”all day” its turns into familiarity breeds contempt effect another family destroyed by a dog
Yeah, I hugged our family dogs many times as a child. Maybe they didn’t like it, and sometimes would twist out of my grasp and get away from me… but they never mauled me or even bit me. Major difference between pits and almost any other dog breed.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10225067398854503&set=pb.1304167764.-2207520000.&type=3
There were two children visiting grandmother ….
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10224580509082563&set=pb.1304167764.-2207520000.
This tragedy could have been worse .. and they still do not know WHY and what happened with the dog.
145-pound are 72,5 kilograms !!! The size is almost unimaginable , and the strength of his bites …. pure horror
As usual with pit mixes, no history of violence is not an indicator of future lack of violence. What a huge, horrid beast to let a kid play with! He should have been playing with other kids. Might as well have provided him with a tiger for company. SMH
THAT thing “lovable”???? It’s a monster. That poor child didn’t have a chance once that thing decided to attack. Horrible.
Also, is it me, or are those testicles in the first pic?
That is what they look like. Geez. A super sized intact pit bull
Why is a rescue not neutered? All these rescues/shelters pushing their agenda of adopt don’t shop and allowing an intact dog into a home. Does this make any sense?
My daughter’s boyfriend’s family has a mastiff mix. She went to visit them and was given a dog cookie so to make friends with him. My daughter is in her 20s and weights 120lbs, the dog 145 (as the dog in the story). She’d be helpless…
I was terrified, as she knew I would be at her story. With a smile she shrugged and said the dog wouldn’t hurt anyone.
That’s what people think.
Except us on this website; and with sickening regularity our wisdom is endorsed.
I hope my daughter breaks up with the guy.
And I am disgusted at a family that would allow a 2 year old near a big mastiff/pitbull or xl pitbull like that one in the photo. What the heck!
Thanks to the person above for the info that in fact the aggression is documented neurologically.
All the love in the world can’t change those dogs’ behavior. And what kind of granny Tarzan would own a beast like that in the first place!
I hate how the news media such as CBS in this news article always describes these horrific attacks as a “dog bite.” If it had been how most people think of a “dog bite”, the child would still be alive. A normal dog bites when they feel threatened and then they retreat. A pitbull or other dangerous dog mauling it not a “dog bite.” News media need to call these attacks for what they are, maulings.
This is so sad…
I was shocked by the stats on pitbulls, especially how they account for 72% of fatal bites,. There are a lot of pit bulls mixes at the local dog park. including one that has attacked multiple dogs. I thought it was just that one dog, but now I think I’ll take my 40 lb. Welsh Springer somewhere else.