DogsBite Blog

Family Pit Bull Kills Boy
Dallas, TX - A 6-year-old boy was mauled to death by a family pit bull at his home in the Pleasant Grove neighborhood. Dallas police Sgt. Gil Cerda said that Scott Warren was inside his home when the family's 1-year old dog suddenly attacked him in the 1900 block of Prichard Lane. The boy died while en route to Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. At the time of the attack, his mother was outside, Sgt. Cerda said. "When she came in, she saw the dog mauling the child."

Neighbors said that Scott's family had only moved in about four months ago, but their dogs had already become a problem. One neighbor, Rudy Lopez, said he saw a woman beating one of the dogs with a shovel a few weeks ago after it got in a fight with another dog, reports The Dallas Morning News. Anthony Mack, said he couldn't understand why a child would be left inside with the animals. Sgt. Cerda said the mother was cooperating. No criminal charges are expected.

Kressie Warren said Friday's attack was the first time the dog had snapped at anyone. But, she says, with a young daughter in the house, now her only child, it will be the last. "It's going to be difficult from now on," said Warren said. She weeps, regretful she ever got the pit bull that took her son, Scott's, life.

"I don't want to never see another pit bull, never. Because he took a precious life." The mauling happened just before 7 p.m. Friday night. "We were sitting there in the room and all of the sudden the dog just jumped at him, grabbed at him," Warren said. Her daughter was in the room with them.

"She was at the back, I was grabbing his mouth trying to get him loose but he was slinging him everywhere." By the time they got the dog off, it was too late. Bob Green, WFAA, September 1, 2007

Scott loved his family's four dogs. But he especially liked Tippy, a pit bull that Scott had raised since the family got the dog when it was 4-weeks old. Like many other days, Scott was lying on his mother's bed watching TV with his 13-year old sister, when Tippy leapt off the floor and attacked the boy unprovoked, according to relatives. "It took [his mother] 10 minutes to get the dog off him," said Joe Warren, Scott's grandfather who lives with the family at their home on Prichard Lane.

Middleburg Woman Dies
Middleburg, FL - A 42-year-old woman was fatally mauled by her two pit bulls, which also attacked the victim's son and a sheriff's deputy before both dogs were shot and killed, according to the Clay County Sheriff's Office. Tina Marie Canterbury was dead when deputies arrived at the scene. During the attack the other brother called 911 -- the dogs could be heard in the background.

"We have two full-blooded red-nosed pits and they just attacked our mom. We can't get to my mom and my brother just went out there and they attacked him too. They don't need to get out of the ambulance or the dogs will try to get them, too." - WJXT Jacksonville

A family friend, who was at the home at the time, shot at the dogs with a 9mm handgun, but they were still alive and one of them lunged at an arriving deputy before it was shot and killed. The remaining dog got loose. The sheriff's office issued a dangerous dog alert while animal control officers tracked the animal down. The dog was later found in a wooded area and shot and killed.

Authorities said they did not know what circumstances caused the dogs to attack Canterbury. Animal Crimes Detective Annie Henderson said, "This was a responsible owner. These animals never had any history of any type of aggression." The dogs were behind a fence that had a beware-of-dogs sign and the county had never had an animal complaint at the home.

The dogs were two years old and had been raised since puppies by Canterbury.