If you read the actual account. The pits were closed in a room in another part of the house during babysitting per agreement between owner and parents. She went to let the dogs into their dog run (outside) but she didn’t want to leave the infant alone. She placed the infant on her hip and walked to the door to let the dogs out into the dog run. Both dogs raced past her as they normally did. They suddenly returned and attacked the owner to get to the baby.
By this I mean they ran up to their owner and seized her by the thigh to pull her and the baby to the ground. The dogs pounced on the baby and the owner threw her body over the baby to put herself between the attacking dogs and the baby. The dogs, in full attack mode, began digging under her body to get to the baby. They were nipping her (owner) but digging for the baby.
At some point she dragged herself and the baby to the door. The dogs attacked her again to get to the baby. What followed was too horrible for her to recall. She became aware that she had gotten inside with the mauled baby on the couch and from there called the police. During her ordeal, staff at a business across the street from her had to have heard her sustained screams for help but no one from the business bothered to get involved. She never felt the same about people there after that.
The dogs were gently raised and were gradually introduced to the baby under supervision but kept in a separate room during actual babysitting. At one point, the father recalls the parents and the owner hovering over the baby as the baby sat in a stroller and the dogs gently sniffed and licked the baby’s face. They were trying to insure that the dogs “licked” the baby even if they were in another room. In hindsight, the father is horrified to see pictures of teh massive oversized heads of the pits so close to his baby’s face and recall that day - that he bought the myth of the dogs having a “bad rap” etc.
Pits kill more people in the US then all other dog breeds combined. While they cause devastating injury to children (removing the child’s jaw or face), pits kill more adults in their prime than children. The documented deaths and maimings are statistics that prove the dog is not suitable for domestic life - they are what they are and should be treated like wild animals. The recorded death statistics reflect the truth about a type of dog bred to attack without warning and to hang on (grip) and thrash like a shark to remove chunks of flesh and limb and to not top doing this until they “win.”
“licked” should have been “liked” - they wanted the dogs to like or at least not fear the baby or regard the baby as a stranger.