In before the pit bull apologists.
IMO, having a pit bull is like walking around with a bomb where a quick movement or sudden noise will trigger it.
It is a 2-year-old, neutered male American Staffordshire terrier-mix named Polo...
That poor baby didn’t stand a chance in life, what with being raised by those two irresponsible morons. A dog that fatally attacks upon hearing a cough? Poor little one was doomed.
I find it hard to believe a dog turns aggressive on being startled.
Dogs don’t get easily spooked.
The pack dynamic in action.
Omg! I can’t even imagine..I have a 3mo old baby & even if had a dog, wouldn’t allow it to sleep near my newborn. I don’t care how much you love, know your dog etc..you just never know!
Also, I think dogs of this breed or dogs that have a screw loose, their owners have to know! Just my opinion but why take the chance with your newborn baby! Horrible beyond words..
Breed of peace alert.
It was a perfectly kind, gentle canine of peace until the moment it self-radicalized, became a ‘lone wolf’ actor (having nothing whatsoever to do with its breed at all) and went on jihad.
Pitbulls are the muzzies of the dog world.
You can tell right away these people are trash, at the first mention of the TV.
If you have a pit bull and a baby you are the definition of morally repugnant.
It calls for dog control.
I cannot foresee any, I repeat ANY circumstance where this could happen with a properly raised lab.
I betcha that woman will never cough again for the rest of her life.
I wonder if the parents are aggressive and passed that onto the dog. These dogs are used a lot in dogfights too so you never know.
Some pitbulls are problematic, some aren’t like most dogs. We wouldn’t have one but I have had friends who haven’t had problems. One question I have about this is did they prepare the dog for the baby? Now they have lists of how to prepare your pet for your newborn - we did a bunch of things to help our cat adjust when we brought out baby home last fall. Things like marking the baby’s socks by rubbing them on the cat so the baby ‘smells’ right. Starting to use baby lotion and powder before the baby is born so the animal is used to the smell. Keeping the animal away from the baby for the first few weeks whenever possible (the dog should not have been in the bedroom), playing audio of crying babies before the baby is born, again so the animal gets used to it. I have other friends with dogs and they prepared the dogs and there haven’t been issues.
I do feel for the parents, this is something their marriage may not survive.
Adding to the choir, I agree, this dog should never have been left unleashed, unsupervised, able to get that close to the baby. Some owners forget how sensitive dog’s sense of smell is. Newborn babies have a marked scent, one that is at times sweet, other times raw from the animal’s perspective.
This may have been the first time this dog has ever smelled or heard or viewed the delicate movements of an infant. Such puppies or young adult dogs don’t always know what is ‘normal’, so they stay on trigger edge. The dog may have been listening to how the baby was breathing and shifting the blankets around, when suddenly, the owner coughs loudly, creating a sharp break, a distracting sensory overload, where the dog doesn’t know what to react to first.
If I had a nickel for every pit bull/pit bull mix that killed someone, I’d have a hell of lot more nickels than doing that for any other breed.
And when t here's a new arrival in a family, the dog has to "learn" that fact.
It was a very tragic mistake for this family to take such a risk, regardless of the breed...
Were they all in bed together, the couple, the infant and the dog?
If the baby was in its own bassinet or crib, how would the dog be able to bite?