6-year-old girl dies after dog attack in Jacksonville home

News4Jax ^ | July, 18, 2018 | Destiny McKeiver

[Norski]

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A 6-year-old girl attacked by a dog Sunday morning has died, according to her father.

Police said Jaelah Smith was attacked by a dog the family was pet sitting in their Arlington home.

In a message to News4Jax, Devin Holcomb wrote:

"Unfortunately my princess is no longer with us. I would like for you guys to keep my family in your prayers"

Police and firefighters were called to a house on Herrick Drive about 10:15 a.m. Sunday by a neighbor who heard screaming and saw the girl's mother carry the girl's unconscious body outside.

“I just kept hearing somebody (yell), 'Help me, help me!'" Timothy Hightower told News4Jax. “She came out of the house and laid the baby down right there and told us to call the paramedics, and that’s what we did.”

Jaelah was taken to Memorial Hospital with what police described as “very serious, life-threatening injuries.” She was transferred to Wolfson Children's Hospital, where she later died.

[xzins]

This is tragic but it also probably rises to gross negligence on the owner6part

[Governor Dinwiddie]

#2: "How many cases this year so far of pit mixes or pure killing family members of others?"

The word "mixed breed" or "pit bull mix" are code words to conceal the fact that the dog really is a pit bull. It's a favorite trick by animal shelters who are overloaded with pit bulls. I believe that pit bulls are less than 5% of the dog population, and yet account for almost half of the dogs in shelters because they are dangerous and unplaceable in homes.
 

[WASCWatch]

The parents of the child victim were even more grossly negligent.

[Sans-Culotte]

Something I find helpful is THE BASIC HTML TAG GENERATOR. On that site, you can paste in urls to create links which you then copy and paste the newly created HTML code into your FR message reply. I used it to create the link above. You can also paste in the url to a picture and create a code that links to it (but you have to have a way to host photos. I use POST IMAGE.).

You can also paste in some text and change its font and size and color on that website Like this.

[xzins]

It’s a tough call. Incredible stupidity is also probably gross negligence

[jagusafr]

Anybody have any insight into whether the Plott hound has similar propensities? My grandson (2YO) adores his Plott, Paisley, and she seems gentle and sweet, but she went after a wild rabbit shortly after they got her (age probably a year) and snapped its neck with one whip of her head. No growl, no bark, no warning at all. Then brought it and laid it at my daughter’s feet. That gives me a bit of pause...

[fieldmarshaldj]

Dreadful. RIP.

[Boomer]

I see this as the owner’s fault, not the dog’s.

I agree. It could very well be kids going by the yard tormenting the dogs until one day the dog gets a chance at payback. Is the dog or dog owner really to blame or is it the tormentors? You may be talking about people who intentionally make their dog mean though and for that; those owners should be locked up because that IS intent to harm. I knew a mean old guy years ago who kept his mean Rottie with him in his Jeep when he went out. I guess it was to protect the Jeep and let people know they should not mess with him. One day he came home and found his mean dog has ripped open his son's scalp needing hundreds of stitches and leaving a horrible scar. The owner had the dog put down and something in him seemed broken. He was a changed man. He found out it wasn't so cool to keep a mean dog around. Basically it was a bomb just waiting to go off at an unknown time. I think we can all agree dogs like that are unfortunately not much good for anything except maybe to roam the junk yard at night and even then a lawsuit might happen due to it.

There are lots of breeds that should be considered carefully to be around family and children in general; especially small babies. I think most of us can agree on this one point.

On a personal note; my Pit-Mix is the smartest most mothering dog I've ever had. She always takes a new dog to the family under her wing to show them the ropes. She will train a new puppy to be house trained in one day. One rescue who was 8 yo at the time was kept outside all the time so she wasn't house trained. My Pit-Mix trained her without being mean in just a couple of hours.

The point is not all Pit's are created by God to be the same way. Like people; some are better than others and some are more malleable than others. To be on the safe side I prefer my dogs not interact with people I don't trust completely; even those I know. One acted differently after I had some people over one time. I think she was kicked. It's people I don't trust. Dogs on average are better than your average human - by far in most cases. Humans are devious and much meaner. Just look at some of the posts in these Pit-Bull threads for proof or even worse; abortion threads. Nasty.

[jumpingcholla34]

We dog-sat a relative’s pit bull for several days. If we had had kids or small pets around, I wouldn’t have agreed to it. Nothing bad happened, but it was the creepiest dog I’ve ever been around. When it would get playful with a stuffed dog toy, it would thrash the thing around so violently that when the toy slapped my leg, I thought it would leave a bruise. I also did not notice any of the “affectionate” behavior the pit bull apologists talk about. The dog seemed to be withdrawn, lost its own world, and gave a distinct vibe of being on a hair trigger even when it was resting. I keep my .45 handy, so I wasn’t worried.

[Boomer]

A niece had a pit bull...said it was the sweetest dog ever. Very vocal about defending the breed. Then she got pregnant and suddenly the dog was “re-homed.” Said she couldn’t take any chances with a baby in the house.

I would have done the same thing. Especially a male Pit.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Welsh Corgi? Am I right? No? Bichon Frieze?

[Norski]

I will not consider offering to take the cat. I wish I could soften this statement, but there is no way to sugarcoat life and death issues.

The reason for this is that she also has visiting family and their children (other peoples’) including a six year old girl, and it would be better for the dog to kill the cat before it goes after one of the visitors. At least I hope this would be the order of attack. I pray that this is the case.

No matter how beloved an animal is, it is not human. The life of a human and an animal are not equivalent. Humans are made in God’s image.

[Norski]

Perhaps she may be more open to receiving information about the breed now.

Maybe she always knew.

[Norski]

Sometimes knowledge costs more than other times. This was very high-priced knowledge.

[Norski]

Yes. I, too.

I believe it was Robert Heinlein, or one of his characters in his books who stated something along this line:

“The way to treat a bully is to punch his nose until he apologizes.”

The Lord Jesus Christ said to turn the other cheek. But he also told his disciples to sell their cloak and buy a sword.

I follow Jesus Christ, but want to punch people in the nose. This, too, is demonic.

Paul wrote: “The evil that I would do not, that I do”. (Romans 7)

[Norski]

“If a dog determined to be dangerous kills someone, that owner could be charged with a felony.”
++++++++++++++++

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course but unless there’s intent to commit a crime; there is no crime.”

______________________________________________________

You have made eleven statements here, and each one deserves a response.
________________________________________________________
1) EVERYONE IS ENTITLED TO THEIR OPINION OF COURSE BUT UNLESS THERE’S INTENT TO COMMIT A CRIME; THERE IS NO CRIME.
___________________________________________________________

This is an incorrect statement. If there is a human death caused by another person, it can be 1) accidental, 2) negligent, 3)intentional. Intentional can be 1) self-defense, 2) manslaughter, or 3) Homicide. Homicide can be 1) justifiable or 2) Non-justifiable )

This is far from a complete list, and I am not a legal professional, but the statement you made is incorrect.

I am willing to address your other statements in later posts, as I believe that you are sincerely looking to understand the issue.

(It may be helpful to stay with one statement and subject at at time in order to keep from overloading people who wish to respond to a portion of your comment, but cannot decide which part.)

[Norski]

No, no Bichon Frieze. And the child’s family owned a Rottweiler themselves.

[PAR35]

Nope; just a law abiding regular American citizen who knows someone must have intent to commit a crime.

I'll fix that for you.

'Nope; just a regular American citizen who thinks he's law abiding and who doesn't know the law.'

[Boomer]

This is an incorrect statement. If there is a human death caused by another person, it can be 1) accidental, 2) negligent, 3)intentional. Intentional can be 1) self-defense, 2) manslaughter, or 3) Homicide. Homicide can be 1) justifiable or 2) Non-justifiable )

But first there must be intent. Even negligent homicide which could be considered an accident still has the element of intent. If someone shoots at a napkin on the floor with the permission of the person next to him but then that bullet ricochets and hits the person who gave their permission to shoot the napkin in the forehead and kills them; there's still an element of intent. A reasonable person should know to not shoot that gun in the confined space not knowing where that bullet may end up. There was no specific intent to kill the other person but they did intend to shoot the gun in the confined space therefor there is intent. Call it felony stupid or whatever you like.

Law is weird but suffice to say in this context of someone's dog hurting someone else; it would be necessary to show some kind of intent of the owner of the dog to cause harm or some kind of negligence. If no intent then no crime but that doesn't let the dog owner off the hook. There's still civil law to deal with.

I am willing to address your other statements in later posts, as I believe that you are sincerely looking to understand the issue.

Oh, I understand the issue just fine, what I don't understand is why you keep posting this nonsense when everyone in the world already knows dogs can be dangerous under certain circumstances. You have an obsession bordering on insanity. Nothing good can come from these threads that beat up dogs. Nothing.

I'm seriously wondering if you should be committed to a 90 day psychiatric hold for you own good. I'm leaning hard to toward the affirmative.

[skr]

Thank you, very useful site.