Posted on 12/20/2006 8:54:01 PM PST by paulat
Mother: Ferret, not pit bull, gnawed off baby's toes
BENTON, La. – The parents of a month-old girl whose toes were gnawed off while they slept apparently disagree about whether the culprit was their ferret or their 6-week-old pit bull.
Mary Hansche, 22, told KTBS-TV on Tuesday that she thinks it was the ferret. "The way the bite marks were on her foot. The ferret being out of its cage. I knew it wasn't the dog," she said.
[snip]
"We were told that the puppy had blood on its fur. But when the officers arrived there, the animal did not have blood on its mouth," he said.
Natale said which animal did it won't affect charges against the Hansches, who were booked Dec. 10 on charges of child desertion and criminal negligence and remained jailed Wednesday in lieu of $50,000 bond each.
[snip]
Their daughter has been released from the hospital and is in state custody.
The Hansches were asleep on a mattress on the floor and the baby in a carrier next to the mattress when her cries woke them, police have said. They were not tested for alcohol or drugs, since such tests would not be needed to prove the charges, Natale said Wednesday.
Defense attorney Pam Smart said she is waiting for results of a hair analysis to back up the couple's statement that they were not using drugs.
[snip]
She also said their bonds are too high for misdemeanors. A bond reduction hearing is scheduled next month.
Both pets were released from quarantine but will remain in the Bossier City animal shelter until the court case is over, Natale said. Either the court or the city may decide their fate, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
Your cats look beautiful on your furniture. Did you pick the furniture to complement your cats or do they just look gorgeous on anything they sit on??
I'm going to guess it was the toddler/preschooler aged boy.
I would guess the ferret if the baby was missing one toe, not four. Ferrets typically attack and run. They are bred with wiesels and that is how they keep from being bit by snakes. They go in, bite and leap back.
I can easily see this baby crying, and crying, and crying, the mother and father sleeping and the boy scared and wanting the baby to stop. My thoughts are the boy kept biting his sister to stop the noise.
I won't tell, but I saw hime first!
OMG...that is sick! But not beyond comprehension. We will hear more about this case in days to come.
Don't have the link at hand but I read the 2 year old was with the Grandmother at the time.
Scratch my thought on it being the toddler. He may not have been in the house.
How about one of the 'adults'? I use that term loosely since they don't seem to act like ones.
There is another alternative.
They left the puppy and the ferret out.
Awaking from a drunken stupor
and while concerned for the baby
they are also panicking about the trouble they are in.
Do they admit they left the ferret out, a clearly irresponsible thing to do?
Or do they blame it on the 6 week old puppy which could be argued was an unforeseen danger?
From what I read they are doing hair tests on the mother, not sure about the father.
They should never have custody of that child again nor ever own any animals.
I am in total agreement with you. No children and no animals ever. ~~Pandora~~
I haven't read to many stories about cocker spaniels attacking and killing people.
"I bet it was the pit. Those things are mean. And if there's a live 6-week-old pup in the house, the ferret aint all that mean now is he!?!
:)
Vizslas rock!
Good grief-the comments from the dog alarmists are even more nasty than usual-talk about your Christmas spirit-
The parents of that poor baby are either meth heads or mentally retarded-people like that are what jokes that make fun of that state are about.
That said, when I was a kid my brother and I, along with assorted cousins used to visit my grandparents for a couple of weeks in the summer. There was an 8 foot high stucco wall between the next door neighbor's property and my grandparents', and the neighbor had a big bulldog named General. It was NOT a nice dog, and we were all terrified of him, but one of our favorite games to play was to walk along the top of the wall in a line, trying to push the kid in front of you off into the yard where General was barking and snarling and lunging at the wall. One of my cousins eventually fell/was pushed into the yard and was immediately set upon by the bulldog and badly bitten. Did my grandparents demand that the neighbors shoot their dog? No, but they certainly did not spare the scoldings and spankings for kids that play stupid, dangerous games involving other peoples' property...
Vizslas rock!
Oh, yeah.
So many things wrong here, but a 6 week old puppy shouldn't even be away from the litter yet. And what kind of idiots leave a ferret or puppy loose where they have unsupervised access to a helpless tiny baby?
susie
For the record, I've known many dog aggressive dogs who were NOT in the least aggressive toward humans. In the dog's mind, for some reason, they can see the difference between the two. BTW the dog aggressive dogs I'm talking about are golden retrievers, not pits. The few pits I've been around have mostly been marshmallows. Clearly you've had a different experience and I'm sorry that you are so terrified of the breed. Maybe you could seek counseling?
susie
My daughter has two ferrets. They do nibble, and can draw blood, and are by nature carnivors. But, they did not harm my granddaughter.
We have two Amstaff/pits. We have adopted our third after our first rescue dog died of old age. None of mine have ever injured my grandaughter, of course I never let a 75 dog of any kind to be around my granddaughter when she was a new born...the dog gets under your feet and can trip you while carrying a baby.
I have a hard time reconciling these two statements:
"booked Dec. 10 on charges of child desertion and criminal negligence"
"The Hansches were asleep on a mattress on the floor and the baby in a carrier next to the mattress when her cries woke them."
If the only problem was that a ferret was not caged, that is hardly criminal negligence. And a baby sleeping next to your mattress where you are sleeping is certainly not desertion.
I don't get it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.