Posted on 09/19/2008 10:57:08 PM PDT by Chet 99
Sep. 13, 2008
Pet pit bulls maul NLV 4-month-old to death
Grandmother baby-sitting child hospitalized
By LAWRENCE MOWER REVIEW-JOURNAL
A 4-month-old girl was fatally mauled by her family's two pit bulls Friday at their North Las Vegas home.
The baby's grandmother, who was watching the baby while her parents were at work, was hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries sustained as she tried to protect her granddaughter. North Las Vegas police Chief Joseph Forti said the dogs were in the backyard of the home, near Cheyenne Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard, prior to the attack.
The dogs managed to enter the home, possibly by bursting through a screen door, and began attacking the baby as she lay in a stroller, he said.
"They just went right for the little girl," he said.
The grandmother took the baby and tried to escape into a room of the house.
She tried to close the door behind her, but one of the dogs forced its way into the room, Forti said, followed by the other.
They began attacking the girl again, and the grandmother called police at about 11:25 a.m.
When officers arrived, they found the two dogs with blood on their fur "acting very aggressively" toward the officers, according to a statement issued by the department. Police shot and killed the dogs.
Officers found the baby lying on the floor of a bedroom, dead from her injuries.
"This is about as severe an attack as I've seen in my 18 years in North Las Vegas," North Las Vegas Animal Control officer Dale Smock said.
Forti said he was told by officers the girl had suffered "very severe bite and head wounds."
The attack was so severe that officers and medical personnel who responded to the incident are being offered counseling, Forti and North Las Vegas Fire Department Capt. Cedric Williams said.
"This is something they don't see every day," Williams said.
The names of the baby and the grandmother were not released by police.
According to neighbors, the parents of the baby were new to the typical valley neighborhood of stucco houses and neat yards, having just moved into the home on Eagle View Way in recent months. One neighbor said he had seen the dogs loose in the neighborhood at least once.
Neighbor Jason Howe was furious.
"You don't have pit bulls around children, period," he said.
"The whole situation's sad," said 75-year-old neighbor Stan Heaton.
In June, a 2-year-old boy suffered serious injuries after a neighbor's boxer bit him on his face and neck in the northwest valley.
And in April, two children, ages 4 and 5, were hospitalized after being attacked by a neighbor's boxer and a pit bull near Vegas Valley and McLeod drives.
North Las Vegas has investigated 192 dog attacks since the beginning of last year, including 73 attacks from pit bulls, Smock said.
One of those attacks was on one of the city's animal control officers, who was investigating a complaint on July 3.
After walking into a backyard, she was attacked by two pit bulls and has yet to return to full-time duty at the department, Smock said.
Smock said pit bull attacks cause deep wounds that are "sometimes compared to shark attacks."
Forti said he didn't know whether charges would be pressed against the family, a decision left up to the district attorney's office.
Oh, my God. Poor baby.
Prosecute the parents..
Chet, Welcome to FR.
IBTZ.
Jebus H., what kind of dogs go through the screen and force their way into a room? And why would anyone have such beasts?
Sickening.
Read his posting history, he is a conservative.
I was just teasing him. ;-)
Sorry, I should have known but I thought that you were being sensitive like so many of us are recently.
Horrid!
That poor child..May she sleep with Angels!
This Grammy aged type person locks and loads.
A word to Grammies everywhere.
Them pits are nice dogs unless some owner makes them rotten. That is just the fact.
Man, that neighborhood just SOUNDS bad. I wouldn't go there.
I’m in NJ, I’m sure MLK would be ashamed to see the streets that bear his name. I am.
And prayers for this poor grandmother who will live with this memory & no doubt, feelings of incredible guilt,for the rest of her life.
I wouldn’t have such dogs in the same home as children, let alone a baby.
You did read the article where it pointed out that these dogs were running around loose in the neighborhood, and were not owned by the parents of the baby?
See # 17.
My apologies, you were both right and I was incorrect.
Why do you think this will be zotted?
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