Family Dog Kills 2 Week Old Baby

[tybrax]

Dog kills 2-week-old baby girl

More Mesa and Phoenix Local News

MESA -- A family dog attacked and killed a Mesa 2-week-old baby girl when her mother stepped away for just a moment.

Baby was in bassinet

It happened at about 7 p.m. Wednesday at a home near Warner and South Mountain roads.

According to police, the mother, who is a police officer with the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, stepped away from the baby for a moment to use the bathroom. She left the baby in a low-lying bassinet or crib.

When she returned, she discovered the dog, a Chow, had severely bitten the infant.

The frantic mother called 911.

The first officers to arrive at the home said the baby girl had obvious bite wounds to her head. When Mesa paramedics got there, she was unresponsive. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

Det. Steve Berry of the Mesa Police Department said this story hits especially close to home because the baby's father is a Mesa police officer. He was on duty at the time of the attack.

It's not known how long the family had had the dog, which was quarantined at the county facility. The dog was euthanized Thursday.

A neighbor of the family said she had a similar situation with her own dog, a Pit Bull-Chow mix, and her daughter.

"He did bite her," Amy Axtell said. "He put his jaws around the top of her head and pulled her out the back door. When she started crying, the dog almost got killed, so we took it to the pound."

Mesa police say they will treat last night's incident as they would any other case, but they say at this time, it does not look like there was any wrongdoing.

"All indications are that this is just one of those very unfortunate tragic accidents that we deal with in this job sometimes," Berry said.

Two other dogs were taken from the home by a man who knows the family, but it's not clear if the dogs belong to them.

http://www.azfamily.com/yahoo_rss/stories/...py.7f97e3a.html

TYBRAX

Edited March 12, 2009 by tybrax

[ozjen]

When will people learn not to leave dogs alone with babies, to them they are just a strange, odd smelling noisy animal or toy. Most people bring them into the home and don't even try to help the dog adjust to the strange noisy critter(baby)I feel sorry for the baby, the dog and I suppose the stupid parents.

[Bilbo Baggins]

Tragic for the family. :rolleyes:

[poodlefan]

Neonatal babies and dogs - a tragic combination in this case and too many others. :rolleyes:

[StaceyB]

Tragic, so sad for everyone involved.

[ninahartland]

My thoughts go out to the family. So sad :D

[ownedbyamstaff]

So very sad. :D

But why is it, even when the incident has nothing to do with an APBT they still get a mention??

[Jsk]

I love in the comments section where someone has said that a chow is a bad choice of dog, and that a golden retreiver is a safe breed

[Nekhbet]

it said a chow was a bad choice of dog around small kids. Actually I can agree with that one unless the parents are quite responsible and experienced dog owners. Chows have a bit of a reputation in the US as being less the just cuddly teddy bears, and I have met a few quite nasty aggressive specimens as well. One owner was a pregnant lady who was terrified of having the dog anywhere near her child (it was hubbies chow) as it was a temperamental, dominant shit of a dog that had no problems snapping at an adult.

Not saying all chows are bad at all here - dont get me wrong I'm not breedist. They just need a better then average owner.

[dunnwarren]

Very sad, but Chows are very popular in the states, there are so many of them there. As with any popular breed people just breed anything to anything and thats where u get temperament problems. It's like APBT there, it's not the breed just the people who breed them, most are BYB with no thoughts other then the money side of it.