New details were released Thursday in the death of a toddler who was mauled by seven pit bulls at her family’s home in rural Bryant County, Georgia.
The 12-year-old brother of Monica Renee Laminack was supposed to be watching her, but the toddler, due to turn 2 in June, crawled through a doggie door and went outside, reported KLTV, citing local officials.
The family said it was not unusual for her to crawl through the door or play with the family’s seven pit bulls.
Her grandmother, who was sleeping at the time, heard the dogs barking and when she looked out her window, she yelled “they are killing Monica,” the station said. There were several other people in the house at the time.
The dogs “tore her clothes off ... scattered her clothes all over a pretty large back yard,” Sheriff Clyde Smith told WSAV in an update on Thursday.
The grandmother and family members tried pulling the dogs off the girl but she was already dead, reported the The Savannah Morning News.
“When we got here and spoke to EMS, they told us that when they got here, she was already cold. There was nothing they could do,” Bryan County Deputy Sheriff Beatty told the paper.
The family said there has never been an issue in the past with their nine dogs, which include an Irish settler, a beagle, and seven pit bulls. The pit bulls were euthanized at the family’s home after the attack.
“All the dogs had access to the house, nine dogs in all,” Smith told WSAV. “She habitually played with dogs, all of them. But they drug her all over the yard. Something turned them on her. We don’t know what.”
Authorities will have to determine whether charges will be filed over the incident.
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It was reported recently that in British Columbia, Canada, an 8-year-old girl was apparently saved by her chihuahua Honey after a pit bull attacked her.
Jenna Desrochers was attacked by a pit bull in Chilliwack last week while she was looking for bunnies, reported CBC News.
“The pit bull took Jenna down at the knees, that’s what the owner had told me, and basically went for her face,” Anne Marie Desrochers, the girl’s grandmother, told CBC.
However, her 4-year-old chihuahua, Honey, saved her from possibly certain death.
The neighbor of the girl agreed to have the pit bull euthanized after the attack.
