A grand jury indicted three people in connection with the mauling death of 2-year-old Kentucky boy several months ago.
The Courier-Journal reported that Isaiah Geiling, 2, was attacked at a Louisville home on May 2.
The dog’s owners, Jack Charping, Jr., 50, and Sharon Charping, 53, were indicted on second-degree manslaughter charges, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jeff Cooke said.
The news outlet identified the dog as a pit bull.
The boy’s mother, 25-year-old Jennifer Geiling, was charged with reckless homicide in the case, according to the report.
When officers arrived on the scene, they performed CPR on the child until an ambulance came.
Isaiah later died at Norton Children’s Hospital due to blunt force injuries, the Courier-Journal reported.
A baby is dead after dog who attacked before mauls him again. Three people face homicide, manslaughter charges https://t.co/61wrG6ZJ8K via @crimeonlinenews
— Nancy Grace (@NancyGrace) July 24, 2019
Teeya Barnes, a spokeswoman for Louisville Metro Animal Services, said the animal is under quarantine, and it “will continue to be held until we’re told otherwise by the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office.”
As WAVE3 reporter, the relationships between the three suspects are not clear.
Geiling’s father said a roommate owned the dog, named King, WAVE3 reported, adding that he wanted to give the dog up and thought it should have been put down.
JUST IN …
This attack took place in May in the Chickasaw neighborhood … https://t.co/Fwnmrz8Hib— wave3news (@wave3news) July 23, 2019
On the day of the attack, the boy’s grandmother, Cynthia Coy, went to a neighbor’s house and frantically asked for help. A neighbor, Shelby Chadwell, told WDRB that he ran to the boy’s home and found the dog on the child.
“It was a ferocious dog,” Chadwell told the station. “And we had to get the dog out of the room. So my cousin used sticks and bashed them together and scared the dog away. And we put the dresser in the hallway to block the dog off and get out of there.”
Coy also told WLKY that the dog attacked Isaiah in the past, injuring the child’s ear.
“About three weeks ago, he had attacked him and got his ear,” Coy told WLKY. “We even have a picture of it. So, obviously, the dog has attacked him before. Why it happened again, I’m not aware.”
‘Most Abused Dogs on Earth’
Animal rights group PETA has said that pit bulls are “the most abused dogs on Earth.”
“Pit bulls are left at shelters in record numbers—and since they are difficult to adopt out, reputable shelters (that don’t slam the door in the dogs’ faces) are finding that they must euthanize more pit bulls and pit bull mixes than all other dogs combined,” the group said.
Karen Delise, research director for the National Canine Research Council and author of “The Pitbull Placebo,” has investigated hundreds of dog bite incidents.
She wrote in a now-taken down article: “My study of dog bite-related fatalities occurring over the past five decades has identified the poor ownership/management practices involved in the overwhelming majority of these incidents: owners obtaining dogs, and maintaining them as resident dogs outside of regular, positive human interaction, often for negative functions (i.e. guarding/protection, fighting, intimidation/status),” according to a prior report from The Epoch Times.
Dog Bite Statistics
However, website DogsBite.org says that “each day, about 1,000 U.S. citizens require emergency care treatment for serious dog bite injuries. Annually, about 9,500 citizens are hospitalized due to dog bite injuries.”
In a 13-year analysis, the website says that of 433 fatal dog attacks in the United States, pit bulls contributed to 66 percent, or 284 deaths.
Rottweilers, the second on the list, inflicted 10 percent of attacks that resulted in human death, the report says.
German shepherds accounted for 4.6 percent of fatal attacks.
Mixed-breed dogs accounted for 3.9 percent and the American bulldog was next at 3.5 percent, the report said.
The Mastiff and Bullmastiff accounted for 3.2 percent of deaths.
Last on the list were huskies, which accounted for 3 percent of fatal attacks.
The report compiled fatal dog attacks between 2005 and 2017, showing that 48 percent of the victims were children aged 9 or younger.
