Reports: 4-Year-Old Boy Critically Injured in Utah Dog Attack

Warning: Graphic details

A 4-year-old child in Layton, Utah, was attacked by a dog after reportedly sticking his hand through a chain-link fence.

According to Salt Lake City station KUTV, the unnamed boy was playing in his backyard when he approached a fence that separated his yard from a neighbor who had two huskies.

The boy had stuck his hand through the fence when one of the animals bit him in the mid-forearm. The boy apparently lost his arm and hand in the attack, it was reported.

He was taken to the hospital in stable condition, according to the report.

“He’s managing the event pretty well, considering his age and trauma he’s gone through,” Jason Cook of the Layton City Fire Department told the Gephardt Daily.

The dog was located about an hour after the incident.

Davis Animal Control took both dogs and quarantined them while an investigation is underway, reported Fox13.

The dogs’ owners said the animals have not bitten anyone in the past, reported the Deseret News.

“I spoke with the Animal Control officer just a minute ago,” Layton added to the Gephardt Daily, “and she confirmed that there has never been a problem here.”

The boy’s parents were home and administered aid before paramedics arrived.

Other details were not provided about the attack.

Dog Bite Statistics

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.

A stock photo of a pit bull at a shelter (Holly Kellum/Epoch Times)

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.

A Husky props herself on a fence to greet her approaching owner at Sehmel Homestead Park in Gig Harbor on Monday, Feb. 11, 2019, during a break in a snowstorm that continues to blanket the Northwest. (AP photo/ The News Tribune, Drew Perine)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in a 1997 report—the last of its kind—compiled attacks between 1979 through 1994.

“From 1979 through 1994, attacks by dogs resulted in 279 deaths of humans in the United States,” it says. “ Such attacks have prompted widespread review of existing local and state dangerous-dog laws, including proposals for adoption of breed-specific restrictions to prevent such episodes.”

In the CDC’s report, pit bulls accounted for 60 of the 279 deaths in that period.