FRESNO, Calif.—A 1-year-old boy who wandered out of his grandparents’ house in Fresno was fatally mauled in their front yard by two roaming dogs.
Lt. Mark Hudson said other children in the house alerted the boy’s grandmother to the attack on Friday. He said she ran outside and tried to get the Rottweilers off the child and was also attacked.
Hudson said the boy’s grandfather used a hose to fend them off.
Officers who responded to the attack performed CPR on the boy. He was then taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Hudson said animal control officers found the dogs several blocks away. Investigators were trying to determine whether they were strays or had an owner.
Research On Dog Bite Incidents
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.
Do Animals Grieve Their Owners’ Death?
Animals don’t grieve the way humans beings mourn, but they do feel emotional when they sense things around them are not normal, according to The Nest.“If an animal’s human companion suddenly disappears, it can be confusing, and can even lead to depression,” wrote Lisa McQuerrey. Animals can form an emotional bond with their caretakers and can even go in search of them when they don’t find them around. They can exhibit signs of grief by “acting out, demonstrating behavioral issues like destructive chewing, clawing or digging, or suddenly having accidents in the house. Exceptionally sensitive animals may hide, be unwilling to eat, interact or engage with other humans.”
‘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).”
Also contributing negative functions include “owners failing to humanely contain, control, and maintain their dogs (chained dogs, loose roaming dogs, cases of abuse/neglect); owners failing to knowledgably supervise interaction between children and dogs; and owners failing to spay or neuter dogs not used for competition, show, or in a responsible breeding program,” she added.
